The cabaret show brings to life an Edwardian book…
Behind the Nightlight, first published in 1912, was a collection of short stories describing the imaginary creatures seen by a three-year-old girl named Joan in her nursery. Her mother, actress Nancy Price, transcribed Joan’s stories verbatim and the book was an immediate success, running to four editions in just two years.
In 1913 the stories took on a new life when Joan’s godmother, composer Liza Lehmann, set fourteen of them to music. Lehmann was one of the most prolific and respected composers of her time, with more than 300 published works, an international performing career, and a long-standing presence at the Proms from the late 19th century into the 1930s.
Both Nancy Price and Liza Lehmann were members of the Actresses’ Franchise League, a group of theatre and entertainment professionals campaigning for women’s suffrage. Together, they toured the musical settings of Behind the Nightlight across the UK in 1913, celebrating creativity, performance, and the imaginative world of a young child through live music and storytelling.
Now, more than a century later Ada Campe brings these creatures back to the stage in a new show that revives Lehmann’s original settings, features additional songs by the composer, and tells the remarkable story of the Behind the Nightlight phenomenon.
As well as being performed by Ada Campe, the show features accompaniment on piano by Sarah Rose, direction by Janie Dee and is produced by Dr Naomi Paxton – historian of suffrage theatre and alter ego of Ada Campe.
To book tickets visit: https://www.brasseriezedel.com/events/ada-campe-behind-the-nightlight-quaint-beasts-in-an-edwardian-nursery/