‘The Book of Disquiet’ to receive its first US and UK performances

Samuel West

One of Michel van der Aa’s most critically acclaimed works is to receive its first US and UK performances at the start of 2016. The Book of Disquiet is Van der Aa’s third music theatre work, and will be produced in a new English-language version. Both US and UK performances will feature the renowned English actor and director Samuel West (Howard’s End, ENRON) in the solo stage role of Bernardo Soares, alter ego of the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, whose posthumous novel ‘The Book of Disquiet’ serves as a haunting, dreamlike, ‘factless autobiography’. The US performances, at Montclair State University, New Jersey, will be the first staging of any of Van der Aa’s large-scale operas in the United States.

The Book of Disquiet will be performed at the Alexander Kasser Theatre, Montclair State University, from 21 to 24 January, conducted by Alan Pierson. It will then be staged at the Coronet Theatre, London, in two performances by the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Joana Carneiro, on 24 and 25 February.

For more information about the Montclair performances, click here.
For more about the London performances, click here.