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

DEAR BRUTUS
"Daddy, come back! Come back, Daddy!
I don't want to be a might-have-been!"

A play by J. M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) exploring the repercussions of getting a second chance at life, granted to visitors of the mysterious Lob on midsummer's night who enter a magic wood.

The nightingale theme opened Act Two (inside the magic wood), the presence of the nightingale is an allusion to Philomel from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the music is inspired by the actual song of a nightingale.

Lob's Theme appeared during the show in various guises, and underscored a video sequence at the end which showed Mr & Mrs Dearth learning to love each other again, chased by a ghostly Margaret, the 12 year old daughter that Mr Dearth was granted in the wood but who vanished again in Act Three. Notice the occurrence of the Alouette theme in this piece, a song which Mr Dearth was keen to sing with Margaret during Act Two.

The production was directed by Stella Ghuery de Bray for the Richmond Shakespeare Society in Twickenham, and Act Two in particular featured very memorable and poignant performances by Chris Williams (Mr Dearth), Johanna Dunphy (Mrs Dearth) and the very charming Lucy Taylor (Margaret).

Variation on a Theme by a Nightingale (MP3 - 2 mins 42 secs - 2.14 Mb)
Lob's Theme (MP3 - 1 min 52 secs - 1.21 Mb)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER