ICR Romanian Cultural Institute London

The Island: Ada Milea and Alexander Balanescu

"So many people... and I'm so alone..."
"Soon the others will come and you'll be more alone".

At the end of the 90's, in his quest to reconnect with Romanian roots, Alexander Balanescu came across a couple of albums by Ada Milea. "The work of Ada Milea struck me as being highly original and extremely courageous. She was dealing with the aftermath of the Ceausescu regime in a very uncompromising way. Immediately after hearing these extraordinary albums, I got the desire to work together with her." This is how The Island came about.
The work was commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music in cooperation with South Hill Park and iF06, and it premiered in April 2006, at Wesley Memorial Church, London. It has since been on a highly successful tour in Romania, with support from Romanian Cultural Institute and British Council among others.

The show is based on a play by the Romanian surrealist poet Gellu Naum, whose typical quirky view of the world reworks the Robinson Crusoe's story.

"...a wild, rumbustious and often extremely amusing land inhabited by a mermaid prostitute, grandparents and a pirate with wooden legs, in which Balanescu's soft, dead-pan voice of Crusoe, contrasts with the extraordinary vocal gymnastics of Milea."
Paul Medley, Oxford Times, 21 April 2006

Admission is free. Please call 0207 752 0134 or email to office@icr-london.co.uk to reserve a place.