It’s that time of year when we launch our annual series of Fringe preview Q & A’s. Composer David Cazalet talks about Requiem for Aleppo.
In one sentence tell us about your show.
Requiem for Aleppo is a piece of non-political contemporary dance set to original music mixing the requiem mass lyrics as used by Mozart, Verdi etc. with 12th Century Arabic poetry and spoken testament of contemporary Aleppans.
What made you decide to bring a show this year?
To ensure that long after the cameras have moved on the situation in Aleppo, it is remembered with reverence and respect by as wide an audience as possible. To allow Syrians a voice, to attempt to close in some small way the ever widening gaps in society, to provide a space for people to process what they witnessed on TV for a year.
Any advice you’ve heard or can give to anyone coming to the Fringe for the first time?
Go to everything you can, be open to everything, remember always that Art can change minds if approached without prejudice and take from it that universal feeling of creativity and love that the Fringe engenders between all people, all cultures and ages
What makes your show stand out from all of the others on offer?
Its ability to transcend politics, its ability to get to the human tragedy of a pressing humanitarian crisis, to give genuine voice to a displaced people and to persuade people that however far away worlds might seem on the TV, those suffering are just like us. And finally, and as importantly – to raise money to go into the education of children in Syria.
What show, other than your own, do you not want to miss?
Cirkopolis by Cirque Eloize, Irvine Welsh’s Creatives and The Dreamer presented by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre in collaboration with Gecko.
Finally, the boring but essential bit…
Name of the show: Requiem For Aleppo
Venue: Pleasance at EICC, Venue 150
Dates: 16 August 2017
Time: 19:30
