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Vision tells the story of Bernadette of Lourdes like you've never heard it before. On a quiet road in southern France, two teenage hitchhikers are attempting, unsuccessfully, to hitch a ride to the coast. Instead, they stumble on the town of Lourdes and are forced to spend a night there. They are stunned by the buzz of the place. They make enquiries at a local bar and are soon embroiled in the powerful story of Bernadette Soubirous, the fourteen-year old girl who is the source of the town’s success. "Everything about Vision was high quality" St Ives Town Crier "Marvellous.....Great Entertainment " St Ives Weekly News |
Rehearsal Photographs
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Production Photographs
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The dramatic and tragic life of Bernadette is played out in front of the hitchhikers through 17 rock/pop songs, taking the audience on an exciting journey that incorporates ballads and jazz, comedy and pathos. At the end of the show, the Narrator brings the audience back to the modern-day reality of Lourdes as the hitchhikers decide how to deal with the story they have just heard. If this makes you think this is a dour, dusty religious piece – forget it! Punks, Emo’s, Skaters, Goths, Ravers, Indie Chicks, Scene, Shoegazers, Rappers, Chavs, Townies and Wannabes are the order of the day. VISION premiered in March 2002 at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and was followed shortly by a CD launch at Drury Lane in London, sponsored by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group. VISION was performed in Lagos, Nigeria on May 2,3 and 4th. The Archbishop of Lagos attended the Command Performance. In preparing for the production, a group from SIYT have visited Lourdes to understand Bernadette’s story, how Lourdes has become a place of pilgrimage and what the place is like today. To read the blog of their visit, click here |
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Dominic Hartley - Dom wrote the music for Vision while working as a TV news reporter. He is a freelance journalist, but music is his passion. He has entertained on the piano in bars across Europe and worked for two years as a pianist in the ski resort of Val d’ Isere. He is the keyboard player for the immensely popular London based 29 Fingers and is one of the band’s songwriters. He lives in London with his wife Clare and son Elliot, but will be moving to East Sussex in the late spring. Dominic has recently filmed and produced a 40 minute DVD “A Year With the Jesuits”. Jonathan Smith - Jonathan is no longer a top-flight lawyer, he quit having seen the light working on Vision. He now teaches A level English! Jonny was born and brought up in Leeds and now lives in Lancashire. In addition to Vision, he has written several privately published short stories and a - shortly to be published - book The Coffee Boy. Jonathan is a committed Francophile, - he speaks fluent French and lived for 5 years near Toulouse. He wrote much of Vision from his home there. He is married with two young children. |
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