Wildfire @ Traverse

About Wildfire Theatre

Wildfire Theatre is made up of award winning experienced theatre makers, Wendy Seager, Pauline Lockhart, Molly Innes and Natalie Arle-Toyne. Our aim is to create high quality theatre productions that bring new and unexpected voices to the stage, with a special commitment to ensuring opportunities for women from disadvantaged communities.

A New Voice

For this project, we ran twenty workshop sessions with groups in our target areas around Edinburgh, which included Saheliya Women, Kirkgate session with Engender and LGBT Health, Meadowbank Writers Group, South Neighbourhood Office and Library Creative Writing Group, Comas Women, Link Up Womens Support Centre, Canongate Youth, Oxgangs Care Group Women’s Meet Up, Harmony Choir for Mental Health, Citadel Youth Peer Mentoring Girls Group,  Stanwell Nursery School in Leith and Grassmarket Community’s Women Creative Writing Group.

During these sessions we explored the women’s view of theatre and writing and it’s relevance to them. We then moved on to some simple writing exercises that led to the creation of a number of short scripts. This led to over twenty scripts coming into the Wildfire email over a two week period from women who previously had not been able to find an outlet for their creative writing due to lack of confidence or simply not knowing where to send their work.

The climax of this project was a professional performed reading of this work in the Traverse Theatre to which everyone involved in the various sessions was invited to hear their own words on the professional stage.

What was the inspiration for this performance?


I became more and more aware of the lack of working class voices in the theatre industry and the often cliche way the working class was portrayed.  Being from a working class background myself, I wanted to do something about this.  I wanted to connect with those intelligent, creative voices who were not being reached by existing opportunities.  To find a way of bringing those voices into established theatre.  So Molly Innes, Natalie Arle Toyne, Wendy Seager, and myself booked local community centres, distributed flyers and waited.  Women turned up with journals, stories, poems and shared them, often for the first time.


From that, this event and Wildfire Theatre was born. 
Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

I think performance provides a unique platform to spark discussion.  It allows ideas to be presented in an indirect way and  can provoke often surprising reactions.


I don’t think there was any one thing that sparked my interest, it’s just always been there. 


The four company members all have many years experience in making and performing theatre, so we were able to draw on our collective skills.


Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

This is the very first Wildfire Theatre performance!

Does the show fit with your usual productions?



I hope the audience will feel inspired and supportive of the need for change in the voices that are represented on our stages.  I hope they leave feeling entertained and that they have been part of the first step toward change.

We believe opportunities should be equally distributed and talent and potential should be nurtured no matter which social class you are born into or community you live in. We strive to blaze new pathways to those cut off from the opportunity to widen their horizons and challenge the entrenched inequalities in opportunities that exist in our society. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

We aim to change the perceptions and expectations of working class women by presenting work which doesn't conform to a stereotype and challenges the image the media presents of the working class.

Gut Dramaturgy: Frances Poet @ Traverse

TRAVERSE THEATRE ANNOUNCE GUT – AN EARLY HIGHLIGHT OF SPRING/SUMMER 2018, IN ASSOCIATION WITH NATIONAL THEATRE OF SCOTLAND
· A taut psychological thriller exploring who we can trust with our children, written by award-winning playwright Frances Poet



· Shortlisted for the 2016 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Absolutely. This is where theatre is king. It’s not just the conversations in the bar at the interval and post-show, it’s the fact that when we watch together, the feeling of our communal response is palpable. 

Those gasp moments in the theatre where we feel a collective shock about what we are witnessing is how we gauge how our reactions tally with those around us. It’s a visceral shared experience that can unlock an idea with more force than any debate. And it’s an experience you just can’t get watching a movie at home alone.    

How did you become interested in making performance?

I have worked in theatre my whole career. I was a script reader then a Literary Manager and dramaturg for just short of a decade before I had my children. Pausing for a year of maternity leave with my son, awoke an impulse to write that I hadn’t allowed to flourish before. I left my job as Literary Manager at the National Theatre of Scotland shortly after returning from maternity leave six years ago and have been writing ever since.      

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I’ll be better placed to answer this when we start rehearsals next month. But early conversations with the director, Zinnie Harris, about how she plans to realise the ideas of the play have been very exciting.  

