You enter a 3m x 2m wooden booth. A microphone invites you to sing along with one of 8 soldiers. You choose a song on the touch screen. A uniformed soldier looks you in the eyes and sings on the large TV screen….
The Soldier’s Song was made with and about serving soldiers, developed over an 18-month period of conversation and questions. The Soldier’s Song challenges our preconceptions and asks us to ponder our connection with the screen soldier by inviting us to duet with someone who might fight in our name. Are we willing to remain an audience? What do we think?
“At the time of making, the UK was openly engaged in 2 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I didn’t know what I thought about that and began to doubt my certainties of opinion and question the sometimes lazy thinking that forms them. I wanted clear well-informed answers.
When I began I didn’t know any soldiers so watched hours of Youtube videos and set out to meet some. As I started asking questions, the casual judgements I had been making were replaced with something much more complex.
Audience reaction to The Soldier’s Song embraced all shades of political opinion. At the end of the process, I have far more questions than I started with – and I hope I have provoked some of the same questions in viewers." - Renny O’Shea, Director
Singers: Lance Corporal Ian Charlton, Sergeant Steve Denny, Sergeant Gemma Keiher-Knapper, Warrant Officer Shaun Kelvin, Sergeant Dave Lawrenson, Sergeant Heather McGregor, Colour Sergeant Brendan Needham, Corporal Dee Pearson
Director: Renny O’Shea
Booth Designer: Simon Banham
AV design & Production Manager Greg Akehurst
Camera: Scott Abraham, Sima Gonsai, Clive Hunte
Technical Support: Lisa Mattocks
Editor: Ben Lycett
Specialist advisor: Warrant Officer Lutha Magloire
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester; Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston; Fierce Festival, Birmingham (installed at Moor Street Station); Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival, Groningen (installed in Park Zuid); Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster (installed in an empty city centre shop & Accrington Market); West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds; The Barbican (installed in the theatre foyer); BAC, London.
Not currently touring.
Fun and silly, poignant and breathtakingly unique…the political became intensely and unforgettably personal. Real Time Arts Magazine 2011
However remote our connection is with our service personnel, this imaginative installation is powerful yet often humorous…Lynne Walker, The Independent, 08 June 2010
This piece is typical of Quarantine’s potent intermixing of theatre and real world contingency. Yes, the idea might be simple, but it also nudges aside ideas about the temperament of soldiers.
Robert Clarke, The Guardian 2010
One of the first people to show off their vocal skills was Danny Doyle who served for 20 years in the armed forces including the Irish Guards. The 80-year-old from Baxenden said: “It’s a good idea and it’s good fun to do.” Accrington Observer, 26 April 2013
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