LITTLE Bulb Theatre return to Nuffield next week with an original musical reimagining of the epic Greek myth inspired by the music of legendary jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt.

The critically-acclaimed Orpheus will play six performances from Tuesday to Saturday.

1930s Paris: charismatic songstress Yvette Pépin has cajoled the guitar virtuoso, Django Reinhardt, into joining her in a brand new production of Orpheus. He will play the tragic hero, she will play his lost love Eurydice. Together with her troupe of operatic players she tells the thrilling tale of Orpheus’s ill-fated descent into the underworld, set to a live score of hot club jazz, opera and French chanson.

Dominic Conway who plays Django Reinhardt and Orpheus in the production explains more.

How does it feel to play a character from real-life on stage, who also happens to be the most famous guitar virtuoso of all time?

"When Alex, our director, first suggested that I play Django Reinhardt I was totally against it. I remember trying desperately to explain to him that I’d never be good enough. In Little Bulb we believe strongly in the acquiring of skills for different productions so no one took my disagreements too seriously. Besides, the idea of the show had got us all excited -- so we decided to go for it.

"I started practicing in every spare moment I had. I remained petrified right through the first week of performances, but over time I realised that theatre audiences can be very appreciative of musicianship if it is framed effectively in the narrative.

"One night I did have a sudden panic, I was looking out into the audience and I thought I saw David Reinhardt, Django’s grandson, a fantastic guitarist in his own right. It completely threw me. It wasn’t him of course, but it did make me think “my goodness I should write him a letter and say ‘hi there I’m playing your Grandad, I hope that’s ok’”.

Were you already a proficient guitarist before you started creating this production?

"During my teens I played the guitar all the time. I had some great players in my year at school and I was always trying to keep up with them. I thought about studying music at University but I’ve always found music so therapeutic that I was worried about taking an overly scholarly approach, so I studied theatre instead. I ended up playing loads of music for different theatre shows but my practicing was sporadic, my technique was becoming fairly rusty and I hadn’t been pushing myself. When we started work on Orpheus at first I felt like I was getting back to form then I had to push through that and since then I’ve just kept pushing. I’m still nowhere near where I’d like to be, ideally, but then I hear that from almost any musician I speak to."

What first brought your attention to the music of Django Reinhardt?

"My Dad bought me a Django Reinhardt CD for Christmas when I was 15. I remember laughing out loud at how good the playing was. I took it round to a friend’s house and kept playing a passage from my favourite song over and over saying “listen to this bit, listen to this bit, this is unbelievable."

What do you hope that audiences take away from Orpheus?

"We hope that audiences coming to Orpheus have a fantastic night out. A night to have fun, to get excited, to be moved, to be surprised, to laugh, to feel treated to a feast of music and a timeless story of love and loss."

Tickets: nuffieldtheatre.co.uk or call 023 8067 1771.

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