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

The work I’ve had in production since my One Act debut play, Faith Fall, has been mostly adaptations of classics; free adaptations of Molière, Strindberg and Racine. Even Adam, which was my highest profile project to date and which won a number of awards at the Edinburgh Festival last year was an adaptation of sorts, in that I was serving both Cora Bisset’s stage concept as well as the biographical details of the extraordinary man it was based on and who starred in it. So in some ways Gut feels like my first full length play as it serves no other master but my own ideas. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Gut is a psychological thriller. First and foremost, I hope an audience will be engaged and excited by it. I think it could provoke strong reactions. When it comes to how we raise our children, people tend to have a strong emotional response and I can’t wait to hear the discussions coming out of the theatre.        

Written by Fringe First award-winning playwright Frances Poet (Adam), and directed by Traverse Associate Director Zinnie Harris – herself Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland’s ‘Best Director’ 2016-17, and winner of a Herald Angel for her trio of productions at Edinburgh Festival 2017 (Meet Me at Dawn, Rhinoceros and This Restless House).

Gut centres on Maddy and Rory, devoted parents committed to keeping their three-year-old son happy and safe. But when an everyday visit to a supermarket café turns into a far more troubling incident, their trust even in those closest to them is shattered.

A taut psychological thriller exploring our instincts when it comes to who we can trust with our children, Gut ultimately asks the question of whether it is perhaps more dangerous not to trust at all.

Gut was shortlisted for the 2016 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.






Frances Poet, Writer, says:

‘I wrote the first draft of Gut when my kids were two and four. I was in the eye of the parenting storm: exhausted, fire-fighting and looking at the world with new eyes. My daily stimulus was fellow parents with one topic of conversation – how to keep our children not just happy and well, but safe. Was it OK to leave the kids in the car while we paid for our petrol? Or to fall asleep while our children were playing? Could we trust other people with our kids? There appeared to be no rule book and everybody’s gut instinct led them to form different judgements. Out of these funny and impassioned conversations, Gut was born. It’s a thriller that asks big questions about the world in which we live and with that I hope it will challenge and excite parents and non-parents alike.’



Zinnie Harris, Director, says:

‘I am delighted to be working with the wonderful Frances Poet on her new play. Frances has a strong dramatic imagination and knows how to tell a compelling story; Gut explores vital themes about parenthood and how we raise our children safely within a culture of fear. It puts a woman at the centre of the play – exploring in a theatrical and thought-provoking way her responses, and the fine line between what is rational and what is irrational.’



Orla O’Loughlin, Traverse Artistic Director, says:

‘I am thrilled that Gut by the brilliant Frances Poet will be the centrepiece of our Spring/Summer 2018 programme and part of Jackie Wylie’s inaugural programme for National Theatre of Scotland. This is a very timely play – a razor sharp thriller that explores the challenges of contemporary family life. Gut asks big, pertinent questions about trust and responsibility and at its heart is a study of how far we should go to keep those we love safe. It is great to be working with National Theatre of Scotland on this bold and contemporary world premiere, and also celebrating their reimagining of Midsummer – a former Traverse premiere – which they will restage at Edinburgh International Festival next August.’



LISTINGS:
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Tuesday 24 April-Saturday 12 May (previews 20 & 21 April)

Box Office: 0131 228 1404 

Fathers Dramaturgy: Magentic North @ Traverse

TRAVERSE THEATRE’S FIRST COLLABORATION WITH MAGNETIC NORTH

Magnetic North – in co-production with Traverse Theatre Company for the very first time – 

present Our Fathers

The first theatrical adaptation of Edmund Gosse's book Father and Son, woven with personal stories from playwright and Traverse Associate Artist Rob Drummond and Magnetic North’s Artistic Director Nicholas Bone


Uniquely explores father and son relationships, and how to respectfully disagree with someone you love

An intriguing new play exploring the relationship between fathers and sons will have its world premiere this October at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre before touring the rest of Scotland. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

The book Father and Son by Edmund Gosse, coupled with the coincidence that Rob and Nicholas are both atheist sons of clergymen.  Father and Son is Edmund Gosse’s memoir of  growing up in an evangelical fundamentalist ​Christian family in the second half of the 19th century.  The book charts the gulf which emerged between book-loving Edmund and his father - a preacher and renowned scientist - as Edmund realised he couldn’t share his father’s beliefs.  As we say at the start of the show, Nicholas’s own clergyman father suggested he should read the book, he passed it on to Rob and they started talking about how to adapt it. 

