Scottish Ensemble & Untitled Projects
in association with Perth Theatre
present

We Are In Time

Two bodies, suspended in darkness.
A team of surgeons, poised as one.
A gathered chorus, singing of life and death.
And a human heart, speeding through the city…

Unfurling through song, words and a visionary live score for strings and electronics, We Are In Time follows the extraordinary journey of two strangers, one giving life, the other receiving it. Musicians are at once performers, chorus and specialist team as the drama between renowned mezzo-soprano Ruby Philogene and vocalist Jodie Landau unfolds, and time ticks on.

The result is a thought-provoking meditation on life, and on what it means to live; on the frailty and strength of human beings, working together, with science, against nature, in search of the superhuman.

Composer
Valgeir Sigurðsson

Writer
Pamela Carter

Composer
Valgeir Sigurðsson

Director
Stewart Laing

Musical Director
Jonathan Morton

Producer
Raw Material

Musicians/Chorus
Scottish Ensemble

Vocalists
Ruby Philogene
Jodie Landau

And featuring
Alison O’Donnell
As Narrator

Reviews

[A] production that wears its substantial technical achievements lightly, and is, critically, full of heart.
The Herald *****

Valgeir Sigurðsson’s score is a shimmering miasma of sound, occasionally punctuated by soaring lyricism from the voices or from the string players of the Scottish Ensemble, whose masterful playing, directed by Jonathan Morton, is fundamental to the piece’s success… This is an impressive premiere, moving and strange, and it never loses sight of the fact that, as the chorus ultimately reminds us, we’re all only human.
The Times ****

The cumulative effect is quite something – a work that weaves together contemporary classical music, philosophical ponderings and hard facts in a moving paean to a modern medical miracle.
The Stage ****

Sigurdsson’s score is at once future-focused and atavistic, and the penultimate scene with the two strangers’ voices blending together in life and death stuns the room into silence… it is an insightful, deeply moving and politically engaged piece of theatre. Pamela Carter’s words are wry, beautiful and at times furious, very much a comment on our struggle to connect and survive, in a time of collective anxiety over our global health crises.
The List ****