I have composed the score and sound design for the production of Picnic at Hanging Rock at Sydney Theatre Company – performed at the Opera House, Sydney.
“Fiercely vivid and exquisitely made”
★★★★½ Limelight
★★★★ The Guardian
★★★★★ Suzy Goes See
★★★★½State of the Art
★★★★ Stage Noise
★★★★ Cultural Binge
”Exquisite sounds by James Brown are flawlessly orchestrated to usher us not only to the year 1900, but also through various membranes of reality, so that we encounter realms beyond the mundane, that seem to have always existed, but are rarely accorded due attention. Picnic at Hanging Rock is greatly concerned with what we cannot see, all of which is translated on this occasion, into everything that we can hear.
Suzy Goes See
”Amplifying and supporting Michael’s finely-wrought direction, too, is James Peter Brown’s sound design and score. It wraps around your throat and squeezes, lacing the rising tension with distant drums and beautiful melodies that still somehow sound like warnings, mixed with ever-present reminders that someone, or something, is always there: the calling of birds, the rustling of leaves.
This Picnic at Hanging Rock is beautifully handled, tender and then ferocious, funny and uncomfortable, a heady descent into terror and beauty. When you leave, you’ll leave with ghosts – but if you listen closer, if you close your eyes, you’ll realise the ghosts have been there all along.
The Guardian
”Lindsay’s novel occupies a space in the time of Australiana when the concept of colonisation on stolen land began to be scrutinised. The idea of naming things and places on Country that already had names for thousands of years rings as loudly as James Brown’s exquisitely haunting sound design. The metaphysical nature of Hanging Rock (Ngannelong) penetrates every scene and its First Nation’s name is all that remains standing at the end as a reminder of survival.
Theatre Thoughts
”Composer and Sound Designer James Brown contributes a soundtrack of suitably seismic proportions, suggestive at times of sub-surface currents and lurking presences.
Limelight
