First Ever Binaural Opera at Royal Opera House WOMAN & MACHINE Will Premiere Next Year

Fuel collaborates with The Royal Opera for the first time to present the world premiere of Woman & Machine - a ground-breaking binaural opera experience from Mercury-nominated songwriter ESKA, directed by Kirsty Housley. Incorporating the sonic worlds of the neonatal unit and the womb, with influences of contemporary, electronic and Zimbabwean Shona music, this new work connects themes of life, survival and womanhood.

Woman & Machine tells the story of the three months artist Eska Mtungwazi spent in King's College Hospital neonatal unit when her daughter, Wonder, was born at just 26 weeks.

Binaural sound will give the audience a very specific perspective, putting them at the centre of the experience in a world they may not have experienced before and will challenge the traditional forms and aesthetics of opera.

Creator, composer and co-librettist Eska Mtungwazi is a vocalist, composer, choral conductor and producer whose genre- hopping career has included collaborations with artists such as Grace Jones, Zero 7, Tony Allen, Matthew Herbert, Bobby McFerrin, UNKLE and designer Rick Owens. Alongside making international festival appearances, ESKA has had sold-out performances at Southbank Centre and the Roundhouse. Her self-titled debut album was Mercury-nominated and this is her first opera. ESKA made her professional acting debut in Kae Tempest's Paradise at The National Theatre.

Co-Creator, Director and co-librettist Kate Housley was the recipient of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award for Cue Deadly, a Live Film Project, and the Title Pending award for innovation at Northern Stage. She jointly received The Stage award for Innovation in 2017 for The Encounter and was nominated again in 2018 for The Believers are but Brothers. Theatre credits include: Director: Drive Your Plough over the Bones of the Dead (Complicite); Jekyll & Hyde (National Theatre Tour) Extinct (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran - Digital version (Northern Lines CIO); Mephisto - A Rhapsodie (Gate Theatre); Grimm Tales (Unicorn Theatre); All I Want (Live Theatre, Leeds Libraries and Jackson's Lane), Mass (Amy Mason at Bristol Old Vic, CPT) The Beauty Project (Young Vic); How To Be Immortal (Penny Dreadful at Soho and tour); Bandages (Corn Exchange Newbury and Tour). Co-Creator Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Traverse Theatre), Myth (Royal Shakespeare Company); Co-Director: Tao of Glass (Manchester International Festival and Royal Exchange Theatre); I'm A Phoenix, Bitch (BAC); The Believers are but Brothers (Bush Theatre, Ovalhouse, West Yorkshire Playhouse Transform17 Season and Northern Stage Edinburgh); The Encounter (Complicite, Edinburgh International Festival, Warwick Arts Centre, Theatre Vidy, Bristol Old Vic, UK Tour, Broadway); Theatre Uncut (Young Vic); Thirsty (The Paper Birds). Dramaturg: Avalanche: A Love Story (Barbican); Misty (Bush Theatre and West End); A Pacifist's Guide To The War On Cancer (National Theatre/Complicite). Film: Can I Live (Complicite short film); The Long Goodbye Livestream (Left Handed Films & MIF).

Woman & Machine is the first show to be announced in Fuel: Twenty Years Young, a season of new commissions to celebrate Fuel's 20th Birthday in 2024. The full programme will be announced later this year."

Co-produced and co-commissioned by Fuel and the Royal Opera House

Supported by Sound and Music and Arts Council England

Woman & Machine

The Linbury, Royal Opera House

Previews - 6, 8 & 9 March

Press Performance - 11 MarchFuel REFuel

Performances - 12, 14, 15, 16 March

All performances: 7.45pm

General booking opens 11 January 2024.

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