TS Eliot's The Waste Land @ 100
8 April 2022
The recording of a brand-new version of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, featuring Teachers and Pupils from Stowe, to celebrate the centenary, has been taking place throughout the Lent term and it is now ready for its debut after Easter on Thursday 28 April at 3.30pm (for Staff and Pupils) and 7pm (for Parents and Guests).
The performance includes live music and audio-visual “re-imagining” of the poem and it will be followed by a short Q&A with its producers Ms Heather Eisenhut and myself.
The recording (which features, amongst others, the voices of Dr Wallersteiner, Mr Paul Floyd, Ms Rebecca Clark, Mrs Sophie Rickner and Rev’d Tim Mullins), aims to help a new audience understand one of the Twentieth Century’s most challenging poems and bring it to life for new readers.
Our “re-imagining” has attempted to give this profound work (which was certainly way ahead of its time in terms of its modernity and the “movement” it gave birth to), a slightly fresh spin and we have adopted the central conceit of a radio being tuned in to tie the various parts of the poem together.
In addition, we have tried to show how Ezra Pound’s input as editor certainly contributed to its overall impact. We’ve also added a few anachronistic pieces of music to make the poem feel fresh and to suggest its continued influence upon popular culture in the Twenty First Century. Given current events, several parts of the poem feel eerily prophetic.
The Waste Land at 100 was engineered at the School’s Stringer Studios by Studio Manager Ben Weston, and is a stunning new interpretation of Eliot’s verse which we hope you will enjoy.
Tickets for the evening performance on Thursday 28 April are available here. Please note that whilst tickets are free, we will be collecting donations for the Stowe Changemakers 100 Fund.
Dr Andrew Webber, Teacher of English