An Anatomy of Melancholy by Various, lr. 29 urr. 2022, Noiztik (2022/2022), Zuzendaria Netia Jones, Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom

Iestyn Davies’s crystalline voice, Netia Jones’s haunting visuals, and John Dowland’s ravishingly bittersweet music come together in an intimate theatrical meditation on the consolations of sorrow. ‘Flow, my tears, fall from your springs…’ wrote the great Tudor composer, the beauty and bitterness of his music finding an echo in the poetic language of Robert Burton’s 17th-century treatise The Anatomy of Melancholy, which in turn inspired director Netia Jones. This world premiere production deftly weaves together the endlessly tender sadness of Dowland’s music with creative visuals and the writings of Burton, Freud and contemporary experts on human emotion. And with the greatest contemporary lutenist Thomas Dunford on the team, two unrivalled modern interpreters of Dowland’s music are at the glowing heart of this new theatrical creation, which will be performed in the round in the intimate setting of the Pit Theatre.