An Anatomy of Melancholy at Barbican

Haunting visuals, bittersweet music and the voice combine in this intimate theatrical meditation on the consolations of sorrow inspired by Robert Burton’s 17th-century study of melancholia.

"Flow, my tears, fall from your springs…" wrote John Dowland, the great Tudor composer, and the beauty and bitterness of his music finds echoes in the poetic language of Robert Burton’s epic work, which in turn inspires the stellar creative team behind this event. Created by ground-breaking director Netia Jones, Anatomy of Melancholy features Iestyn Davies’s crystalline voice, Netia Jones’s atmospheric visuals and John Dowland’s ravishing music. Returning to our stage following its world premiere here in 2022, Emma Doherty takes the reins as director and presents an endlessly tender take on human emotion, performed in the round in The Pit theatre.

‘One of the most extraordinary pieces of theatre that I have ever seen’ London Grip

‘Nobody could give more eloquent voice to it than the countertenor Iestyn Davies’ The Standard