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Yes, we think so!  One of the themes that developed as we were making the show was about how human beings can disagree better, more respectfully and more usefully.  The making process has coincided with a time of political and social upheaval – Brexit, Trump, terrorism and the far right resurgence – and increasing polarisation of views and opinions. Political debate and social media seem increasingly to result in unproductive disagreement where people just abuse each other.  Placing discussion and different viewpoints within a performance, relating ideas to a personal story and putting a dramaturgical structure around the discussion, seems to result in a better conversation.  

How did you become interested in making performance?

Nicholas and Rob each grew up watching their fathers preach every week from the pulpit, which is a performative practice. Rob’s mum would direct the church shows which Rob would star in and then when he got older he was taken to variety shows like Francie and Josie and so performance was always a part of his life. 

Nicholas's family weren't particularly interested in the theatre, but he was fascinated by film performers like Buster Keaton from an early age.  Nicholas has been making performances for many years now, mostly as a director and devisor, but occasionally as a performer; he is a member of the movement collective In The Making and has performed with them at the Fringe for the last two years, this year with a durational performance at Dance Base. 

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

We started with Edmund Gosse’s story,​ as told in Father and Son, and then explored ​Rob’s and Nicholas’s stories and the points of intersection. We then worked out how to weave them together and how to echo the relationships in the stories in the relationship of the two performers on stage.  

Adapting Father and Son has its challenges: it’s a dense Edwardian text with long descriptive passages featuring lots of multi-syllabic words we wouldn’t use today.  But in his account of his childhood rebellions – at first minor and then escalating – Edmund Gosse can also be very funny.  We’ve tried to include both the humour and the tragedy of the book in the show – as Gosse says in his introduction, It is not usual, perhaps, that the narrative of a spiritual struggle should mingle merriment and humour with a discussion of the most solemn subjects – but it does make for an interestingly complex book and piece of theatre.  

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Yes and no.  For Magnetic North, it’s the first time that Nicholas has appeared in one of our productions and it’s the first time he’s told his own story as a version of himself on stage.  Rob has generally either performed his own work as a solo (Bullet Catch, In Fidelity, The Majority), or more recently written plays which are performed by other people (Quiz Show, Grain in the Blood). 

This is the first time in Rob’s career that he has appeared as part of a double act.  But there are also many examples of elements which do relate to other productions – Magnetic North has a strand which we might call ‘adaptations​ of tricky books’ such as Walden and A Walk at the Edge of the World.  The development and devising process, where we’ve given ourselves time to make the show and brought in collaborators early on, is also a typical way of working for Magnetic North.  

The involvement of the rest of the creative team – co-director Ian Cameron, assistant director Jenna Watt, designer Karen Tennent, lighting designer Simon Wilkinson and composer Scott Twynholm – has really helped shape this production, and previous Magnetic North shows have always featured that same collaborative, cross-artform process.  

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

We hope that the audience will share in our investigation of the relationship between parents and children, how it’s possible to both grow apart and remain close, and how it can be so hard to have an honest conversation with someone you love.  

We think that – as everyone has had a parent, or been a child – there is a way into the show for everyone.  We want the audience to leave feeling satisfied with the stories that we’ve told them, but we don’t want to try and give anyone any answers; we want them to leave still thinking and asking themselves questions.  

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

There are a couple of sections in the show where we directly invite the audience to ask themselves some questions – about their own parents and about their own principles.  We give them space to consider those questions and hopefully that connects them more closely to the stories we are telling in the show as well as allowing them to reflect on their own lives and experiences – not just listening to ours! 

But we have also tried to make sure that the story contained within the book is served too, which gives the audience a through line to hold on to. There’s an element of pure storytelling, which comes from Nicholas’s resolve to honour the text, which is counterpoised by Rob’s irrepressible desire to open out and share directly with the audience, asking them questions and looking for feedback. The book is subtitled a tale of two temperaments, and, for good reason, so is the play. 

