Beethoven – I Shall Hear in Heaven on 6 and 8 August at Opera Holland Park – Preview
The Nest Company is delighted to announce that Beethoven – I Shall Hear in Heaven, a powerful fusion of drama and music that brings the life and genius of Ludwig van Beethoven to vivid, visceral life is set to be performed at the Opera Holland Park on 6th and 8th August. This production is written and performed by award-winning theatre-maker Tama Matheson, directed musically by acclaimed pianist and 2024 Limelight Artist of the Year Jayson Gillham, and features Robert Maskell, Muireann Gallen and Quartet Concrète.
Originally, Beethoven – I Shall Hear in Heaven was performed at the Wimbledon International Music Festival in 2021 and was nominated for the 2022 Royal Philharmonic Society Storytelling Award. The production has since toured to critical acclaim across the UK, Malta and Australia. In this new iteration at Opera Holland Park, the play returns to London in a semi-staged open-air setting.
Rather than following a conventional biographical structure, Beethoven – I Shall Hear in Heaven blends theatre with curated musical performance. The work is described by its creators as “half music, half drama,” where Beethoven’s compositions emerge from – and respond to – the emotional and narrative structure of the play. The aim is to provide both musical and psychological insight into Beethoven’s life, particularly his experience with hearing loss, personal isolation, and artistic ambition.
By turns devastating, thrilling, heartbreaking, funny, and triumphant, Beethoven – I Shall Hear in Heaven is a deeply moving tribute to human perseverance: The play follows Beethoven as he grapples with the onset of deafness, a devastating diagnosis for a composer – and yet, his creative drive never falters. Deaf but defiant, he continues to compose through silence, producing some of the most celebrated and emotionally complex music of his career. At the heart of the piece is not just a struggle against hearing loss, but a portrait of an artist determined to create, no matter the odds – and the result is some of the most profound music ever written.
A tale of loss, defiance, hope, and triumph, I Shall Hear in Heaven shows the indomitable human will spurning the obstacles thrown before it in order to rise to greatness. Intertwined with a live concert of Beethoven’s most transcendent works, it’s a moving blend of drama and music that brings the composer’s legacy vividly to life.
“This production fuses music and drama into a seamless new form that we believe offers something truly new to British theatre,” says Tama Matheson, Artistic Director of NEST (The Not Entirely Serious Take). “Jayson Gillham and I are absolutely thrilled to be bringing I Shall Hear in Heaven to Opera Holland Park this August. We can’t wait to share it with audiences in such a magical venue.”
Cast Biographies
Tama Matheson
Tama Matheson is a British-Australian writer, director, and actor whose work has been produced internationally across England, Australia, Europe, and America. He has pioneered the “Music-Play,” a unique theatrical form that blends full-length plays with complete musical concerts, showcasing his passion for combining music and the spoken word.
He has collaborated with numerous prestigious institutions, including Covent Garden, Opera Australia, The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Philharmonic, The King’s Head Theatre, the Queensland Theatre Company, The Naples Philharmonic (Florida), the OSO Theatre, The Sydney Opera House, Oper Graz, and the Salesjan’s Theatre in Malta.
Tama currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Brisbane Shakespeare Festival in Australia and is Artist-in-Residence at the OSO Theatre in London. His stage roles include Hamlet, Richard III, Henry V, Oberon, Don Pedro, Banquo, Antonio, Ariel, Bunthorne (Patience), Felix (The Odd Couple), Leo (Design for Living), and Michal (The Pillowman). On screen, he has appeared in Eastenders, Heartbeat, The Story of Paul Hogan, and Ellis on Channel 5.
As a playwright, he has written and produced 13 plays, featuring subjects such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Britten, Prokofiev, Lord Byron, Nancy Wake, Andrzej Panufnik, Henry Lawson, and Banjo Paterson. His plays I Shall Hear in Heaven and Bright Stars Shone for Us were nominated and shortlisted for RPS Awards in London. He has also received multiple acting and directing awards in Australia.
Jayson Gillham
Jayson Gillham is an acclaimed Australian-British pianist known for his compelling performances and expressive musical storytelling. Hailed as a “story-teller” (Gramophone) and “the ideal romantic” (Limelight), he was named the 2024 Limelight Australian Artist of the Year in both the Critic’s Choice and People’s Choice categories.
He has performed with major orchestras including the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, the Hallé, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Nashville Symphony, Wuhan Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic, and all Australian and New Zealand symphony orchestras. Notable conductors include Sir Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Mark Elder, Asher Fisch, Johannes Fritzsch, Ludovic Morlot, Eivind Aadland, Michał Dworzynski, Alexander Shelley, Nicholas Carter, and Jessica Cottis.
His recital career spans prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Auditorium du Louvre, Montreal’s Pollack Hall, Steinway Hall New York, and Australia’s top concert halls.
Gillham records with ABC Classic, with a discography that includes the ARIA-nominated complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Romantic Bach, a 2019 album of original and transcribed works. Gramophone lauded his artistry, comparing him to Rachmaninoff, Myra Hess, and Dinu Lipatti.
