Leading actor of the stage and screen Teresa Banham (Royal Shakespeare Company, The Crown) is set to join the critically acclaimed music and theatre company The Telling to tour the “mesmerising” (The Guardian) show Vision by acclaimed playwright and singer Clare Norburn and BAFTA-nominated director Nicholas Renton (Mrs Gaskells’ Wives & Daughters, Lewis, Musketeers).

Vision is an imagined testimony of the extraordinary medieval abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. The show aims to give an insight into the painful and visceral visionary experiences Hildegard suffered throughout her life, covering some of the core emotional moments. She re-experiences meaningful episodes from her past, alongside her haunting and distinctive chant performed live by two singers and a harpist.

Playwright and singer Clare Norburn explains, “While the script grounded in research into Hildegard’s life, I was actually more interested in exploring how she experienced those moments than in giving a detailed historical account. So, Vision is ‘an imagined testimony’ as Hildegard episodes from her past. It explores questions such as: what did it feel like to be taken away from her family at the age of eight? How did she experience the visions which she referred to as ‘the Living Light’? What was the physical experience of her visions? How did it feel to have so much responsibility in an age when women were generally powerless and silent?”

An Arthouse Film adaption of Vision was released in 2020 in response to lockdown restrictions and tour cancellations. The film received critical acclaim and was selected by The Guardian as one of their online watching highlights alongside Edinburgh and Salzburg Festivals.

The Telling is a world-renowned music and theatre company whose leading directors, actors, musicians and lighting designers also work for BBC, The RSC, National Theatre, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Dufay Collective and I Fagiolini. The Telling creates unique immersive staged concerts bringing early music off the page to wider audiences.

The performances will take place at St Edward’s Church in Roath on Friday, 24 November 2023. Tickets are £5- £20 and are available to book online www.thetelling.co.uk/vision-cardiff