I Found My Horn

One man, a midlife crisis and the challenge of learning the orchestra's trickiest instrument...

By Jonathan Guy Lewis and Jasper Rees

A man wakes up in midlife to a broken marriage and the dawning fear that he has done nothing to make himself memorable.

Packing away his life as he prepares for divorce, he is struck by an insane idea: why not pick up the French horn that defeated him in his youth?

So it is that, after a lay-off of several decades, Jasper Rees seeks adventure and redemption via sixteen feet of treacherous brass tubing. Dusting off the instrument he last played as a gormless teen, he sets himself an impossible task: to perform a Mozart concerto in front of a paying audience of horn fanatics.

“Don’t do it,” says his mentor. “It takes balls of Sheffield steel to play the French horn in public!”

Damned if he does, Jasper also knows he’s damned if he doesn’t…

Adapted from the bestselling book by Jasper Rees, and directed by Harry Burton, I Found My Horn was first seen in 2008 at the Aldeburgh Festival. Subsequently seen at Chichester Festival Theatre, the Orange Tree in Richmond, Hampstead Theatre and Trafalgar Studios in the West End, this joyous, feel-good show places the transforming power of music centre-stage. The show most recently enjoyed revivals at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington and the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

Performer: Jonathan Guy Lewis
Director: Harry Burton

★★★★ ‘a shot of pure joy… Delightful, often laugh-out-loud funny’ Telegraph

★★★★ ‘delightful’ Guardian

★★★★ ‘thoroughly enjoyable’ The Times

★★★★ ‘Funny, serious and moving… a gem’ Sunday Times

★★★★ ‘This solo stage show is a real winner… a triumph – warm, wonderfully funny and touching… Jonathan Guy Lewis is utterly engaging’ The Stage