Monster in the Maze
TICKETS - Monster in the Maze
White Rock Theatre, Hastings 18 & 19 February, 2027
BUY TICKETS - Monster in the MazeNearly 40 years after Jonathan Dove's landmark community opera Hastings Spring was performed on Hastings Pier, his music returns to the town in out most ambitious production to date. The towering voice of Sir John Tomlinson leads a cast of over 100 performers — aged 8 to 80 — as Monster in the Maze comes to the White Rock Theatre in February 2027 for the first community opera to be staged in its 100-year history. With a star-studded cast, full orchestra, local school children, community singers and professional puppetry to boot - the White Rock’s centenary deserves nothing less!
First performed in 2015 by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, it was premiered in the UK by Music in the Round, Sheffield, 2024. Monster in the Maze retells the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. This production reimagines the ancient Greek myth as a tale of collective resistance and the power of young people to change their world. This is not a story where adults save the day. Faced with a tyrant king, it is the young who hold on to hope, whose imagination, wit and teamwork outlast despair, and who ultimately summon the courage that saves their community.
All partners and performers are Sussex/Kent residents. Sir John Tomlinson, one of British opera's most towering voices, stars as the tyrannical King Minos, alongside acclaimed mezzo-soprano Louise Winter. Prologue Opera’s founder and tenor Anthony Flaum is conjured out of a comic legend to sing the hero Theseus and rising star Tim Nelson takes the role of the doomed architect of the labyrinth, Daedalus.They are joined by the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, puppetry from Long Nose Puppets, multi-media from Dear Future Films and support from Sussex music hub Create Music and The Bright Foundation.
BRINGING COMMUNITY OPERA HOME
Jonathan Dove quotes “I am thrilled that Monster in the Maze is coming to Hastings……[it] feels like a home-coming!” Many in the town took part in what was then a new concept – professionals and community performing side by side. In the half-term of February 2027, the tide turns back and Hastings once again leads the way.
"Jonathan Dove gave Hastings its first community opera on the pier in 1990. Nearly four decades on, the town isn't just the venue, it's the story. Every wave, every backstory, every voice in this production comes from Hastings itself. This is what happens when a community gets to tell its own myth."
— Anthony Flaum, CEO & Founder, Prologue Opera
KEY DETAILS
Music by Jonathan Dove, libretto by Alasdair Middleton staged by Prologue Opera (by arrangement with Peters Edition Limited).
White Rock Theatre, Hastings (Guildhall Trust)
18 & 19 February 2027 (three performances during February half-term 2027)
Cast: Sir John Tomlinson, Louise Winter, Anthony Flaum, Tim Nelson and a company of 100+ professional, youth and community performers.
Creatives: Rosie Kat - Director. Conductor – John Lyon. Designer – Fenna De Jonge. Lighting Designer – Cara Hood. Production Manager – Amber Styles. Assistant Director & Choreographer – Clare Whistler. Chorus Coordinators – Judith Colman, Lesley van Egmond, Issy Adams, Sam Glazer. Poster design - Christy Taylor.
Key Partners: White Rock Theatre. Multi-media – Rebecca Marshall (Dear Future Films). Annie Brooks and Katherine Morton (Long Nose Puppets) with support from The Bright Foundation. Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra. Create Music.
Monster in the Maze is supported using public funding by Arts Council England as well as other generous supporters.
