Thu, 20 Jun
|Colchester Arts Centre
I, Spie - Colchester - Tickets Coming Soon
The imagined story of John Dowland, as he combines his life as a court musician/composer with the Elizabethan espionage underworld.
Time & Location
20 Jun 2024, 19:30 – 21:10
Colchester Arts Centre, Church St, Colchester CO1 1NF, UK
About the event
Centred around an extraordinary letter written by renaissance composer/lutenist John Dowland to spymaster Sir Robert Cecil in 1595, this spell-binding concertplay (where music and theatre collide) by Clare Norburn imagines what would have happened next. I, Spie tells the story of Dowland’s brush with the Secret Service and how he manages to foil an Italian plot on the life of Queen Elizabeth I. Think Spooks, 16th Century-style! But ultimately, John's fate is in your hands as you'll vote on how the show should end. Plus, ahead of the show, you'll be invited to crack the all-important code.
The drama is directed by Nicholas Renton (BAFTA-nominated Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, Musketeers, A Room With A View, Lewis, Silent Witness).
The playwright, Clare Norburn, is also the soprano and Artistic Director of The Telling, who are renowned for immersing audiences in a world of music and theatre. They will perform music by Dowland and his contemporaries, alongside Elizabethan tavern, street and courtly masque music.
This show runs straight through with no interval.