Periplum - Arquiem

Friday 3 September and Saturday 4 September
20:30 - Market Place and Northbook Street, Newbury.

Love story, murder ballad and cautionary tale, Arquiem tells the chilling tale of a boy who murders his love to preserve one moment for ever. With live music, stilts, pyrotechnics, acrobatics and beautifully crafted mobile structures, Arquiem is a powerful promenade performance inspired by William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience and Robert Browning's poem Porphyria's Lover.

Formed in 1999 by Damian Wright and Claire Raftery, Periplum are a Brighton-based theatre company that create distinctive visual performances. Their work to date has been described as “Electrifyingly theatrical” by the Guardian. It has has involved shows about the lives of Rasputin, Artaud and Alistair Crowley and has won several Fringe First nominations at Edinburgh.

Arquiem is the third of a programme of large-scale outdoor arts events by major European companies. The first two performances ‘Reve d’Herbert’ by Compagnie des Quidams and ‘Mobile Homme’ by Transe Express attracted crowds of over 2500 people to Newbury’s Market Place.

Newbury’s outdoor events programme is promoted by Newbury Corn Exchange and Newbury Town Centre Partnership, and funded by Greenham Common Trust.

"Arquiem is a piece crackling with dark energy and many stunning visual moments. Periplum prove that outdoor theatre is an appropriate medium for dark and thought-provoking work, to chilling effect. This looks to evolve into a truly great outdoor piece." Total Theatre