“The drama plays out over nine scenes, each framed around a pivotal figure or event,” Robert says. “For example, the third chapter, Arrival 1620, begins with a libretto using a quote from William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth colony and most significant chronicler of the Mayflower narratives, which reads, “God has cleared a space for us in the wilderness”. This is the point where we see the dawn of this conflict of philosophies in relation to the land.”
Robert, an internationally renowned concert pianist from New York, developed the piece after taking up his post at the University in April 2018. He initially worked with Kathryn Gray, Associate Professor of English, to create a ‘sweeping panorama’ of the Mayflower narrative, and then began an intense process of distilling it into a form that would make ‘an evening of drama’.
An alumnus of Princeton University and The Juilliard School, as well as a Visiting Professor at Princeton, Robert has worked with two composers – Jane O’Leary, from Galway, Ireland (whose ancestor Richard Warren, 12 generations ago, was on the Mayflower), and Jonathan Dawe, from New York – to develop the music. Randall Scarlata, a leading US baritone, and the Grammy Award-winning soprano Deborah York were the singers / narrators, and nine string members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra the live music ensemble. And the visual component, which includes maps, photos and video, was created in collaboration with the production team at the Theatre Royal Plymouth.