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The Sleeper
A fable for our times. In The Sleeper by Michael Symmons Roberts we see our own society as it is today but with one familiar element removed. This is a Britain in which, decades ago, human beings gradually lost the gift of sleep.
The Sleeper is a new verse drama by Michael Symmons Roberts with music by the WNO and youth chorus from Irish composer Stephen Deazley, adapted to create a soundtrack mixing speech, poetry and chorus.
Society is strained to breaking point by 24-hour wakefulness. The government has cracked down on subversive images of sleep. People work around the clock. Hotels are for private meetings and illicit sex. Shops never close.
Into this paranoid world, a teenage girl emerges, a girl who can sleep. Protected by her friends, she goes on the run from the authorities who are keen to control and study her gift. The group ends up living in a city centre squat, surviving as a group by shoplifting and begging.
The group grows increasingly anxious and fractious, with Ellah (the sleeper)'s boyfriend Jamie lapsing into cultish beliefs in the 'old gods', in which lullabies are chanted as prayers, worshipping sleep. Some of the other group members join in these rituals. Keller, the level-headed natural leader of the group, is struggling to keep the peace.
Hungry, scared and sick of being pursued, the group receives an offer of help from a wealthy man - known by the nickname Hypnos - who says he will protect them. But what does he want in return? Desperate, and running out of options, they go to him.
When they reach the man's hideout they find a spectacular, illegal private 'archive of sleep' - films, paintings, music, books - and an eerie film-set centred on a four poster bed. The price for his protection is a movie. He wants to film the 'sleeper' sleeping.
Why? Well, it transpires that he is the son of the last ever sleeper. In fact, as a young child he woke his mother up from that last sleep. He plays the group a film of that fateful event, a home movie taken by his father of his mother's rare and last sleep, ending with Hypnos - as a boy - waking her. After that, no-one slept again. The guilt of waking his mother has never left him, and the only cure is to film this newly discovered sleeper peacefully asleep.
With music created from the original WNO Youth commission by the composer Stephen Deazley, and performed by members of the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and Youth Opera
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
Michael Symmons Roberts is an award winning poet and experienced radio writer. His latest projects for Radio 4 include 'Crimes of Mancunia', 'A Man in Pieces' and the award winning 'Soldiers in the Sun'.
Writer - Michael Symmons Roberts
Keller - Matthew Beard
Ella - Sarah Churm
Jamie - Henry Devas
Sara - Rachel Austin
Davis - Jason Done
Harper - Maxine Peake
Somnos - Danielle Henry
Hypnos - Kevin Doyle
Director - Susan Roberts
Composer - Stephen Deazley
The Sleeper is a new verse drama by Michael Symmons Roberts with music by the WNO and youth chorus from Irish composer Stephen Deazley, adapted to create a soundtrack mixing speech, poetry and chorus.
Society is strained to breaking point by 24-hour wakefulness. The government has cracked down on subversive images of sleep. People work around the clock. Hotels are for private meetings and illicit sex. Shops never close.
Into this paranoid world, a teenage girl emerges, a girl who can sleep. Protected by her friends, she goes on the run from the authorities who are keen to control and study her gift. The group ends up living in a city centre squat, surviving as a group by shoplifting and begging.
The group grows increasingly anxious and fractious, with Ellah (the sleeper)'s boyfriend Jamie lapsing into cultish beliefs in the 'old gods', in which lullabies are chanted as prayers, worshipping sleep. Some of the other group members join in these rituals. Keller, the level-headed natural leader of the group, is struggling to keep the peace.
Hungry, scared and sick of being pursued, the group receives an offer of help from a wealthy man - known by the nickname Hypnos - who says he will protect them. But what does he want in return? Desperate, and running out of options, they go to him.
When they reach the man's hideout they find a spectacular, illegal private 'archive of sleep' - films, paintings, music, books - and an eerie film-set centred on a four poster bed. The price for his protection is a movie. He wants to film the 'sleeper' sleeping.
Why? Well, it transpires that he is the son of the last ever sleeper. In fact, as a young child he woke his mother up from that last sleep. He plays the group a film of that fateful event, a home movie taken by his father of his mother's rare and last sleep, ending with Hypnos - as a boy - waking her. After that, no-one slept again. The guilt of waking his mother has never left him, and the only cure is to film this newly discovered sleeper peacefully asleep.
With music created from the original WNO Youth commission by the composer Stephen Deazley, and performed by members of the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and Youth Opera
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
Michael Symmons Roberts is an award winning poet and experienced radio writer. His latest projects for Radio 4 include 'Crimes of Mancunia', 'A Man in Pieces' and the award winning 'Soldiers in the Sun'.
Writer - Michael Symmons Roberts
Keller - Matthew Beard
Ella - Sarah Churm
Jamie - Henry Devas
Sara - Rachel Austin
Davis - Jason Done
Harper - Maxine Peake
Somnos - Danielle Henry
Hypnos - Kevin Doyle
Director - Susan Roberts
Composer - Stephen Deazley
- GenresDystopia
1 pages, MP3 CD
First published January 1, 2012
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About the author
Michael Symmons Roberts
27 books22 followersMichael was born in 1963 and spent his childhood in Lancashire, England before moving south with his family to Newbury in Berkshire in the early ‘70’s. He went to comprehensive school in Newbury, then to Oxford University to read Philosophy & Theology.
After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion & Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.
His 4th book of poetry – Corpus – was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin International Prize. His 6th collection - Drysalter - was the winner of the 2013 Forward Prize and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
He has previously received the Society of Authors’ Gregory Award for British poets under 30, the K Blundell Trust Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon. In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award.
