Hush - Naomi Foyle

Hush: An Opera in Two Bestial Acts

Taking a Brechtian approach to fairytale and folklore, the libretto for Hush features five runaway children who embed their own stories of social and familial abuse in collective re-tellings of ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ and Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Nightingale’.

Written while Naomi Foyle was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, Hush prefigures many of the themes of her later work. Scored by Allen Cole, directed by Peter Hinton and Alisa Palmer, starring Holly Cole, Randi Helmers, Taborah Johnson, Jimmie Earl Perry and James Tait, with Alisa Palmer on alternative nights, Hush enjoyed an extended run at Theatre Passe Muraille in Oct 1990. It subsequently won three Dora Awards, including Best Musical Production.

Photographs from the HUSH archive at Guelph University Library, Canada. Content Note: one of the photographs below contains imagery of male genitalia suggestive of sexual aggression.

The cast of HUSH: a diverse group of performers dressed in rags, centred around a Black woman with a headless white baby doll strapped to her front. From L to R: Randi Helmers, Tabby Johnson, Holly Cole, Jimmie Earl Perry, James Tait.

A close up of Tabby Johnson and Jimmie Earl Perry, two performers in HUSH, dressed in scraps of clothing and singing with fearful expressions on their faces.

Tabby Johnson and Jimmie Earl Perry singing, with Holly Cole as the Pied Piper of Hamelin, standing behind them. Tabby Johnson, a Black woman, has a headless white baby doll strapped to her front.

James Tait singing, his face peeking out between two sheer curtains.

James Tait dressed as the Emperor with a bullet belt strapped around his bare chest, Holly Coles and Randi Helmers saluting behind him as Tabby Johnson fearfully climbs a ladder.

The perfomers in HUSH, huddled together, with a range of fearful, wicked and ingratiating expressions on their faces. Tabby Johnson is in the centre, with James Tait and Jimmie Earl Perry beside her and Randi Helmers and Holly Cole behind her.