Songs of Sea and Stone programme available for tour and festivals

We have a new show to tour, following beautiful sharings with local audiences at Sandy Hill Arts Corfe Castle and with R&D from Sanctuary Lighthouse Poole/ funded by Arts Council England.

“Phenomenal performance”

“A tour de force” “Hope to see this again to take it in” “Beautiful, moving and memorable storytelling by Sarah Acton and gorgeous film and music”

“we didn’t know what to expect – we were blown away”

“THAT was amazing”

“Beautiful, moving & memorable storytelling by Sarah Acton and gorgeous film and music”

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Songs of Sea and Stone

An atmospheric show with film, live words and music

Songs of Sea and Stone (1.5 hour programme with break and artist Q+A)

Quarry Paths + Distant Voices (35 mins approx) is a new show in site response to the Purbeck stone landscape and stories weaving layers of ghost voices that track ancient routes of stone, quarries and clay mining in Purbeck alongside stories of quarries and the stone industry from Portland.

This new programme starts with a presentation of Seiners (25 mins) commissioned by SoundUk celebrating traditional mackerel seine fishing and families on Chesil beach.

Two versions of the show are offered:

with Emily Burridge virtuoso cellist & composer

with musician and composer Julie Macara

films by Adrian Cooper and Anson Hartford (Common Ground)

and with director & consultant Laura Burrow

Using archives, site response and collaborative research Dorset Songs of Stone: Quarry Paths + Distant Voices follows stone on its journey across millennia from quarries, and quarrymen and stone masons in their physical and stoic routines as well as the industry’s long standing tradition that connects identity of the local land memory to its people. The stone industry shapes Purbeck and Portland landscapes and people.

Real conversations, archives, listening walks and memory talks form inspiration for this series of sketches that remember and celebrate local communities, families and link everyday life along the quarried coast to sense of place and collective memory. Here multiple voices and music drift along hidden ancient paths through the valley and ridgeways to highlight more than human agency and suggest a complex ecology of deep memory held in dimensions of stone.

Please contact for enquiries: blackvenpress@gmail.com

Photos below: Viv Horne

Thanks to our partners and friends at Sandy Hill Arts who supported us to make this happen and to the teams at Langton Matravers Stone Museum, Swanage Library, Planet Purbeck and Burngate Stone Centre.

Seiners commission for SoundUK and Common Ground

Following the Fleet Tour

Seiners + Drifters with Jason Singh 2024

“It was mind blowingly good.”

“Such an incredible event, with such talented artists. I feel privileged and grateful for the Arts Funding which allowed such a phenomenal event to come to our local area. Huge congrats and many thanks to all involved.”

“Stunning show. If it had been showing again near to where I live I would have gone again!”

A double bill with Jason’s Singh’s BFI soundtrack to Drifters film (1929 John Grierson), Seiners was premiered with musicians Emily Burridge/ Julie Macara and Becki Driscoll as part of the SW tour 8 venues across Devon, Dorset and Cornwall.

Caught in the Net 2023 (writer)

(photos Justin P Brown) Caught in the Net community play with Grace and Growl dancers

“Sea song & community I loved the unfolding story of the mackerels’ journey intertwined with the story of the seine crews and the storm. I especially liked the costumes and props – using the silk to mimic the waves was so powerful and the shoal of fish just lovely. The music interspersed with the story gave an ethereal quality to the performance.”

(audience member)