Verity Standen’s Refrain opens this weekend at Newhaven Fort and we are pleased to be able to share some insights from Verity about the history of the site and about the project, ahead of the premiere this evening.

To create the piece, Standen worked with English Heritage to create Refrain for sites in the UK where conscientious objectors were imprisoned or set to work.

Refrain, which is co-produced by Situations  and the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts involves a professional ensemble and local volunteer male singer performing a new work in the former military defence overlooking the sea.

The location for Sussex is a pertinent one. The ‘conchies’ who made a stand against the violence and bloodshed of war were put to work on road improvements between Seaford and Newhaven. Those who disobeyed orders were court-martialled at Newhaven Fort before deportation to France.

Verity Standen explains more about the project: “While I was keen to learn about the histories, I knew that I wanted the heart of the piece to remain in the here-and-now – made with, and performed by, local people,” she says.

“When adapting the music for Newhaven, for example, I heard the stories of the many COs who lived at the nearby Road Board Camp whilst repairing the road between Newhaven and Seaford.

“Newhaven became one of the major supply ports to the Western Front and many of the 900 COs here were sent to work at the docks, handling food supplies. Following a workers’ strike, they were ordered to handle munitions. Those who refused to comply were threatened with execution for mutiny, sent to a camp at Seaford and court martialled at Newhaven Fort.”

In creating Refrain, which has also been performed at Richmond Castle in Yorkshire and St Helen’s in Merseyside, Verity chose locations with natural acoustics so that the audience’s relationship to the sound can be live and direct rather than amplified.

“I hope that the music can function as a guide through the experience - gently leading people on an exploration of the site, and celebrating the voices of the local singers who are the core of the piece.

“Refrain is inspired by men who took a stance, but the piece itself doesn’t take a stance on the history. I have offered my music to our local performers to mould and make their own; now the final piece of the jigsaw is for them to offer it to audiences. I hope that together we have captured something of the emotional register of these complex histories, and I can’t wait to discover what contemporary audiences feel as they walk amongst the music through these charged environments.”