Of Earth and Quill at The Cockpit

Music & Words: Helen Epega

When one world burns and the sky forgets, whose stories survive and whose HERitage will be honoured? Of Earth and Quill is a visionary, radical one-woman opera by Helen Epega (The Venus Bushfires), creator of Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera. Set in a post-apocalyptic future still taking form, it explores survival, cultural memory, identity and belonging through a multisensory fusion of African percussion, operatic voice, ambient soundscapes and poetic multilingual storytelling.

Inspired by the echoes of Chinua Achebe and William Shakespeare, this powerful work unfolds in six striking visual and sonic movements. Projected landscapes and shifting costumes mirror identity emerging from the ashes of collapse, as memory takes shape and the creator longs not to forget.

Rooted in climate consciousness and Afrofuturism, the opera blends ancestral ritual with interactive moments, such as call-and-response, inviting the audience to listen, remember and reimagine. As a synesthete, Helen Epega experiences music as colour and shape, offering audiences an immersive, soul-stirring performance featuring African percussion, ethereal melodies, British Sign Language, visual art, creative captioning and bold costumes.

Developed in residency at the Society of Authors, Of Earth and Quill asks: How do we honour the past as we create the future?