Seiners and Quarry Paths

This atmospheric multimedia show is about memory of place and the echo voices that remain long after the Purbeck and Portland quarries and stone yards, and the seine fishing crews and mackerel on Chesil beach are gone. Experienced in words, cello and film. Audiences say that even when unconnected to Dorset, the stories seem familiar and resonate. The communities and fishing and stone industry heritages connect the past to the present and to the ecological future of our natural environment. These everyday working lives and industrial landscapes become mythical and universal as we remember them together.
Emily and Sarah share a common passion for sea and land, resulting in a haunting multitracked cello soundscape and dialogue between voice and cello.
The production was enabled through an Arts Council research & development grant and during the summer of 2025 with a residency at Sandy Hil Arts in Corfe Emily created the score in conjunction with Sarah developing her script.

About Resounding Spaces:

Sarah Acton’s portfolio as writer and performer includes spoken word performance, consulting and facilitating in oral history, heritage and arts projects. Sarah’s passion for stone binds her in deep connection with the places and histories she encounters, expanding traditions of orality and storytelling to celebrate local voices as a tool for everyday myth and empowerment in post-industrial landscapes.

Emily Burridge is a virtuoso cellist, composer, producer, and soundscape artist, also renowned for incorporating looping technology to create multi-layered, organic cello soundscapes on stage. Her productions often draw inspiration from the natural landscape, a theme she has explored since the early 1990s. She has an extensive background as a session musician and arranger, and has released multiple albums both solo and collaborative as well as her music being used for film and documentaries.

Adrian Cooper is a film-maker, producing and directing work for Channel 4, BBC Films and the BFI. He is also the executive director of the arts and environmental charity Common Ground, for which he conceived and coproduced ARCADIA BFI (2017). Alongside this, he is editorial director and co-founder of Little Toller Books, a library of classic books on landscape, place and natural history plus new and debut nature writing.