Performance Dates

  • Bundanoon
    Memorial Hall
    27 September, 7:30pm
  • Campbelltown
    Campbelltown Arts Centre
    13 September, 7:30pm
  • Canberra
    National Library of Australia
    19 September, 7:30pm
  • Newcastle
    Newcastle Conservatorium
    25 September, 7:30pm
  • Orange
    Orange Regional Conservatorium
    17 October, 7:30pm
  • Sydney
    Verbruggen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
    24 September, 7:30pm
    28 September, 3:00pm
  • Wollongong
    Wollongong City Gallery
    17 September, 7:30pm

Singing in Tongues

The Battle of the Babble

A fascinating mix of song, theatre and image that will entertain and provoke in equal measure - about words, sense and non-sense, the confusion, hilarity, proliferation, contamination and manipulation of language.

Some of the wittiest and silliest songs you’ll ever hear, straight out of the catch clubs of 17th century England or the billiard clubs where W.A. Mozart spent his spare time. Throw in Kurt Schwitters’ Ur-Sonate, a celebrated piece of quirkiness from pre-Nazi Germany and Ricketson’s In God’s Esperanto and you have a madcap mixing pot where nothing is sacred.

Martin Wesley-Smith’s double-think is musical-theatre for six singers (and a bucket) that makes a powerful satirical statement on the distortions of the Iraqi war campaign and the darkness of contemporary spin.

A selection of African and black American songs will bring the performance to an end with sweeping gospel melodies and infectious rhythms.

The Song Company

Roland Peelman
Artistic Director

Clive Birch
Bass

Richard Black
Baritone

Mark Donnelly
Baritone

Lauren Easton
Mezzo soprano

Anna Fraser
Soprano

Ruth Kilpatrick
Soprano

Singing in Tongues

"For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking."

Stephen Hawking