THE STORY: As a young girl, medieval saint, healer, visionary, exorcist, and composer Hildegard von Bingen was locked in a cloister’s cell after demonstrating a preternatura sensitivity to the world around her. Sequestered with Hildegard is Jutta, a woman who has spent her life secluded in an effort to recover a whole self after deepest trauma. Under Jutta’s guidance, Hildegard attempts to reassemble her own fragmented self while her mentor proselytizes a rejection of brokenness. IN THE GREEN is a musical unlike any you’ve seen, an astonishingly sonically sophisticated saga of two exceptional women broken by the world and their journey of healing that changed history.
“…An extraordinary musical…McLean’s score references both the clear, straight vocal tones of the Middle Ages (Hildegard was, among other things, a composer) and the repetitive staccato of Philip Glass, with plenty of indie rock in between. IN THE GREEN is a must-see for serious connoisseurs of musical theater…[and] leaves us with the lasting impression of a woman who was driven by a divine mission, and who accomplished both great and terrible things in her zeal.” —TheaterMania.
“Medieval Christian mysticism was amazingly physical—a weird and wild paradox of reverence for chastity and self-denial, combined with rapturous, semi-erotic records of the spiritual experiences of its visionaries—and McLean creates a musical texture for Hildegard’s story that flows straight from the body.” —New York Magazine.
“McLean’s score [is] a multi-layered polyphonic mix of harmonizing voices and bold, frequently percussive, instrumentals. Extensive vocal looping, driving beatbox rhythms, and syncopated effects, combined with repetitive wordplay, produce[s] a shimmering musical charm that at times seems nearly hypnotic.”—New York Stage Review
“Musically complex, dramatically abstract and…intensely intimate in style…[IN THE GREEN] is an ambitious work that’s worthy of the focused attention it demands.” —BroadwayWorld.
