Mark R. Bannister
Orchestral & Instrumental Composer
for Film, TV & Theatre

THE BALCONY
"I'll do everything I can to help you ...
You're not only the purest jewel in my diadem of girls,
you're also the only one I'm really fond of.
Stay with me. How could you leave now - now,
when death - real, final death - is at my door,
waiting beneath my windows?"

A brave and thought-provoking production of Jean Genet's complicated play about the life of a Madame of a brothel, her clients, her lovers, and an extraordinary circumstance they're thrown into due to a revolution occurring in the city streets outside.

This production was expertly directed by Simon Bickerstaffe, and featured particularly poignant and memorable performances by Anneli Page as Madame Irma, Helen Linstead as Carmen, and Michael J. Smith as the Bishop. The production also featured a remarkable brothel scene expertly handled by Michael Walters as the General, and Sarah Hill as his whore.

The music composed for The Balcony involved big orchestral themes as well as dream-like, strange yet romantic interludes to reflect the confusing and ambiguous feelings portrayed by the characters, as they face the ever-approaching front-line of the revolution. The music for the revolutionaries brought in a different feel, more folk-like, less regimental or organised, freer in its lilting rhythms.

A lot of the atmospheric background music in this production underscored dialogue, and coupled with extraordinary lighting and smoke effects designed by Chris Allen, gave the theatrical experience a film-like quality.

Newborn (MP3 - 1 min 38 secs - 1.01 Mb)
Bishop (MP3 - 2 mins 27 secs - 1.85 Mb)
General (MP3 - 2 mins 06 secs - 1.56 Mb)
Elegance (MP3 - 4 mins 42 secs - 2.65 Mb)
Chief of Police (MP3 - 3 mins 03 secs - 2.37 Mb)
Revolutionaries (MP3 - 1 mins 14 secs - 0.98 Mb)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER