Press Release: Renu Arora is awarded the Peggy Ramsay award to develop The Burgundy Book
Renu Arora has been awarded a £5,000 Peggy Ramsay Foundation Grant for the development of The Burgundy Book, her most ambitious piece of work to date, and the funding will support the next stage of a project born from the life-changing accident and near-death experience Renu had on 29 March 2017, in whose suspended moments she saw three books: the Blue Book of her past, the Green Book of her survival and, just beyond reach, the Burgundy Book containing her unlived future, which she returned to her body without ever discovering.
That unanswered question became the beginning of an artistic journey developed first through music, song and spoken word, and The Burgundy Book is now moving from its concept album form towards a full-scale libretto and digitally immersive musical for the stage, with the Peggy Ramsay Award arriving almost nine years to the day after the accident that set it all in motion.
“I didn’t expect to receive this brilliant award. I’m over the moon,” Renu said, adding that the timing feels deeply serendipitous: “Since my accident, and especially since the near-death experience, I have felt there is no such thing as coincidence.”
The award builds on Renu’s residency with artsdepot and the continuing contribution of a creative team led by director Erica Whyman OBE, recognising not only the promise of a new musical but the extraordinary body of writing, music and lived experience from which it has grown.