Fall

Alisa Palmer, right, co-creator and director of Fall on Your Knees, speaks with cast members at a rehearsal for the show in Toronto, on Jan. 6.

It is an exercise of the senses, and that is critical to have right now.” The director was keen for music to be a kind of “muscle” within a live iteration, so that the sound would serve a function beyond the obvious (exposition, transitions) and might imitate the effects of the novel. “The ideas of sensuality and motivic exploration align with a lot of the music we use,” he explained, adding that James’s tuning obsession is only one of the motifs embedded within the production. “It’s fascinating to play accordion and the sound makes you think of the East Coast – like the pipes – but we can also be halfway around the world,” Mayes said. “We had to ask ourselves, ‘What is the range of sounds that make up any community or any family?’” “The novel is a well of musical content,” said Sean Mayes, the stage adaptation’s music supervisor and composer.