Join us in the candlit Gothic surrounds of Guys Hospital
Chapel for a very special spoken word and musical performance.
‘Goblin Market’, Christina Rossetti's celebrated and
disturbing 1859 narrative poem, is a unique combination of the
grotesque, the fairytale, the erotic, and the moral. It tells the
fable of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, who live alone. When Laura
succumbs to temptation and eats exotic goblin fruits, Lizzie risks
everything to save her.
Christina was the sister of the pre-Raphaelite artist and poet
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and modelled for some of his most
famous paintings. At the time of writing the poem, she was
volunteering at the St Mary Magdalene House of Charity in Highgate,
a refuge for ex-prostitutes.
The evening opens with a short performance by actress Maxine
Dubois embodying the character of Christina stalked by death
and reflecting on her life and loves. The music for 'Goblin Market'
is by Elizabeth-Jane Baldry.
----
Harpist and Composer Elizabeth-Jane Baldry fell in love with the
harp as a young child whilst reading fairytales in which the harp
possessed magical powers! She is now a busy concert harpist,
performing internationally. She specialises in playing live to
cinema screenings of early film, and has won multiple awards for
her silent film accompaniments. Her uniquely rich tone on the
harp has graced several film/TV soundtrack screened in over 30
countries. Her compositions have been used by ITV, the BBC, and
Irish, Japanese, Danish, and Canadian film, radio and
television. She lives in the Dartmoor National Park, and spends her
spare time caring for her magical ten-acre woodland.
Maxine DuBois has performed all over the world on stage and screen,
including London’s West End, New York, Los Angeles and British
Repertory Theatre. She won the Derby Telegraph Best Actress
award for her role as Rita in ‘Educating Rita’.She has appeared on
the popular British TV dramas, Coronation St., Emmerdale Farm,
Doctors, Mersey Beat and Broken. She has also had a career as
a dancer, notably as principal dancer for Sir Matthew Bourne.
Performing principal roles in Highland Fling, Swan
Lake, Cinderella and the Nutcracker. Maxine is a busy
commercial actress and voiceover artist and was a vocalist for the
award-winning vocal group 'The Mediaeval Baebes'.
----
PLEASE NOTE: The Chapel is a
beautiful historic building but has no toilet facilities. So come
prepared :