Five Telegrams is the Opening Event of the 2018 Edinburgh International Festival. A free outdoor digital performance, it both celebrates Scotland’s Year of Young People and reflects on the centenary of the end of the Great War, described by those who lived through it as "the war to end all wars".
The title of the show takes its name from telegrams sent by young soldiers in 1918, and draws on themes around machines and codes, censorship, propaganda and reconciliation.
Scottish contemporary composer Anna Meredith has crafted the new work for orchestra while Edinburgh International Festival favourites 59 Productions will provide the laser and light digital display. Five Telegrams will be led by Richard Slaney, who was responsible for the well received The Harmonium Project at the 2015 International Festival which was also projected onto the Usher Hall.
The work also includes additional contributions from young people in Edinburgh and working in partnership with Edinburgh College of Art, and as part of 14–18 NOW, the UK's arts programme for the First World War centenary.
In what is a first for the festival, Five Telegrams will open both the International Festival outside the Usher Hall on 3 August and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on 13 July.
Tickets
Free.
Online and in-person (limited supply of tickets on 30 July from 10am at The Hub): https://www.eif.co.uk/whats-on/five-telegrams