Thursday 9 & Friday 10 November 2023
7pm (doors)
8pm (starts)
£28 Full Price
£24 Concessions
Theatre & Performance
Music & Gigs
90 mins (including interval)
Assembly Hall
Click here for a 3D tour of our building
Click here to visit our Access For All page
At once a rip-roaring night out and a chance to lose yourself in music and motion, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady will fill the cold London streets with summer heat. Wallflowers, hip-shakers and music-lovers of all stripes are welcome to join this celebration of the sensuality and power of jazz.
Clod Ensemble and Nu Civilisation Orchestra present a new perspective on Charles Mingus’ iconic 1963 recording The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, transforming Shoreditch Town Hall into a vibrant cabaret venue to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the album.
Bursting with melody and raw emotion, the album is a seminal 20th century jazz composition and is still regularly cited as Mingus’ finest hour. Mingus always envisioned dance accompanying his provocative masterpiece. To honour that vision and bring Mingus’ music to life for a new generation, Clod Ensemble will be joined by Nu Civilisation Orchestra, who will be led by Peter Edwards and feature Artistic Director Gary Crosby OBE on bass.
Throughout the evening you can also expect performances of new music from Peter Edwards, Clod Ensemble's Artistic Director Paul Clark and rising drummer/composer Romarna Campbell (current live drummer for Fever Ray), as well as The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady in its entirety.
And you are encouraged to join in! With dancers, band and audience all sharing the floor, attendees have the opportunity to get up close to world class performers and dance along with this rhythmically explosive work.
Founded in 2008, Nu Civilisation Orchestra tells stories that impact our times through the lens of music. The Orchestra has toured and performed extensively, including a BBC Proms performance in 2019 and an acclaimed national tour of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Mingus albums in 2022.
Clod Ensemble is an award-winning performance company who have presented work at venues such as Sadler’s Wells and Tate Modern. At Shoreditch Town Hall, they will fill the venue with movement and energy as their dancers deliver both dense-knit choreography and passages of improvisation which dovetail with the band’s playing.
Please note The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a standing event with some unreserved cabaret seating also available. The event is wheelchair accessible. If you have specific seating needs please get in touch via info@shoreditchtownhall.com or call 020 7739 6176.
Saturday 4 November, 2pm
Clod Ensemble are hosting a dance workshop at their studios in North Greenwich to get you in the groove for your visit to The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Ticketholders can check their e-tickets for an access code to book two free tickets to the workshop. Click here to book via Eventbrite.
If you purchased a ticket to The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady before 21 September and would like to attend the dance workshop, please email marketing@shoreditchtownhall.com so we can send you the access code.
This season, we have introduced a new concession ticket: Local Resident. This ticket is valid for all Hackney Borough residents, and those living in the following postcodes in Tower Hamlets: E2 6, E2 7, E2 9, E1 5, E1 6.
Supported by the Postcode Society Trust, The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, The Cockayne Foundation, The Hinrichsen Foundation and Arts Council England.
For over twenty-seven years, Clod Ensemble has created provocative, ambitious, finely-crafted performance and participation projects. Director Suzy Willson and composer Paul Clark have developed a highly original performance language, one forged in collaboration with dancers, actors, musicians, medics, architects and orchestras.
Clod Ensemble has presented work both across the UK and internationally. Some of the theatres, dance houses, galleries and public spaces to have hosted Clod Ensemble’s work include London’s Sadler’s Wells and Tate Modern, Manchester’s The Lowry, the Welsh Millennium Centre, Porto’s Serralves Museum Porto and New York City’s Public Theater. From shows in which the performers are contained within glass (Under Glass) to those which use entire cityscapes as their stage (Red Ladies), Clod Ensemble’s champions movement, music and visual languages as vital ways of knowing, learning and communicating.
Founded in 2008 by Artistic Director, Gary Crosby OBE and led by musical director, Peter Edwards, Nu Civilisation Orchestra is earning a reputation as a shapeshifting, cutting edge ensemble. Refusing to be bound by genre or scale, it metamorphoses into a new format as each new project is unveiled.
NCO has toured and performed extensively across the UK and recent highlights include a BBC Proms debut in 2019, and a national tour in 2021 for a perfectly timed creative exploration and celebration of Marvin Gaye’s seminal masterpiece, What’s Going On, five decades after its release.
At the end of 2022, the Orchestra, featuring ESKA on vocals, embarked on a 6-date tour performing Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Mingus albums, receiving amazing responses from audiences and reviewers alike.
“Exceeding all hopes, this made Mingus and Mitchell’s visions as vivid as they’ve ever been, and as breathtakingly advanced. An unbelievable experience. If you get the chance to see this, do not miss it.” - The Arts Desk on Hejira & Mingus Tour
Nu Civilisation Orchestra… telling stories that impact our times through the lens of music.
020 7739 6176
info@shoreditchtownhall.com
Shoreditch Town Hall,
380 Old Street,
London EC1V 9LT
