Marc Almond - Ten Plagues: A Song Cycle (2014)

‘Ten Plagues’ is an award winning one-man song cycle written especially for Marc Almond by celebrated playwright Mark Ravenhill (‘Shopping And F**king’, ‘Mother Clap’s Molly House’ and ‘The Cut’) with the accomplished musical dramatist Conor Mitchell. ‘Ten Plagues’ is presented here in a special 2-disc package including an all new studio recording of the complete work as well as a DVD of the live stage show filmed at the historic Wilton’s Music Hall in East London. Marc Almond plays a character wracked by the loss of friends, lovers, family and sanity in a city in the midst of crisis and disease. He tries to hold on to his humanity despite mourning, grief, despair and the physical isolation that the plague necessitates. ‘Ten Plagues’ in turn conjures up our reactions to more contemporary pandemics: for example, the fear, hysteria and prejudice about the first victims of AIDS, at the outset referred to as a ‘gay plague’; those who suffered were afraid, isolated and made to feel outcasts of society. The piece was performed at the Traverse Theatre at The Edinburgh International Fringe Festival in 2011 and received the prestigious ‘Fringe First Award'.