Jigs, Song and Words: A Celebration of Claire Van Kampen

Claire van Kampen (1953–2025): composer, playwright, theatre director and much more, whose creativity over a remarkable fifty-year career lived out her desire to be a 'splash of light’ to those around her.

Smith Square Hall is proud to host a very special night commemorating her extraordinary life.

Van Kampen’s family – her husband Mark Rylance and daughter Juliet Rylance – bring to life her writing, known from the Globe to the West End and Broadway, as well as moments from personal correspondence. A cast led by counter-tenor Iestyn Davies pays musical tribute with Baroque works closest to her heart as well as her own compositions.

Farinelli and the King, one of van Kampen’s greatest triumphs, turns ten in 2025, and the first half of the evening sees Mark Rylance – acclaimed as one of our generation’s finest Shakespearean actors and as ‘utterly magnetic’ for his performances in Wolf Hall – reprise highlights from his role as the ‘mad king’ Philip V of Spain, interspersed with arias and instrumental music by Handel and others.

After the interval, the spotlight turns to Claire’s own writing and compositions, the latter deeply influenced by her love of Baroque music while sparkling with inflections of jazz and her early life as a concert pianist.

Presented in the spectacular Baroque setting of Smith Square Hall, with the intimacy of an in-the-round staging, this is a rare chance to see some of the finest creatives of today as they celebrate the life of a beloved mother, wife and colleague.