Our Fathers is co-produced by Magnetic North and the Traverse Theatre, and is written and performed by multi-award-winning playwright Rob Drummond and Magnetic North’s Artistic Director Nicholas Bone.

The play is inspired by Edmund Gosse’s 1907 book Father and Son, which tells the story of Gosse’s upbringing as the only child of evangelical Christians in Victorian England, and his growing realisation that he did not share their religious faith. Both Drummond and Bone are the atheist children of clergymen, and bring their contemporary perspective and experiences to the story.

This new production is the first co-production between the two Edinburgh-based companies and is also the first time Rob Drummond – a Traverse Associate Artist and writer of Grain in the Blood, Bullet Catch and In Fidelity – has worked with Magnetic North. 

Nicholas Bone, the company’s Artistic Director, will appear in a Magnetic North production for the first time and, in a reversal of roles, Ian Cameron – who performed in Magnetic North’s award-winning A Walk at the Edge of the World in 2014 – will be co-director. Cameron most recently worked at the Traverse as collaborator on the hugely successful and award-winning Black Beauty.

As the performance unfolds, weaving together Edmund Gosse's story with those of Bone and Drummond, the audience will also be invited to contribute – given the opportunity to comment on the story and talk about experiences of their own in dialogue with the performers. Bone and Drummond will also be available before the show at each venue to meet audiences and chat about their experiences of family relationships.

Rob Drummond, writer/performer and Traverse Associate Artist, says:

‘This is a deeply personal play for both Nick and myself. In adapting this book for the stage we have found it necessary to talk about our own relationships with our fathers and reminisce about our religious upbringings. I am now an atheist. My father is decidedly not. How do we respect people who we disagree with? Are there certain things that should simply remain unspoken? This is a play for anyone who has ever been the child of a parent, the parent of a child or who has ever found themselves in ideological disagreement with a loved one. Everyone, then. I’m very excited to be back at the Traverse – it feels like the right place to launch a show about religion and family as the Traverse is a spiritual home for me.’

Nicholas Bone, writer/performer and Magnetic North Artistic Director, says:

‘As we've worked on Our Fathers we've become very interested in how people talk to each other, and maintain a relationship with each other, when they disagree strongly. In today's world of political discourse, 24-hour news and conversations over social media, this theme has considerable contemporary resonance. We're looking forward to sharing the piece with audiences at the Traverse and then on tour.’


Orla O’Loughlin, Traverse Artistic Director, says:

‘As long-time admirers of Magnetic North’s ground-breaking work, the Traverse is thrilled to be collaborating with them for the first time on Our Fathers. We are looking forward to not just welcoming back our Associate Artist Rob Drummond but also to the whole Magnetic North team to look at the delicacy of many father-son relationships, and to discuss the increasingly important and timeless issue of how we respectfully disagree or begin uncomfortable discourse with those whom we love.’


LISTINGS:
Traverse Theatre

Wednesday 25 October—Saturday 28 October (previews 21 and 24 October, BSL Interpreted 25 October)

Press performance: 25 October

Box Office: 0131 228 1404 / online here



The production then tours to Glasgow, Inverness, Banchory, Aberdeen, Greenock, St Andrews and Peebles. Detailshere.



Magnetic North

Based in Edinburgh, Magnetic North is an award-winning theatre company formed in 1999 by theatre and opera director Nicholas Bone. Magnetic North works with playwrights, composers, visual artists, choreographers and other artists to create striking and intriguing new work. The company runs an extensive multi-art form artist development programmes, with a particular focus on creating opportunities for experienced artists. Its recently launched Artist's Attachment programme creates a unique opportunity for an experienced artist to work on a significant development in their practice. Previous productions include Pass the Spoon, a collaboration with Turner Prize-nominated artist David Shrigley, and the highly-acclaimed Walden. www.magneticnorth.org.uk



Traverse Theatre

Formed in 1963 by a group of passionate theatre enthusiasts, the Traverse Theatre was originally founded to extend the spirit of the Edinburgh festivals throughout the year. Today, under Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin, the Traverse is proud to deliver its year-round mission of championing creative talent by placing powerful and contemporary theatre at the heart of cultural life – producing and programming urgent and diverse work spanning theatre, dance, performance, music and spoken word.

