Based on letters, articles, diaries of Monet and other artists and writers of the period.

Paris, 1916. The painter Claude Monet struggles to complete his government commission, The Water Lilies. Esteemed his greatest work, to him it means regular deliveries of food, fuel, wine, and cigarettes - hard to find during the war. He is suffering a creative block, and worrying that unless he can paint as before, the lifeline of deliveries will cease. He searches for answers, taking us back to his young artist days in late 19th century Paris with his compatriots Renoir, Manet, and his model and first wife, Camille Doncieux. Similar to 2023, Monet lived in a world shot through with violence and chaos, at war with itself and everyone in it.

In this dramatic musical by composer/lyricist/dramatist Carmel Owen, the audience finds Monet in his Giverny artist’s studio working on what will become his greatest series of paintings. As the front line of WWI advances, the artist escapes to his memories and we are transported through the cafés and salons of late 19th century Paris. With a story based on letters and diaries of Monet and his contemporaries, the Emerald Theatre will transform with beautiful music and projections of the era to transport audiences to France’s Belle Epoque.

A Mirrored Monet is a work some years in development and was premiered at Greenside’s Emerald Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023. The script received a first reading in April 2022 at the Dramatists’ Guild Foundation in New York City, and its premiere production in Edinburgh was led by a Scottish creative team and cast.