Aud The Deep Minded
When: Friday, March 28th 2025, Start Time: 19:30, End Time: 20:30
Where: The Stables Causeway, Cromarty IV11 8XS
- Part of:
- Music & Theatre
Aud the Deep Minded by Joanna Nicholson
A ground breaking newly composed piece combining projection, movement, voice, electronic music, clarinet and horn. This is a unique chance to see a psychological drama imagining the inner world of Aud the Deep Minded, a real life Christian Viking and conflicted yet brilliant leader in 9th century Scotland. Inspired by fragments of unreliably documented history, and reframed in the present, this one act chamber opera explores her transformatory journey from oppressed to oppressor to liberator. Suitable for all ages. Advisory - Contains swearing. £10, under 18s free - booking 01381 600354 or [email protected] or through Eventbrite here.
The history The woman known as Aud the Deep Minded was a real person - accounts conflict on when exactly in the 9th century she lived, but we can be fairly sure she was the daughter of Ketil Flatnose, a Norwegian military commander who came to oversee areas we now know as the Scottish Hebrides on behalf of Harald Fairhair, King of Norway, and that her husband was Olaf the White (King of Dublin) and their son was Thorstein the Red, who conquered large areas of Scotland and declared himself king there. Following the deaths of Olaf and Thorstein, Aud commissioned a boat to be built in secret in the Caithness woods, which she then captained to Iceland, crewed by members of her family and high ranking thralls. On reaching new lands in the west, she gave the thralls their freedom and parcels of land to farm, forming a community where she lived until her natural death as an old woman. Aud was a Christian at a time when most Vikings were still worshipping pagan gods.
Download the full programme notes here and watch an excerpt here.
Soprano: Cliona Cassidy
Clarinet: Joanna Nicholson
Horn: Andy Saunders
Electronics: Alistair MacDonald
Projection Art: Kirsty Anderson
