The Tide Tables surveys the midlife landscape through the curious eyes of Elin, holidaying alone for the first time on a deserted beach. Alone - except for a mysterious Lifeguard who may or may not know forgotten stories from Elin’s family past, and a relentlessly cheerful singing quartet who have staked out their square metre of sand right next to her and seem determined to express their opinions on beach life, hormones, HRT and pretty much everything else… This intriguing new work explores the ways in which personal experience and biomedical narratives combine to perplex and enrich us. As Memory and Biology circle one another, Elin finds herself facing not only a startling metamorphosis but a flood of advice from many directions, strange and familiar, reliable and unreliable. The question is, which is which? Researched and written by writer-performer Christine Watkins in collaboration with Professor Saffron Whitehead of the Centre for Developmental and Endocrine Signalling at St George's University of London, The Tide Tables also features new music composed and performed by Sianed Jones, Mary Keith and Beach Radio vocal quartet. The pilot performance is on Friday 15 May 2009 at 7.30pm at The Courtyard Centre for the Arts, Hereford. To book a ticket, please visit the Courtyard website below. There is also a workshop programme and a discussion session on the themes of the piece with Professor Saffron Whitehead and Christine Watkins on 16 May 2009 at 11am (Admission free, contact The Courtyard to reserve a place). The Tide Tables project is funded by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award. For more details visit the websites below.

The Tide Tables

The Courtyard, Hereford