THE SWEETEST LIFE

a music-theater work
inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's little-known tale, "The Flax"

created by
Saskia Lane (music) & Stephanie Fleischmann (words)
directed by Melissa Kievman
created in collaboration with Julian Crouch
design: Cait O’Connor & Chris Mueller

A treatise on loss of innocence and resilience in the face of life’s hard knocks, The Sweetest Life melds concert and theater to tell the story of the life cycle of a humble, hopeful flax plant via a compendium of offbeat, soulful songs, strands of spoken text, and a handful of theatrical gestures that animate and transpose the convention of a band playing a gig into that of a “band” of storytellers who have come together to impart a story through music, word, and image.

A meditation on how a thing gets used—and how using that thing changes us.
 

development

BRIC Arts l Media House BRIClab Residency, March 2016, Brooklyn, NY
with Saskia Lane (bass), Damon Daunno (guitar), Julian Crouch (banjo), Elena Moon Park (fiddle), and Liam Robinson (keys and accordion)

The Vineyard Spring Reading Series, June 2017, NYC
with Saskia Lane (bass), Jessie Shelton (fiddle), Julian Crouch (guitar/banjo), Nathan Koci (keys and accordion), and Grant Braddock (drums)

New Victory LabWorks Residency, 2017–18, NYC; showing: April 2018
with Saskia Lane (bass), Gabe Ebert (uke), Julian Crouch (guitar/banjo), Elena Moon Park (fiddle), Zoe Christiansen (piano, accordion, clarinet), and Shayna Dunkelman (drums/percussion); design by Lydia Fine

DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST