Guest Blog: Composer Steven Edis On Musical I CAPTURE THE CASTLE

Our musical I Capture The Castle started its life several years ago on a suggestion from Teresa Howard, following up an idea from her daughter Frances.

Teresa and I had recently completed our first collaboration, Possessed (a slightly folky/Gothic telling of the factual story of artist William Morris and his circle).

We'd workshopped and showcased Possessed to general acclaim, but at the time struggled to take it further and give it a proper production. So we really just thought it was easier and more fun to start writing a new piece.

Our writing process for I Capture The Castle was collaborative at the very start, in that we began by laying many sheets of paper each with dramatic moments, scenes and plot twists all over the floor in Teresa's house, pinpointing where songs could usefully go, ruthlessly cutting extraneous scenes and even characters, until we had a structure that we agreed on. We decided which characters would sing, and roughly what the songs would say.

At that point, Teresa would generally sketch out some lyrical ideas and send them to me, and I would sift through and pick out perhaps one or two 'hook' lines that just suggest a fragment of melody or a musical idea. I'd then let this idea take root and see where it went.

After that, it was a constant batting to and fro of ideas and suggestions until somehow we ended up with something we were both happy with.

Then, finally, the exciting moment came when we would get together again round a piano and give it its first airing. We're both pretty rubbish singers, so the quicker we can get songs into the hands of a seasoned professional the better!

One of the trickiest things about this show was the planning of music for the various Diary Songs that the main character, Cassandra, sings. We had to make it clear that each Diary Song represents a continuation of Cassandra's written narrative, but at the same time differentiate them to portray the development that her character undergoes.

From an early age, I'd look at and try to play from my father's collection of sheet music, which he had acquired in the early 1930s, and get familiar with the tunes and the famous names of the British dance band days.

Alongside that, I've always been passionate about German cabaret music of the late Twenties and early Thirties - Holländer, Eisler, Spoliansky, as well as Weill. So I'm very comfortable with the style of early Thirties music, and it was therefore very exciting and tempting to work on this project, set as it is in 1934.

With a slightly different hat on, I write a lot of incidental music for straight plays, and here part of the challenge and the satisfaction is to totally evoke the period and the setting - in other words not to have your own composer's voice, but to embrace the 'correct' musical style to serve the play. If I watch a play or a TV drama where the costumes, setting and language are period authentic, but the music isn't, I find that rather disturbing!

So for this project, some of that approach persists and you will hear the odd bit of beguine, tango, sweeping melody and the like. There is however plenty of what I suppose I should call my own musical voice there too (which has also never shied away from a sweeping melody!).

It's great to get the chance to share our version of this beautiful and moving story with audiences.

I Capture the Castle at Watford Palace Theatre until 22 April

Photo credit: Richard Lakos

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