For Venues

Bring Beethoven’s extraordinary story to your audience

Beethoven: Edge of Silence is an intimate and powerful one-man play with live piano, written and performed by Mike Venables and featuring pianist Rebecca Weston.

Passionate, moving and laced with humour, the production reveals the man behind the music: his turbulent childhood, his determination to achieve greatness, his complicated search for love and his extraordinary struggle to continue composing as his hearing disappears.

Through compelling storytelling, vivid characterisation and some of Beethoven’s best-loved music, the show brings audiences face to face with one of history’s greatest creative figures.

“A captivating storyteller… Venables has us in the palm of his hand.”
— Bum on a Seat Reviews

“Intelligent, passionate and full-throated.”
— Midlands Fringe Review

“Venables exudes tremendous energy and his ability to switch roles with a gesture or a laugh is a joy to watch.”
— Euan Rose Reviews

Suitable Venues

The production is designed to work in both conventional and nontraditional performance spaces, including:

• studio theatres and arts centres
• libraries
• museums and heritage properties
• concert and recital spaces
• literary, historical and classical-music societies
• community venues
• festivals

Its intimate storytelling style makes it particularly suitable for venues in which audiences can feel close to the performer.

The Production

Running time: Approximately 60 minutes, without an interval
Performers: One actor and one pianist
Style: Solo storytelling theatre with live classical piano
Set: Compact and adaptable to different performance spaces
Music: Live excerpts from works including the Moonlight Sonata, the Pathétique Sonata, the Seventh Symphony and Ode to Joy

The production can use a suitable piano provided by the venue, or we can bring our own portable keyboard.

The staging is deliberately flexible. It can be presented with a theatre lighting rig or in a simpler form in libraries, heritage buildings and community spaces. Where projection facilities are available, an optional atmospheric background image can also be used, but projection is not essential to the performance.

Exact staging and technical arrangements can be discussed with each venue in advance.

The Story

Seen through Beethoven’s own eyes, the play follows the triumphs and tragedies that shaped the man behind the music.

We encounter his harsh and ambitious father, his meeting with Mozart, his arrival in Vienna and the aristocratic society that both celebrates and constrains him. We meet the remarkable women who offer the possibility of love—and discover the mystery surrounding the passionate letter addressed to his unidentified “Immortal Beloved.”

Running through everything is Beethoven’s growing awareness that he is losing his hearing. Faced with isolation and despair, he must decide whether his life as an artist can continue.

The result is a story not only about musical genius, but about courage, resilience and the refusal to surrender the thing that gives life meaning.

Accessible to Every Audience

No previous knowledge of Beethoven or classical music is required.

The play has been created for regular theatre audiences, classical-music enthusiasts and people who may never previously have attended a dramatic performance about a composer. The live music is woven into the story, helping to reveal Beethoven’s changing emotional world rather than interrupting the drama.

“You didn’t have to be a classical music buff to find the piano excerpts delightful, relevant and enhancing.”
— Midlands Fringe Review

Publicity and Promotion

Promotional material can be supplied to support each booking, including:

• production photographs
• poster and flyer artwork
• suggested website and brochure copy
• performer biographies
• review quotations
• social-media material
• video trailer

Mike is also available to discuss interviews, talks and other promotional opportunities connected with a performance.

Enquiries and Bookings

To discuss bringing Beethoven: Edge of Silence to your venue, please contact Mike Venables.

Telephone: 07738 952062
Email: mikevenables@hotmail.co.uk