His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and operas for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera. Their WNO commission - The Sacrifice - won the RPS Award for Opera in 2008, and their Royal Opera House / Scottish Opera commission - Clemency - was nominated for an Olivier Award.
His work for radio includes A Fearful Symmetry - for Radio 4 - which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, and Last Words commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. His first novel – Patrick’s Alphabet – was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006, and his second – Breath – in 2008. He is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the English Association, for services to the language arts.
He is married with three sons, and lives near Manchester. (source: http://www.symmonsroberts.com/about_l...)
After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion & Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.
His 4th book of poetry – Corpus – was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin International Prize. His 6th collection - Drysalter - was the winner of the 2013 Forward Prize and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
He has previously received the Society of Authors’ Gregory Award for British poets under 30, the K Blundell Trust Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon. In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award.
His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and operas for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera. Their WNO commission - The Sacrifice - won the RPS Award for Opera in 2008, and their Royal Opera House / Scottish Opera commission - Clemency - was nominated for an Olivier Award.
His work for radio includes A Fearful Symmetry - for Radio 4 - which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, and Last Words commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. His first novel – Patrick’s Alphabet – was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006, and his second – Breath – in 2008. He is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the English Association, for services to the language arts.
He is married with three sons, and lives near Manchester. (source: http://www.symmonsroberts.com/about_l...)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 11, 2014
From BBC Radio 4 - Dangerous Visions:
By Michael Symmons Roberts. In a future Britain, people have lost the gift of sleep.
By Michael Symmons Roberts. In a future Britain, people have lost the gift of sleep.
June 16, 2013
Während eines nicht näher bezeichneten Krieges, der wohl schon einige Jahrzehnte zurückliegt, wurde ein Virus eingesetzt, dass dazu führte, dass die Menschen die Fähigkeit verloren, zu schlafen. Alles was mit Schlaf zu tun hat und hatte, wurde aus der Gesellschaft entfernt. Schlaflieder gelten als subversiv und es kursieren perverse Videos, in denen man Menschen beim Schlafen zusehen kann.
Nun gehen Gerüchte um, dass es da einen Schläfer geben soll. Er oder sie lebt im Untergrund und wird von seinen Freunden bewacht. Zwei Agenten sind dem Schläfer auf der Spur, um ihn verschwinden zu lassen, damit das soziale Gefüge nicht gestört wird.
Nette Idee, ambitioniert und man hat sich mit der Umsetzung echt Mühe gegeben. Die Musik wurde von Stephen Deazley geschrieben und vom Welsh National Opera Orchestra und der Youth Opera eingespielt. Geschrieben wurde die Geschichte von Michael Symmons Roberts.
Letztendlich fehlt dieser Geschichte aber alles. Man geht nicht in die Tiefe. Es ist einfach nur eine Jagd nach einem Schläfer. Was das komplette Fehlen der Schlaffähigkeit für die Gesellschaft bedeutet haben muss, wird hier außen vor gelassen. Man erfährt nur, dass man beim Fernsehen nach dem Sex nicht mehr einschläft, was nun wirklich nicht gerade die spannendste Auswirkung hat. Welche Folge hätte eine Population auf die Gesellschaft, die 24 h aktiv ist? 24 Stunden arbeiten und konsumieren kann. Wenn kleine Kinder 24 Stunden wach sind und die Eltern nie Ruhe haben (und die wohl auch nicht brauchen). Wie hat sich das Hirn und die Verarbeitung von Informationen verändert, die ja meist im Schlaf passiert? Was hat sich am Wohnen verändert, wo Schlafzimmer nicht mehr benötigt werden? Keine dieser Fragen wird auch nur angerissen. Somit ist die Geschichte gerade mal mäßig interessant mit guten Sprechern.
Nun gehen Gerüchte um, dass es da einen Schläfer geben soll. Er oder sie lebt im Untergrund und wird von seinen Freunden bewacht. Zwei Agenten sind dem Schläfer auf der Spur, um ihn verschwinden zu lassen, damit das soziale Gefüge nicht gestört wird.
Nette Idee, ambitioniert und man hat sich mit der Umsetzung echt Mühe gegeben. Die Musik wurde von Stephen Deazley geschrieben und vom Welsh National Opera Orchestra und der Youth Opera eingespielt. Geschrieben wurde die Geschichte von Michael Symmons Roberts.
Letztendlich fehlt dieser Geschichte aber alles. Man geht nicht in die Tiefe. Es ist einfach nur eine Jagd nach einem Schläfer. Was das komplette Fehlen der Schlaffähigkeit für die Gesellschaft bedeutet haben muss, wird hier außen vor gelassen. Man erfährt nur, dass man beim Fernsehen nach dem Sex nicht mehr einschläft, was nun wirklich nicht gerade die spannendste Auswirkung hat. Welche Folge hätte eine Population auf die Gesellschaft, die 24 h aktiv ist? 24 Stunden arbeiten und konsumieren kann. Wenn kleine Kinder 24 Stunden wach sind und die Eltern nie Ruhe haben (und die wohl auch nicht brauchen). Wie hat sich das Hirn und die Verarbeitung von Informationen verändert, die ja meist im Schlaf passiert? Was hat sich am Wohnen verändert, wo Schlafzimmer nicht mehr benötigt werden? Keine dieser Fragen wird auch nur angerissen. Somit ist die Geschichte gerade mal mäßig interessant mit guten Sprechern.
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