SAD Comes to Edinburgh Fringe in August

Propelled by personal experience of loss, SAD is a musically driven experience, blending poetry with recordings of real people's stories to explore how grief affects the human condition, and how sound can be healing. Inspiration for the project came when artist Quiet Boy lost his mum, and the music he composed at the time to help process his grief.

Whilst they were making the show, he and Brigitte Aphrodite engaged with research from cognitive neuroscientists to work towards a scientific understanding of how sound and music, alongside the use of SAD lamps, can affect chemical and hormone levels and make people feel more positive.

 SAD takes audiences on a deeply personal journey that offers comfort at its lowest points before freedom, joy, and clarity when the light eventually floods in. The show maps out the crossing from loss to acceptance, and ultimately hope for the future.  

Early versions of the show took place as an audio experience in cafes in Kent as Britain emerged from lockdown and people were looking for ways of dealing with their losses. Stories from these early audience members are now part of the show. 

Quiet Boy said, “When my mum died it was Autumn and I felt the season change deeply. I noticed the leaves falling from the tree's, the harshness of the cold coastal winds of Margate and most of all the lack of light seemed to parallel how I felt physically and emotionally during that winter. I turned to music as a way to access the depth of pain that I was going through and try to find hope again. It felt like I was searching for the light for that whole winter and what I musically composed in this period of time seemed to naturally fit in with the changes of the seasons and cycles of the year” 

Known by artist name 'Quiet Boy', Gaz Tomlinson is an alternative theatre composer, songwriter, sound designer and theatre maker specialising in gig theatre. Together with Brigitte Aphrodite, a neurodivergent punk poet, gig theatre-maker, the two have co-created gig-theatre shows such as the critically acclaimed My Beautiful Black Dog (2014), Parakeet (2019) and The Christmas Goblin (2021). Brigitte Aphrodite specialises in genre-crossing and status-quo defying work with a focus on accessibility. Most recently, Quiet Boy has collaborated with accessible dance company Moxie Brawl and Cambridge Junction.  

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