Composing and extemporising an original underscore for a live adaptation of John Wyndham’s sci fi novel The Midwich Cuckoos. Performed with percussionist Stephen Hiscock, cellist Bela Emerson and vocal duo Lutine. For Cinecity Festival, Brighton, 2014, in partnership with Film Archive South East, for the BFI season Sci Fi – Days of Fear and Wonder.
The inspiration for cult film The Village of the Damned (1960), this version of John Wyndham’s sci fi novel The Midwich Cuckoos was staged with actors, music and foley, as though a live radio play.
As the story unfolded, we used theremin, synth, robotic instruments, live percussion and foley to conjure the uneasy atmosphere of Midwich. In Wyndham’s book, the village is struck by a mysterious blackout when every living is rendered unconscious by an unknown force. On re-awakening, all the women of child-bearing age are pregnant. They later give birth to a dozen identical, blond-haired children with eerie intellectual and telepathic powers.
