Operating Theatre

This collection has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding, by composer Roger Doyle and performer Olwen Fouere, of the music-theatre company Operating Theatre. Operating Theatre has been active in two phases: the first from 1981 to 1988, and the second from 1998 to the present. This double CD celebrates the first phase, during which the company operated as both a theatre company, integrating music as an equal partner in the theatrical environment, and as a band releasing records. Roles were flexible within the company in that Fouere also sang and Doyle also acted. In phase two there has been no band, and the texts (if any) have been ‘found', devised and/or drawn together from various strands, instead of being commissioned from writers as in phase one. Performances have taken place in both conventional and non-theatrical environments (e.g. an abandoned warehouse, a glass room in a hotel), and music has become more integrated.