The CABINET of Dr CALIGARI

The silent masterpiece with a brand-new live score by Chris Green

Made in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is the quintessential German Expressionist film masterpiece. Robert Wiene’s distorted sets, sinister shadows and unnerving characters creating a paranoid, unreal world at a time of despair throughout Europe.

At a local carnival in a small German town, hypnotist Dr. Caligari presents the somnambulist Cesare, who can purportedly predict the future of curious fairgoers. But at night, the doctor wakes Cesare from his sleep to enact his evil bidding…

Incalculably influential, the film’s nightmarishly jagged sets, sinister atmospheric and psychological emphasis left an immediate impact in its wake (horror, film noir, and gothic cinema would all be shaped directly by it). But this diabolical tale nevertheless stands alone.

Chris Green’s new score is a haunting blend of electronic and acoustic instruments performed live by the composer.

The Composer

Born into a musical family in Coventry, Chris Green began playing guitar at the age of eight and piano from the age of nine, and plays most things with fretted strings or keys. Largely self-taught, he’s worked in a variety of musical genres including folk, theatre and early music. He’s a regular musician at Shakespeare’s Globe and was also one of the musicians on BBC’s Poldark, appearing in series 1 and 2.

He also writes and composes, having adapted The Wind in the Willows (2017) for
GreenMatthews as well as A Christmas Carol: In Concert (2018), which London Theatre Reviews described as “A delightful show… a lively retelling”

In 2018, he released his first solo album Switched-On Playford, which fuses 17th-century dance music with electronica, using a blend of early instruments, synths and loops. It was described by fRoots as “bloody brilliant…. an exquisitely-rendered and endlessly satisfying piece of work.”