The first – and almost certainly the only – musical inspired by the lifecycle of a mayfly opens at York Theatre Royal for the world premiere production of Gus Gowland’s musical Mayflies from April 28 to May 13.
This is the second full-length musical from Gus, who lives in York and is a resident artist at York Theatre Royal.
His first full-length musical Pieces of String was named The Stage’s Best Regional Musical of the Year and nominated for the UK Theatre Best Musical Production award. Gus won The Stage Debut Award for Best Composer/Lyricist, and was nominated for the inaugural Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting.
Mayflies tells the story of a contemporary relationship from its first flourish to its final goodbye. Gus says: “It is about the versions of ourselves that we become throughout our relationships, about how we change over time. It’s also about love.”
The cast of Nuno Queimado (Alternate Hamilton in the London West End production of Hamilton, Jesus Christ Superstar), Rumi Sutton (Hex, Heathers) and Emma Thornett (War Horse, Bedknobs and Broomsticks) – will alternate the roles of May and Fly in three different pairings. Each pairing brings a different perspective to the story.
Gus explains: “I was really excited by the challenge of writing something that could be played by pretty much anyone, regardless of age, race, gender, sexuality.
“As an audience, we bring so much of ourselves and our understanding of the world to the things we see so I wanted to explore what happens when we see the exact same love story told by different people – how would the dynamics change? Which moments would hit harder in each telling?
“I know how much an actor brings to a role too and so I wanted to create people that the actors cast would be able to really imbue with their own sense of identity. We’ve seen some rotating casts before but I really wanted to write the flexibility of casting into the material, rather than just have it as a production idea layered on top.
“It’s a real challenge to avoid signifiers of characteristics (like age and gender) but I’ve adored finding ways to create rounded specific characters without those to lean back on. One way I’ve done that is to write the parts in different time signatures, which makes them musically very distinct.”
Tickets for Mayflies are available from the box office on 01904 623568 or visit yorrktheatreroyal.co.uk
Nuno Queimado pictured at rehearsals. Picture by Sam Taylor
The post NEW MUSICAL MAYFLIES HAS WORLD PREMIERE appeared first on Leeds Guide.