Artichoke Hearts: A Fabulous Destiny is a devised adaptation of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s French film Amelie. Artichoke Hearts tells the story of an imaginative young woman who decides to intervene in the lives of the strangers around her, performing good deeds for them. While doing so, she begins to truly experience the world for herself rather than remaining the passive observer that she’s been almost all of her life. Amelie makes new friends, falls in love, and eventually begins to experience what life truly is outside of her isolation.

Amelie, as a film, is remarkable in its use of visual presentation, narrative, and musical score. As a play, it is our intention to capture the essential quality within each of these elements, presenting them in an engaging and dynamic style that is undeniably theatrical. The goal of our work is to capture the iconic moments that are essential to telling the story of Amelie and present them in a new way.

The narrative of the film is finely woven together with and elevated by Yann Tiersen’s brilliant musical score. Music is also crucial in our devised work. Sound and music assist in telling Amelie’s story as well as take us along on the emotional arc of the piece. Just as the piece itself seeks to capture the essence of Amelie’s story, so too does the music capture the essence of Yann Tiersen’s score. Live music is an integral part of the production, with live musicians existing on stage as part of Amelie’s magical world. The music draws inspiration from Yann Tiersen’s score as well as French popular and folk music.



While all music in the production was live, below are several demos that were developed further in rehearsal.