songs by John Southworth
arrangements by Andrew Downing
http://www.easterween.ca
LP/CD/digital: April 3, 2012
premieres April 4-5, 2012 at the Lower Ossington Theatre, Toronto
A dozen songs charting a hallucinatory journey and metaphysical rite of passage sown into a one-of-a-kind album and show with songs by John Southworth and arrangements by Andrew Downing in the spirit of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. A 21st century metaphysical fertility tale set to 19th century surreal street-cabaret songs accompanied by a 7-piece orchestra of brass, wood and strings. Imagine pop music arranged by Igor Stravinsky, with lyrics dictated by David Lynch on a vision quest. Part Edgar Allan Poe and part Rite of Spring, Easterween tells the magic-realist tale of a mythological egg-hunt set during an eternal winter. Robert Kirk is a 500-year-old magician who contacts the Faerie kingdom to help him end the icy spell. The Faerie King and Queen choose a 16-year-old Amish boy named Johann and a 16-year-old Hasidic girl named Sylvia who, despite their different backgrounds, come together in a powerful union. Their essential task is to find three eggs of the utmost cosmic importance, hidden throughout Pennsylvania. While looking for the eggs they are hunted by sinister Noombs and the heads of GMO companies. If the teens find the eggs the corporate monopoly on the seed kingdom will be over. But in order for spring to happen Johann and Sylvia also have to return the eggs to Pennsylvania's Mountain of the Egg – all by the eve of Easterween!
the ensemble: John Southworth - voice Andrew Downing - cello Kevin Turcotte - trumpet William Carn - trombone Peter Lutek - clarinet David Occhipinti - guitar Joe Phillips -double bass Aleksandar Gajic- violin