Outdoor immersive performance heads to iconic Welsh industrial site

A powerful and immersive production described as a “sonic experience of suspense and shifting sounds” is coming to the iconic Blaenafon Ironworks this month.

As day turns to night, immerse yourself in a captivating sound world and ever changing outdoor live performance.

Using an ensemble of visually striking mechanical ‘instruments’ – gongs, bells, whistles and explosive events – Warning Notes creates a rich and powerful soundscape that gives voice to the current social and ecological alarm that ripples across our world.

The new production by artists Mark Anderson and Liam Walsh, with dynamic creative collaborators Grug Muse (Welsh language poet and performer), Marega Palser (Dancer) that is improvised and responsive to audience and environment, Warning Notes is playful and hypnotic, inviting us to listen to the present and contemplate both personal and global stories – and our future together.

Warning Notes Blaenafon is funded by the Arts Council of Wales. Co-commissioned and co-presented by Cadw and OCM.

Alarm

Mark Anderson said: “There are so many things that should be causing alarm: war, climate change, inequality, social injustice, personal situations and here it is given a voice, a clarion call, from a whisper to a roar. At times a volatile mix of energy and sound, at others a reflecting meditative tranquillity we possibly all seek”

Audience has described the production as a “pulsing, gorgeous and threatening world woven out of sound sculptures and beautiful, rhythmic notes”

Richard Wilson added: “Anderson has spent his professional career creating audio visual alchemy that uses light, heat, vibrations, electricity, oscillating chemicals and paraphernalia to dazzle our eyes and startle our imaginations.”

Dr Ffion Reynolds, Senior Heritage Events and Arts Manager, Cadw said: “We are very much looking forward to welcoming Warning Notes to Blaenafon Ironworks this September and seeing how the artists respond to Cadw’s fantastic World Heritage Site.

“The work will bring the site alive with hypnotic, mechanical, kinetic and sculptural instruments and accompanying sounds, poems and movement. This will be a unique experience for the audience to enjoy and I’d encourage people to book their tickets quickly to avoid missing this opportunity”

The highly anticipated show takes place on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 September at Blaenafon Ironworks

Show times, Tickets and Accessibility information available here – Warning Notes | Cadw (gov.wales)