Inspired by William Shakespeare’s timeless comedy, this collection of incidental music was originally composed for a production of the play in 2007 at New College, UNSW. In 2016 Billingham revisited the music, reworking the underscore into a full programmatic suite. This setting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream calls for the listener to imagine the lunatics, the lovers and the poet in a world where fairy kings and queens are driven by their insatiable desire to rule fate. The music seeks to evoke everything from the sweetness and sickness of love to the rawness of jealousy and the stupidity of the simple.

Performed by Michael Scott, Rachel Tolmie, Carol Irving, Long Nguyen, Darryl Poulsen, Ewan Foster, Jara Stinson, Stephanie Hill, Juen Van Hand, Edward McKnight, George Yang, Francesca Andreoni and Jonathan Martinovici.