Creating Carmen

Prosper Mérimée is struggling with his latest novella, when his leading character, Carmen, appears in his study, larger than life, with a band of musicians in tow and chaos in her wake. Who is in control of the narrative? And what happens when Carmen discovers the tragic ending Mérimée has planned for her?

Commissioned by CarmenCo Trio (Emily Andrews, David Massey and Francisco Correa) and supported by Arts Council England, Clare Norburn’s latest work, Creating Carmen, focuses on the struggle of the iconoclastic writer Prosper Mérimée as he struggles to write a work in a new genre, the novella Carmen, upon which Georges Bizet’s opera would later be based. Directed by Nicholas Renton, expect a fun-filled evening of fantasy, comedy, drama and music arranged from Bizet’s Carmen and Spanish-inspired music by Luigi Boccherini, Manuel de Falla, Federico García Lorca, Enrique Granados, Maurice Ravel and Isaac Albéniz.

Cast

Alica Imelda Carmen

Niall Ashdown Prosper Mérimée