GULBENKIAN FOUNDATION
MARCH 2016 
GULBENKIAN ORCHESTRA

British composer
Jamie Pui Ling Man
"Play"

EXCERPTS ON YOUTUBE: Kristiina Helin

As children we engaged with the world through imaginative play using role-play to act out experiences and make-believe to experiment with behaviour. Growing up, our experience of the world grew too, caged by social and moral conditioning which simplified our choices with convenient binary options such as ‘right and wrong’, ’good and bad’ and ‘true and false’. The world of possibilities became so small. Now, through dreams and fantasies we channel our need to explore the undivided, infinite and complex world beyond the fallacious perimeters of ‘right and wrong’ in search of greater mysteries, brighter lights and darker darknesses. Art is an expression of our need to dream and play. Without it, our fantasies fester and there, nurtured by the heat of the rot grows the fetishisation of ‘youth’.

Jamie Man

March 10th world premiere
second performance 11th March

Conductor | Hannu Lintu
Orquestra Gulbenkian
Soprano | Inês Simoes
Baryton | Jussi Lehtipuu
LIbretto, Jamie Pui Ling Man

Stage Directing, Costume- Set- and Light design:
Kristiina Helin
Shibari Bondage: Pedro Diniz Reis
The head of the Wolf, sculpture by Ron Moret
Thank you for Manchester Metropolitan University, physical research department