MEDIATHEK

Delicately poised between concert and theatre, 'Permission to Speak' explores the dynamic relationship of parent and child as it exists and evolves through a lifetime. Marking the first collaboration between director Tamara Saulwick and composer Kate Neal the work pairs contemporary performance with musical composition to construct a revealing portrait of what is often left unspoken.
 
Musings, diatribes, recollections and hindsight find voice as four performer–vocalists are fused in choral counterpoint with an assembly of pre-recorded voices, offering multiple perspectives on the contemporary experience of family. What would we say to those who brought us into the world? What will we say to those we leave behind?
 
Built from interviews with people of all ages, 'Permission to Speak' interweaves the complexities, parallels and paradoxes of this most universal of relationships – manifested through the speaking, sounding, singing human voice.