Banality, the basic matter of our everyday lives – the breakfast parties, the arguments with our children, the shops on our streets, the political anxieties, the houses we've lived in for years, the cemeteries in which we'll end – is transformed and transcended ... Those lives we were glimpsing? They were our lives. Those parties and arguments and anxieties and houses are ours ... that is what Shah shows us, and that is the gift she offers us. Don't be frightened of life, she reminds us. It's all we have.
- Maddy Costa, review
From 2009 to 2012, Rajni Shah and collaborators created and toured Glorious - a haunting and unusual new musical. Each time Glorious was performed, the company worked with a new set of musicians and local residents - dismantling, reinventing and re-assembling the raw material of the show over a few weeks. The show was centered around people, what it means to live in a place, and what it means to gather together in a theatre.
In many ways, Glorious was an attempt to create something that only existed in the moments when it was being made. We have, however, made a beautiful publication of responses to the work, which is available here.
From 2010 to 2013, the project was accompanied by a ning website which provided an online space for participants, supporters and other family to gather and share photos, blog posts, snippets of music and memories. Some of the material from this online network (including extracts from the different versions of each song) has now been translated into a timeline, which is publicly accessible here.
Tour dates
Live at LICA, Lancaster (December 2012) - read a review
PULSE Festival, Ipswich (June 2012, Write a Letter to a Stranger intervention only)
Un Pas de Trop, Maison Folie, Mons, Belgium (May 2012 - french) - read an interview with Rajni or watch a rehearsal on webeatv or a segment on Télé MB
Wunderbar Festival in Northumbria University Theatre (Stage 2), Newcastle (November 2011)
SPILL Festival world premiere at the Barbican, London (April 2011) - watch an extract on SPILL TV
Dance4's NottDance Festival, Nottingham (February 2011)
InBetween Time festival in Bristol (December 2010, a capella songs from Glorious)
Chisenhale Dance Space in London (December 2010, Act One of Glorious)
Performance and Cocktails at Duckie (August 2010, first song as part of evening event) - watch video here
See full list of show credits here.
Related materials
Glorious People online community Archive (2D/3D, using tiki toki)
Glorious Evaluation (interim and final version) by Elizabeth Lynch
Beyond Glorious: the radical in engaged artistic practice symposium 2013
Glorious lyrics - French and English versions
Glorious description, sound and images (from 2011 Glorious presenters pack)
Glorious credits (shows only - complete project credits available as part of Dear Stranger, I love you)
Dear Stranger, I love you - book + DVD (£15.00): Dear Stranger, I love you brings together four ways of looking at Glorious: a short film made in response to six performances of Glorious; a music video shot in and around Lancaster and Morecambe; a critical overview of the process behind two iterations of the project; and The Glorious Storybook, edited and contextualised by writer Mary Paterson. Buy now from Unbound >
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