Styx

STYX is an award-winning theatre-concert about family, myth and memory loss from new theatre company Second Body. Performed by an international supergroup of musicians, it tells the true story of a grandmother and grandson piecing together the memories that connect them across time. Weaving together riotous songs, intimate storytelling and a journey through the neuroscience of memory, STYX brings light to the experience of living and dying with Alzheimer’s and the extraordinary power music has to reignite fading memories. After theatremaker Max Barton’s grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s he started recording interviews with her to preserve a record of her life. Through their conversations he discovered a parallel between a series of songs he had written based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth and a music club founded by her and her husband in the fifties called the Orpheus Club. This serendipity led him on a journey of investigation to track down any remaining traces of the club and the people who frequented it, unearthing a wonderful story of music and memory along the way. Featuring a band of musicians from Australian alt-rock bands Jebediah, Axe Girl, The Love Junkies and The Tommyhawks, STYX brings together the original songs, recordings and myth with an exploration of the neuroscience of memory and the therapeutic effect music can have on brains damaged by dementia.