Flight Memory: In Progress Showing

FLIGHT MEMORY - A song cycle project by Sandra France and Alana Valentine

Directed by Caroline Stacey
Performed by Toby Cole, Leisa Keen and Michelle Nicolle
Accompanied by Sandra France

Take away hope
And give me dust
Instead
I’ll turn your stones
Into bread

In 1953 David Warren conceived of a device that would be come to be known as the ‘black box’. It records the cockpit voices and instrument data of a plane so that, if it crashes, investigators will have concrete data to explain the malfunction and, hopefully, prevent it from happening again. Warren and his team encountered bureaucratic indifference for many years, frustrated that others could not see the value of their device. Eventually, after endorsement from London and serious air disasters in Australia, the black box was fitted in all Australian aircraft. Today the device is installed in tens of thousands of planes around the world.

The Street Theatre have commissioned Canberra-based, ARIA nominated composer Sandra France (From a Black Sky) and award-winning playwright Alana Valentine (Cold Light, MP, Head Full of Love, Letters to Lindy) to write a song cycle using the life of this Australian engineering genius and his flight voice recorder to explore the musical confluence of memory, grief, technology and creativity in the context of Australian defence science and persistent parochial indifference. 

There will be a Q&A session following the performance- a chance for the audience to give the creative team direct and immediate feedback on the work.

Free event, bookings preferred.  Book online or call the Box Office on 6247 1223