The
music in
Beasts and Beauties is completely integrated into the show and musical director and composer Terje Isungset is also a very active performer on stage. Terje's style is unique, partly because his collection of
percussion instruments is far from traditional - it includes roof tiles from his parent's home in Norway, jagged pieces of metal, a strange instrument called a waterphone, and a child's toy with noisily pecking chickens! He tells us that there is a
story for each instrument. Some of the rocks he uses, for example, were found by his daughter when they were hiking in the mountains in Norway, and the Jew's harp he plays was made from the metal of a crashed German WW2 bomber.
In
Beasts and Beauties there are eight different stories and Terje is a unifying thread that adds cohesion and energy to the whole performance. During the rehearsals,
Terje practised with the actors and, like them, was directed by Melly Still. Melly talks about the
role of music in the performance and what she was looking for when choosing a musician. Actor Howard Coggins tells us about the
music from an actor's point of view and how it helps create the mood for the stories. Another actor, Bill Nash, talks about
working with Terje and how he integrates his music into the show.
The sounds that Terje creates are highly evocative. He gives us a demonstration of the
Jew's harp which creates the right festive atmosphere at the wedding of Blue Beard. He also plays some of the
instruments he uses in 'The Girl and the North Wind': some tiles he took off his parents' roof in Norway, and sticks he found in the forest. 'The Girl and the North Wind' takes place in Norway and the sounds from these native artefacts are suggestive of the vast emptiness of the Norwegian landscape.