The work of Leonard Cohen lives on through an interpretation of his spirit by Australian artist Ali Hughes.
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Like many, Hughes was first drawn to the music of the Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, poet, novelist, and painter via cover versions of his song Hallelujah, from his 1984 album Various Positions.
Hughes, along with her five piece jazz blues group The Thieves has traveled the world with her show Leonard Cohen Coans, a 90 minute theatre production capturing the essence of the enigmatic icon.
It took Hughes time to digest Cohen’s work, and before long she had entangled it with her theatre degree.
“A friend passed on [the song] Suzanne and I wasn’t ready for it, it was immense,” the 40-year-old said.
“The song is really a mythology, the story of the telling of a love tale, and he obviously had a heart connection with it.
“It was more than a physical thing he was feeling, it was a soul thing and I hadn’t experienced it before, so how could I understand it?”
When Hughes and her band brought their interpretation to New York City, the show at Le Poisson Rouge had a a surprise guest in the crowd.
“It is a dark, dark place, and an old, small woman with massive turtle shell sunglasses and blonde hair came and sat in the front row,” Hughes said.
“At the end of the show we were packing up, and Dick Straub, who runs a tight-knit group of Leonard Cohen followers, came up and said he had someone to meet us.
“He said ‘this is Esther Cohen, Leonard’s sister, and I just thought to myself ‘no way’.
“She took her glasses off, and it was like looking at a smaller version of Leonard with blonde hair.
“I heard later she was so excited she called her brother and he remembered hearing a tape from us through his record label Sony we sent in to get permission to perform his music at a festival while we were there.”
Esther linked Hughes up with others from the Montreal scene where his art evolved, which led to a performance at the Leonard Cohen Festival in Dublin.
Hughes conjured the concept of the performance in 2009 while still a student in Armidale.
It eventually led to the creation of a unit focusing entirely on Cohen’s work alongside her teacher Sue Fell.
“It is subtle, it’s deep and his words let your imagination do the work,” she said.
“Shakespeare has many interpretations, and we do the same thing with his work.”
See Leonard Cohen Koans at the Bega Valley Commemorative Civic Centre on Friday, May 5, with tickets costing $40 plus booking fee.