Sands Films will have two performances of Goodbye Jolene, a play with songs, created by actor-led company Take the Space, featuring country music alongside sixteenth-century choral compositions and some original work written especially for the production.
Writer, Siobhan Nicholas says: “It’s about a woman who finds inspiration, courage and strength through music and goes on a journey of transformation.”
Care worker Niamh, aged 60 and dyslexic, quits her job after Covid, determined to change her life. Her secret is she struggles with dyslexia – but after being invited to sing at Blackpool Country Music Festival she has to confront her demons, once and for all. Norman the choirmaster, played by Chris Barnes, is persuaded to coach her. They are very different people, from very different backgrounds – but somehow an alliance emerges.
Nicholas, the child of Irish immigrants who settled in working-class Kilburn, also wanted to honour her mother, a teacher who taught many adults and children to read and inspired in her daughter a love of words and writing. “Through my mother, a determined teacher, I discovered the joy of reading which soon became a superpower for a small, lonely child with thick glasses, an odd accent, in the wrong uniform at a new school.”
The music in ‘Goodbye Jolene’ combines country music and sixteenth-century early music by English composers William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. Early music has long been a passion of Chris Barnes, a Westminster chorister as a child, who studied music at Durham University, and has written three original songs for the production.
Nicholas says: “Too many people in the UK believe that classical music is above and beyond them – too highbrow! We’d love our audiences to leave the theatre having enjoyed all the music in the play (and with a smile on their faces). The play’s title is a nod to Dolly Parton, whose charity The Imagination Library was set up in honour of her father, who was unable to read and write. To date one in seven people in the UK have problems with literacy.
Sands Films Studio, 82 St Marychurch Street London SE16 4HZ 12th & 13th October 8pm.
To book seats or for livestream: https://sandsmusic.eventive.org/welcome
