MEDIATHEK

The Well Rested Terrorist is a live concept album. The experiment was to put a band in a theatre, and an actor in a band. Maud and Zoe Ni Riordain are the core members of Maud in Cahoots, the contemporary electro pop band that wrote the songs in piece. The Well Rested Terrorist is the first song in the piece, and the central visual metaphor of the show.

What follows is a meditation on fear, performance, and being yourself. The songs are the script for the piece. Our intention was to apply a dramaturgical rigor to the lyrics of the songs to find a theatrical arc. We also drew upon the Oliver Sacks collection of case studies Musicophelia. We did not want to create a naturalistic linear narrative, as we felt the audience would have a more inclusive experience if we avoided explaining the songs.

The performance style is stark and precise, allowing the audience to receive the songs in a unique way. The atmosphere and spontaneity of a gig is replaced by a constructed reality where the actor and the singer are vulnerable, exposed, and liberated. The frame of a ‘concept album’ allows for genre shifts from dark electro-pop to cabaret. There are four performers on stage; two musicians (guitar/drum, and keyboard), and two singers/actors (and a cameo singer). They are in a liminal space, a kind of abstract departures lounge. It’s a place where a man and a woman, and their two facilitators perform songs for an audience that tells a story. There are short video interludes where we see them in a therapy situation. They are attempting to understand themselves, but it seems that they can only function in the world of performance and songs. There is an emphasis on a shared experience. The performers confront the idea of an audience watching them- they are included in every moment, and are invited to observe. Throughout the writing and rehearsal process, we were considering the audience as the 6th character in the piece. The intention was to bring them into quite a dark world, focusing on a fractured relationship. The arc of the piece brings them to a place of selfacceptance and the possibility of joy.

We are interested in mixing musical forms with theatrical techniques and performativity. The Well Rested Terrorist confronts the idea that an album is bygone form. By putting an album in a new context, it gives the music a new emphasis, and a new life. As musicians and theatre makers, we are focused on how the audience receives the material, how context informs meaning.