Cillian Murphy’s new film about masculinity will get a special screening during the next season at the Southbank Centre in London.
The Oscar-winning, Peaky Blinders hard-man stars in the film, All Of This Unreal Time, in December.
The work was the standout film from Manchester International Festival starring Murphy, written by Max Porter, directed by Aoife McArdle and produced by Mary Hickson.
This unique London screening features the world premiere of newly composed live music created in response to the film played live by Aaron & Bryce Dessner and Jon Hopkins as well as a Q&A with members of the creative team.
Cillian Murphy said: “All of This Unreal Time is a project I have deep affection for…. It was made in the bleak depths of a pandemic, yet comes from a place of pure collaboration and love. We wanted to make a visual poem that scratches at concerns about masculinity, society, and personal responsibility… all of that knotty difficult stuff, but make it with an open and a broken heart.”
The Southbank Centre said it has also commissioned a new work based on the sounds of its iconic building on the South Bank of London.
Under the loose title of “Concrete Voids”, the works will be performed in the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of its new season in 2025.
The project came out of COVID after the centre’s sound technician Tony Burge built a system of 80 loud speakers that turns the auditorium into an “epic three-dimensional instrument”.
The speakers are concealed within the chambers tunnels and vents surrounding the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium.
The Royal Festival Hall is known as the “egg within a box” to insulate the hall from the sound of the Northern Line which runs underneath the building.
Asked if the works would be called “Concerto Northern Line”, a spokeswoman replied “Definitely not!”
The 2025 season also features a strand called Multitudes in which orchestral music will be combined with other artistic forms.
In one example Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony will be set to a circus performance by an Australian troupe.
Southbank Centre is also premiering a new Gilbert and George exhibition and, in a separate project, there’s a chance for young gamers around the country to create their own work.
It will launch on Roblox.
Artistic director Mark Ball said: “Southbank Centre is an engine of creativity … gaming is now culture.”
In a unique collaboration for the new season Southbank will also work with the Montreux Jazz Festival in a celebration of the work of Nina Simone, who gave her final performance at the Royal Festival Hall.