Recent festival appearances include the Edinburgh Fringe, Verbier, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Brighton, Two Moors, Deia International (Majorca), and Linari Classic (Tuscany).
Robert Maskell
Robert Maskell is an accomplished actor and musician whose recent collaborations include performances in I Shall Hear In Heaven and Prokofiev: The Wandering Tower with Tama Matheson at the Wimbledon International Music Festival. He also performed The Soldier’s Tale and portrayed Ernest Shackleton in Endurance – The Ernest Shackleton Story at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Sydenham.
His recent theatre work includes roles in The Circle (Theatre Royal Bath and Orange Tree Theatre), The House Trap(Guildford Shakespeare Company), and The Gangs Of New York (world premiere, Chester). Other stage credits include Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage Aux Folles, The Sound of Music, Richard III, Macbeth, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, She Stoops to Conquer, Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Romeo and Juliet, Little Women, Stig of the Dump, The Importance of Being Earnest, James and the Giant Peach, Daisy Pulls It Off, Bar Mitzvah Boy, and A Man Of No Importance.
On screen, Robert has appeared in Professor T, Grantchester, The Sister Boniface Mysteries, Doctors, and the film The Therapist. For radio, his credits include Orley Farm, Rudolpho’s Quest, and Together (BBC). He is also an audiobook narrator for Deadtree Publishing.
Before acting, Robert was a professional French horn player for twenty years, including ten years with The Philharmonia.
Muireann Gallen
Muireann Gallen is an Irish actor trained at the Bow Street Academy and ALRA South, London. She starred in the London premiere of Sonya Kelly’s Once Upon a Bridge at OSO Arts Centre, a production covered by Sky News, The Guardian, and The Daily Mail.
Her theatre work includes Sabbath: A Tragedy of Witches (OSO Arts Centre), Home, I’m Darling (Frinton Summer Theatre), and Stranger Things: The Experience (Netflix & Fever). On screen, she appears in the upcoming feature film The Reckoning of Erin Morrigan (dir. Gabrielle Russell), the short film Dear Mama by George Irwin, and as a motion-capture performer in the animated short Scrap Metal, voicing the character Sybyl.
Quartet Concrète
Formed at the Guildhall School in 2021. During their time together they have been praised for their natural chemistry, colourful atmospheres and well blended sound. The quartet has been fortunate enough to receive regular coaching from tutors such as Krysia Osostowicz, Ursula Smith, Matthew Jones and Gary Pomeroy, as well as members of the Endellion Quartet. They have also been selected for many inspiring masterclasses with players such as András Keller and Levon Chilingirian.
Highlights of their time together include performances in Milton Court Concert Hall as part of the Guildhall’s ‘Chamber at 8’ series. In 2023, the quartet were awarded 1st prize at the Guildhall’s St James’ Chamber Music Competition and subsequently performed two recital programmes at St James’ Piccadilly in June and November of 2023. The quartet were selected by Chamber Studio to be part of the Hans Keller Chamber Forum for the 2023/24 period, where they received mentorship from Alasdair Beatson, John Myerscough and Richard Ireland.
In summer 2024 the Quartet were invited to be a resident string quartet at Lake District Music’s Summer Festival. They performed several of their own recitals, as well as alongside the Alkyona Quartet and trio Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch, and received masterclasses from the Brodsky and Heath Quartets. In 2025 the Quartet has taken part in Académie Diotima and collaborated cross-genre with Sienna Spiro.
Upcoming highlights include performing at Montreux Jazz Festival, taking part in the innovative Ballet Nights 008, a show with Tama Matheson at Opera Holland Park, and a tour of South-West England.
On the Music-Play as a New Theatrical Genre
Tama Matheson’s current work is centred around what he defines as a new theatrical form: the Music-Play. This genre is designed to merge spoken word and classical music into a unified dramatic structure, aiming to reshape the way audiences experience both art forms.
Unlike traditional theatre or concert settings, in a Music-Play, music functions not as background or mood-setting device, but as an integral part of the storytelling. It shares equal weight with the text. The music is interwoven with the drama to move the plot forward, express emotional transitions, and act as a narrative force. Moments of high dramatic intensity are often resolved or expanded upon through the music, which takes over the story and carries it into heightened emotional territory.
This approach allows for a cinematic depth and rhythm to the performance. Audiences have consistently responded with strong emotional engagement – an effect described by Matheson as “filmic intensity” that “leaves audiences spellbound.”
In cases where the Music-Play is centred on a composer, the form offers a gestalt portrait of that individual. It presents not only the events of their life, but equally the music that made that life meaningful – resulting in a more complete, immersive, and emotionally truthful narrative.
Matheson’s long-term vision is to open a space within British theatre for this genre and eventually invite other playwrights and artists to contribute to its development.
Listings Information
Show: Beethoven – I Shall Hear In Heaven
Dates: 6th and 8th August
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Opera Holland Park
Address: Opera Holland Park Theatre, Ilchester Place, London W8 6LU
Price: £35-£85 (non members) / £30-£70 (members)
Box Office: https://operahollandpark.com/productions/beethoven-i-shall-hear-in-heaven/