About The Salon Project
An Untitled Projects / Traverse Theatre co-production, in collaboration with the Citizens Theatre.
A Salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse and partly to refine taste and increase knowledge of the participants through conversation. Wikipedia
The Salon Project : a new music theatre event inspired by the rituals of the 19th century salon.
Salons were exclusive meetings, where privileged hosts entertained themselves and their ‘little clans’ with cultivated conversation and intimate music recitals.
Our research involved looking at the culture, politics and lifestyles between 1885 and 1915, particularly through the life and work of Marcel Proust. This was the ‘Golden Age’ of French society, thirty years of innovation, dramatic change and economic excess that ended with the outbreak of the First World War.
The heart of The Salon Project is the visual spectacle of each audience member transformed: dressed in opulent Victoriana costuming. In a fully immersive experience, audiences are thrust into a mirrored 19th century reception room where performance interventions, music and guest speakers entertain and provoke conversation.
The Salon Project offers audiences the opportunity to explore the past while imagining the future, to mirror the contrasts and paradoxes between the golden age of salon society and our own era of economic excess.
Press
Astonishing…one of the most complete immersive theatre experiences ever conceived.
****
The Scotsman
Extraordinary, intellectually provocative and tremendously good fun.
****
The Guardian
A quite extraordinary theatrical experiment…genius.
****
The Daily Telegraph
Stewart Laing’s exquisitely constructed reimagining of 19th-century salons for a post-modern age.
****
The Herald
A triumph of devised theatre.
Sunday Herald
Collaborators:
Lighting – Mike Brookes
Costume – Theo Clinkard
Performance – Rose English
Production Manager – Nick Millar
Composer – Robbie Thomson
Composer – Jack Wrigley
Artistic Associate – Drew Taylor
The Salon Project ran at the Traverse Theatre for 7 nights between October 10th-22nd 2011
The Salon Project blog http://thesalonproject.tumblr.com/ offers a comprehensive insight into our first outing of the project at the Traverse.
Video
Images
Performances
- Oct 10 - Oct 22, 2011 at Traverse Theatre
Downloads
- Salon Group Photograph: Monday 10th October
- Salon Group Photograph: Wednesday 12th October
- Salon Group Photograph: Friday 14th October
- Salon Group Photograph: Sunday 16th October
- Salon Group Photograph: Tuesday 18th October
- Salon Group Photograph: Thursday 20th October
- Salon Group Photograph: Saturday 22nd October
