The Gifts of the Furies

We change lightbulbs and showerheads to turn back the weather

We reduce re-use recycle our things 

But our children’s nightmares Who will stop those?

And our sterile anguish Who will shift that?

My partner is prone to fanciful ideas on occasion. Gifts of the Furies was one of them.

Having read about this amazing performance, Will was determined to bring it to Newcastle so he rang Glenda Cloughley and invited her to perform the Furies here.  We had no money, no venue let alone any idea what this performance really entailed, but hey, Will never let's the detail get in the way of a good idea.

And so it came to pass!

The Gifts of the Furies is a mythic drama and song story, and is the first Australian art work to recognise the mythic nature of the climate crisis. This profound work is about the Earth, about history, war, trauma, tragedy and fate, and the stories we tell ourselves. It looks at the climate crisis with a view from the classics, and is about hubris, democracy, our hopes and dreams, and aims towards renewal and reconciliation within the limits of nature. While the original score was performed as a full choral production, it was recently workshopped in France, and condensed to a two-handed event. 

In Glenda Cloughley’s dramatic story-song, we see what happens when people raise the mortal laws of cities above the immortal laws of nature. From a sense of tragedy, we may discover our own voice of empowerment as we find a place in the citizens’ chorus.

The way is shown by Ethos, spirit of the community, and the songman Aeschylus whose dramas of 458BC were motivated by the same hard questions and the same longing for harmony that hum beneath our days.

A Jungian analyst, composer and singer, Glenda gave two performances of the story-song with fellow musician, choral conductor and singer Johanna McBride on  7th and 8th May at the Maritime Museum.

The Furies is a very intense and complex work, which demands 100% concentration. It's not light entertainment and I wondered how it would go down with Newcastle audiences. It's true to say that not everybody liked the piece but surprisingly the majority did.  Some people felt overawed by its complexity but I don't think anyone went away unimpressed by the diverse talent shown by Glenda and Johanna. It's a gut-wrenching, raw and confronting experience hearing the story unfold and realising its parallels in our modern world.

Glenda and Johanna were kind enough to run a free singing workshop on the following Sunday morning so some of us had the chance to personally benefit from their extraordinary skills and generous spirits.

The good news is that two full houses covered the costs so we didn't have to extend our mortgage. And Will of course is onto the next idea.

COMMENTS ABOUT THE GIFTS OF THE FURIES
I was gob-smacked by how good The Gifts of the Furies was. It’s an extremely interesting and very beautifulpiece. Paul Collins, commentator and writer, on ABC Radio 2CN, after premiere performances with a cast of 50 in the Great Hall, Australian National University, Canberra.

The new two-person performance is a tour de force! Glenda and Johanna are top-flight musicians and convincing actors. They took us to ancient Greece and back to present-day Australia, parallelling the current climate crisis with the terrible deeds enacted by Clytemnestra and Orestes. Don’t miss it!Composer/conductor
Judith Clingan AM
It’s my hope that remarkable works of the eco-prophetic imagination, such as The Gifts of the Furies, will be able to bring an axe to the frozen sea within us, to recall Kafka. For as we’re reminded by Ethos, ‘lament is the start of renewal’. Kate Rigby, Assoc. Professor, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University