A King Listens, An Audiobook Workshop / Performance by Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Following last years audio adaptation and performance of Harold Pinter’s play Mountain Language at 98weeks, the focus of this workshop will be to communally direct, cast and produce an audiobook of A King Listens a short story by Italo Calvino. At the end of the workshop, A King Listens will be recorded and performed live in front of an audience.

Calvino’s text was chosen because of its relevance to Abu Hamdan’s ongoing research project, Aural Contract, which is a series of events, publications, performances, exhibitions, workshops and audiovisual material that examine a contemporary politics of listening through a focus on the role of the voice in law. This one day workshop with a public performance in the evening will allow a core group of participants to hear and perform in space the ideas and arguments at the centre of the project.

The workshop will employ an open directorial system in which many possible arrangements, cast and outcomes of the text will be explored and performed. As well as the production of the performance this workshop will function as a discussion event about the themes raised in the book, about sound and about the technical production of the audiobook and performance. Therefore the participants (both cast, discussants and production team) can be drawn out of a diverse set of backgrounds and the workshop is open to anyone who is interested in drama, literature, sound and sound production.

Special Formula:Workshop all day; performance: 7:30pm