THIS IS NOT A REHEARSAL
Members of Choir with No Name in Liverpool and Brighton take the stage to tell their own stories - of home, identity and belonging - in a bold new piece of gig theatre combining choral music, spoken word and storytelling.
This is not a rehearsal for someone else's version of the story. It's the performance, three years in the making, built from real experience and told by the people who lived it.
Coming to Liverpool and Brighton, before touring further afield. This is the real thing.
No script written about anyone. No one speaking on someone else's behalf.
This is not a rehearsal for someone else's version of the story. It's the performance, three years in the making, built from real experience and told by the people who lived it.
Coming to Liverpool and Brighton, before touring further afield.
THE ARTISTS
90 people with experience of homelessness and marginalisation
In Brighton and LiverpoolNinety people are co-creating this work — some already singing with us, others reached through our partnerships with local community and homelessness organisations across Liverpool and Brighton
Musical and stage directorFreya Wynn Jones
Freya Wynn-Jones is a singer and Stage Director whose work spans English National Opera, the Royal Opera House, Aurora Orchestra and Glyndebourne, where she directs Raise Your Voice. She has also led Choir with No Name's Brighton choir for eight years, bringing rare dual expertise - top-tier artistic direction paired with deep experience of co-production and community leadership - directly to this project.
Professional bands
In Brighton and LiverpoolEach performance will be supported by a professional band of musicians in Liverpool and Brighton, lifting the production beyond a typical choir performance into genuine gig theatre. Working closely with Freya Wynn-Jones and Mersey Wylie, this live instrumentation ensures the piece's artistic ambition is matched by professional execution throughout.
Aflo the Poet or SK Shlomo
Currently in talks and TBC
The production will also feature a guest artist from another genre - either AFLO. the poet, Poet-in-Residence at The Coast is Queer festival, or SK Shlomo, record-breaking beatboxer and World Looping Champion - both artists we have strong existing relationships with. Their involvement brings a different creative lens that pushes the work beyond our usual choral sound, while giving choir members hands-on experience of a broader range of genres and creative practices.
Mersey Wylie
Musical directorMersey Wylie is a session musician whose career includes work with Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Siouxsie Sioux, Boy George and Mick Jones of The Clash. He has also led Choir with No Name's Liverpool choir for ten years, bringing rare dual expertise - top-tier professional musicianship paired with deep experience of co-production and community leadership - directly to this project.
Bruna Francisco Martins
Our resident doctoral researcherBruna Francisco Martins is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds, funded by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities. Her doctoral research, developed in direct partnership with Choir with No Name as part of the Singing in Balance network, explores the socio-musical factors shaping the experiences of choir members affected by homelessness.
Themes
SHELTER - A PLACE TO CALL HOME
We want a place to call home. A reprieve from judgement, somewhere reliable we can return to every week. For some of us, it's the first hot meal we've had all week.
FINDING YOUR VOICE
We want to find out who we are - as singers, and as ourselves. Some of us arrive unsure we can even sing. Slowly, that uncertainty becomes confidence. On stage, we can try on someone new, or simply be fully, unapologetically who we already are.
A CHOIR FOR EVERYONE
We want somewhere we don't have to fit ourselves into - somewhere built to include us, whatever our experience or ability.
A WEB OF COMMUNITIES
We don't want to stand alone. Choir is one part of a wider web we build around ourselves - connection, purpose, support, all woven together.
HEAR OUR SOUND
The best way to hear the Choir with No Name is in person, as sound quality is hard to capture cost effectively for a choir, but these videos give you a sense of the opportunity and joy choir shares. In places the sound quality is good enough to get a sense of impact and quality of the choir performance.