Bristol-based company Sleepdogs is set to present its latest touring work The Bullet and the Brass Trombone at the Royal Exchange Theatre on 1 and 2 May.

The Bullet and the Bass Trombone sees the arrival of a symphony orchestra in the capital city of a tropical country, expecting to perform a new piece of music by a contemporary composer.  However, they instead find themselves in the middle of a war zone as on the day of the premiere a military coup erupts around them.

Told via a fractured, intricate narrative by the composer, who is left to piece together events from diaries, news reports and recorded interviews, The Bullet and the Bass Trombone sees the musicians venturing from their hotels, spread miles apart, to try to re-unite with their colleagues and attempt to escape the war torn country.  The work is written and performed by Timothy X Atack and directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya.

Commissioned by Bristol Ferment, Bristol Old Vic’s artist development strand and premiered at the Old Vic in November 2012, Timothy X Atack’s The Bullet and the Bass Trombone is produced by MAYK, the producing organisation led by Kate Yedigaroff and Matthew Austin, directors of Bristol’s annual contemporary theatre festival, Mayfest.

The work will be performed in Sleepdogs’ trademark sparse, crafted and clear style and is the latest in a series of works by the company which investigate storytelling, narrative, sound and music.  Previous work includes their dark Christmas fable The Morpeth Carol, currently under commission by BBC Radio 4 and the acclaimed miniature Astronaut.

Sleepdogs is a collaboration between writer/composer Timothy X Atack and producer/director Tanuja Amarasuriya.  They work with stories, hybrid genres and prompts to the imagination using theatre, film and anything else that might possibly work. They’ve been commissioned by Bristol Old Vic, Arnolfini, BBC Radio 4, BBC Film Lab, Battersea Arts Centre, Forest Fringe and Paines Plough, amongst others.

The Bullet and the Bass Trombone is performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Studio on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 May at 7.30pm.

You may also be interested in:

In Review: ‘Crocodiles’ at The Royal Exchange Theatre
Coming up at the Royal Exchange Theatre
In Review: The Last Days of Troy at The Royal Exchange Theatre

Royal Exchange Theatre.  image credit University of Salford Press Office/flickr under creative commons licence.