Duets with Jim is a highly personal musical theatre production about a mother and her severely disabled son. Jim couldn’t walk or talk – but he made the most beautiful sounds. Gripped by the musicality of this, his mother recorded these sounds. Andrea van Beek, a classically trained singer, asked composers to write a duet for her and her son.

Each composition illuminates a different aspect of their lives together and is in a different musical style. Backed by bass clarinetist Gareth Davis and Jim (on tape), Van Beek sings about her struggle with reality and finding beauty.

Her story deals with the pain of having a child with very severe disabilities; the need to look at life differently; the simplicity of unconditional love; the fun of everyday life and the harshness of death.