History and emotionality collide as The Forgotten Kingdom’s riveting music and radio-theatre stories bring to life a travelogue of an unraveling, multi-ethnic Ottoman world, as glimpsed through Ottoman Sephardi women’s songs and tales.

Forgotten-Kingdom-Show-Header-Artwork-— James-Webb-—-The-Shipwreck.png

“…operatic in scope, this is one set sure to take you places you’ve only heard in dreams…this is an armchair traveler’s deluxe accommodation.”

— Midwest Record

“a spellbinding original experience not to be missed....masterfully narrated ”

— Rosamund Battye, Welland Port Colborne Concert Association

Directed and produced by Guy Mendilow
Story: Guy Mendilow
Score: Guy Mendilow with additional composition by Tomoko Omura & Andy Bergman
Script: Guy Mendilow & Alison James

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Global trio-sextet

Multimedia Option:
The Forgotten Kingdom is also available as multimedia performance featuring theatrically project sand animation, riveting score, narration and full scenic and lighting design. Click to learn more

The Forgotten Kingdom plunges audiences into a family’s memories of an unraveling, multiethnic Mediterranean world, brought to life through a riveting music and radio-theatre storytelling blending memoir and poetry.

A young woman sifts through a memory book her mother made for her so that, when she was grown, she would remember how it felt to live in her family home by the sea, before the upheavals at the turn of the 20th century splintered the Ottoman Empire into ethnic nation states.

The cinematographic score radically reframes Ottoman Jewish women’s song, drawing on the bittersweet rawness of Tango; the rhythmic fire of classical Arabic percussion; and gorgeous vocal harmonies with Western classical music’s harmonic roots. The music intertwines with “masterfully narrated” (Welland Port Colburn Concert Association) tales and an evocative scenic and lighting design.

In an adventure that “explodes with artistry, refinement, and excitement,” (Hebrew Union College, OH), world-class musicianship and storytelling restores living colour to faded, sepia snapshots of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary upheaval. The Forgotten Kingdom moves audiences with questions about struggles we still face today.

Story

Years after the wars, a young woman tries to understand more about herself by sifting through memories captured in a book of drawings and words her mother made for her so that, when she would be grown, she would remember how it felt to live there, in their village by the sea, and so that she would understand the reasons for choices her parents made.

The memory book’s pages evoke an entire world all but lost, and turning the pages is like rewinding time. In the book she glimpses her family and her neighbours. She remembers the stories they told and moments they shared. The pages evoke an entire way of life that — to a child — once seemed eternal.

But even the mundane can feel poignant looking back after the changes of wars and migrations. Those people, frozen in the snapshots, had little idea what was coming around the bend, or how the dots would continue to connect.

“...an evocative trek through former Ottoman lands, an allegory that ultimately begs some questions about ourselves today, and the ways these stories continue to play out, in a modern guise...”

— Perceptive Travel