Exclusive: 'Mama Ma' From PHAEDRA World Premiere Recording

BroadwayWorld is excited to debut the exclusive track "Mama Ma" from the world premiere recording of the National Theatre production of Phaedra. Subtle electronics underscore an aural backdrop accentuated by striking vocalizations that are both classic and modern in the original music by Stefan Gregory.

First performed earlier this year at the Lyttelton Theatre in London, the reimagining of the ancient Greek tragedy written and directed by Simon Stone and starring Janet McTeer and Assaad Bouab is streaming now on National Theatre At Home.  

After years of fierce focus on her political career, a politician turns her attention to her personal life. The reappearance of a figure from her past shakes the foundations of her house and the beliefs that have underpinned her power. As buried lust and loneliness surge to the surface, her actions threaten to destroy everything she has built. 

Writer-Director Simon Stone (Yerma, Young Vic) reimagines Seneca’s famous tragedy in this striking new play.  Assaad Bouab (Call My Agent ) makes his London stage debut alongside an Oliver Award-nominated performance from Janet McTeer (The Menu).

Notes Gregory: “I wanted to contrast the contemporary dialogue with something unexpectedly ancient. I took small excerpts of ancient Greek from Euripides's play Hyppolytus (about Phaedra) and created these vocal arrangements, taking inspiration for one piece from a fragment of ancient greek music. I contrasted the choral pieces with rhythms builts from drum machines and synthesizers, and overlaid them with simple vocal utterances such as "ma" and "pa", like a child's first sounds. The penultimate piece is build from layers of electric guitars. My aim in bringing together these ancient and modern sounds was to remind us how eternal this story is, and that history repeats.” 

ABOUT Stefan Gregory

Stefan Gregory’s unusual background in theatre, rock ’n roll, and mathematics has helped forge his unique perspective on composition. His style ranges from orchestral to minimal electronic, from dirty electric guitars to delicate chamber instruments and voices.

His feature The Dig, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, employs intimate piano and rich orchestral pieces that evoke the picturesque Suffolk landscape. His score for the award-winning production of Medea for International Theatre Amsterdam begins with subtly woven electronica and culminates in a devastating soundscape. The highly acclaimed Yerma features powerful and unusual female vocal arrangements and settings of Spanish text by Federico García Lorca. He performed a live continuous two hour score on electric guitar, for Sydney Theatre Company’s acclaimed production of The War Of The Roses with Cate Blanchett.

He has written music for many of the most esteemed theatre companies in the world, including Salzburg Festival; The Young Vic, Barbican (London); Theatre Basel; L’Odeon (Paris); Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Armoury (New York); Schaubühne (Berlin); Burgtheater (Vienna); International Theatre Amsterdam; Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir St Theatre (Sydney). He has also been commissioned by the Australian Ballet and Queensland Opera.

He has won various awards including a Helpmann Award, Sydney Theatre Awards, OBIE, Drama Desk (nomination). He was a recipient of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship.His brief stint as a rock guitarist in the band Faker resulted in a platinum single (This Heart Attack) and several ARIA award nominations (Australian Record Industry Association).

The son of science teachers and folk musicians, Stefan grew up in a steel agricultural shed on a bushland property in the hinterland of Sydney with no electricity and a pet wallaby called Basil, where he nearly died from a red back spider bite at the age of nine. He has a degree in pure mathematics.

To post a comment, you must register and login.