Film noir is not a genre, but a mood, a style, says Speak Me Deadly performer, and vocalist/guitarist for The Pope’s Assassins, Mark Atterby, who has been endeared to the directorial aesthetic of film noir since he studied the subject at university.
“The term film noir refers to a style of movie making from the 40s and 50s,” Mark explains. “Think of stylish Hollywood crime dramas of the period such as Bogart’s The Maltese Falcon or the The Big Sleep; Speak Me Deadly is a play on the title of a classic noir film Kiss Me Deadly.“
Inspired by the monocromatic drama of film noir – the marriage between glamour and starkness, the seedy detective offices, dust-moted light shards streaming through bar-like venetian blinds – Speak Me Deadly came to the fore, essentially, as “a night combining music with other performance and artistic genres. All the performers are dressed in period costume. The bar we chose to perform in is the perfect setting for a Raymond Chandler novel [The Big Sleep picture was adapted from Chandler’s novel of the same name] with low-key lighting and Art Deco ambience.”
Atterby and his Sleep Me Deadly cohorts are not alone in their love of the look; when first they staged a Sleep Me Deadly event, Mark says, “To our pleasant surprise a large number of the audience dressed up as well,” wryly adding, “the night did descend into chaos as the performers and audience picked up the toy pistols lying around the place and started shooting each other. People had a load of fun.
“But on a serious level, the night provides an opportunity for musicians, who have their own bands or solo projects, to work together around a theme with performers from other backgrounds. [For example,] La Fatale, who does film set and costume design, is performing a short puppet show that relates a crime story set to music. Poet Rebecca Louise does spoken word with Richard Clarke providing back up music. Amy Bodossian – a fantastic singer and cabaret performer – is the Femme Fatale songstress for the night; she has a great voice and commanding stage presence. Edward Burger and Elliott Mundy re-enact and overdub a scene from The Maltese Falcon – it’s hilarious.”
With more than a dozen performers collaborating throughout the evening, and given the level of crowd participation anticipated after the last outing, Speak Me Deadly is certainly an exercise in departure from the every day as all in attendance “pretend they are in another world while listening to some great music and witness some entertaining performances. They dress up, look cool and sexy and have fun,” says Mark, adding that the theme is not 100% written in stone. He cites “Hoakey Carmichael, Duke Ellington and the Beasts of Bourbon” as inspiration on his part. The only requisite for enjoyment, he reckons: “Sit back with a dry martini and be prepared to get involved with the action.” And if the punters don’t embrace the rambunctiousness and glamour of if all? Mark laughs, “There’ll be murder if they don’t.”