Through the work it presents, the Traverse aims to both entertain and stir conversation – reflecting the times and provoking crucial debate amongst audiences, inspiring them to ask questions, seek answers and challenge the status quo.



The Traverse has launched the careers of some of the UK's most celebrated writers – David Greig, David Harrower and Zinnie Harris – and continues to discover and support new voices, including Stef Smith, Morna Pearson, Gary McNair and Rob Drummond.



With two custom-built and versatile theatre spaces, the Traverse's home in Edinburgh's city centre holds an iconic status as the theatrical heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every August

The Slapstick School of Criticism

Well, that's another classic Vile blunder. Entering Jury Play at the Traverse, I put myself into the lottery to become a member of the jury. I was selected, took my place on the stage and, as the cast took us backstage to explain our role, I realised that there was no no way but I would be able to write the fair and impartial critique that I could sell to The List. There goes my day's wages, I thought, as I mimed the action of rubbing my mind clean with a pretend pencil eraser.

On the other hand, being part of the cast is an experience that gave me some insight into the process of performance, the emotions of being an actor, and a sympathy for the production that challenges my usual attitude of the vicious spectator that hopes only for theatre's failure. Mostly, however, I felt like a puppet. 

Jury Play evokes the worn-out trope of the script that, not trusting in the dramatic potential of a plot, sets the action in a court and uses the furniture of the law to suggest an exciting battle between guilt and innocence. There are valuable court-room scripts - Twelve Angry Men is probably still touring - but it's usually a pretty pedestrian genre.  Apparently Ayn Rand wrote one and I associate her with a lumbering, polemical literature than has less interest in aesthetics than pounding home some dogmatic point about free will, or capitalism, or something.

the cast

Luckily, Jury Play isn't a courtroom drama: it's a presentation of Dr Jenny Scott's academic research into the legal system. Even from the stage, I can guess that she is critical of the formality of the trial, and advocates a more down-to-earth and inclusive environment. My line - I did get to speak - was to do with allowing the jury to arrange their seating in a more informal manner. 

In fact, I was the catalyst for the entire second act, which breaks up the jury box into a nice hippy circle, from which the jury can have a nice chat with the witnesses and the accused. And while the two professional actors on the jury led the discussion, my character - known only as Juror 13 - was the real antagonist.

Juror 13

But I was still a puppet: a puppet of a script, and that fascinated me. During the first act, which represented a typical trial, 

I had to pretend to be asleep, cover myself in a big cobweb and - well, I just sat there, wondering what was going on. I didn't notice that one actor was playing multiple roles (even though he had a very distinctive shaved head), and I didn't pay much attention to John Bett, who was the Judge. 

Bett did come across as an avuncular old geezer: he had a few chats with the audience/jurors - when the script allowed it - and he was very good at making me feel comfortable. 

From what I can make of Dr Scott's intentions, the sensation of being a puppet was the point. I was disempowered, a bit bored. Now, if I had been in the audience, doing my reviewing, this would be a bad thing. Happily, I was having an immersive experience, so I was getting the message. Luckily, I got to bowl about the place a bit more in Act Two - that's when I had my monologue - when Scott and director/co-writer Ben Harrison presented the alternative hippy court. 

It's no surprise that the audience reckoned the accused was innocent though. He was getting treated like our old mate by the time we were questioning him directly.

Jury Play, ironically, is no less polemical than one of Rand's novels: Dr Scott clearly has a problem with the way that the legal system manages to mystify its own processes through the use of fancy language, and alienate the jury through the stifling procedures. At times it gets a bit blunt - when one of the jurors has a copy of Class War, Bett's judge gets to boast of his own open-mindedness, even though he reads The Telegraph - and there's two layers of audience experience: one for the selected jury, and another for the poor suckers in the auditorium. 

Apart from the loss of my wages for the review - perhaps The Traverse could bung me a tenner for writing this - I had a good night out. I'm slightly annoyed that they took the notes I made in the first act (they gave me a pad of paper and I wrote loads of cool observations in it, which I intended to scan and use as a review, only I left it on my seat during the interval and when I came back, they'd disappeared it, along with the charge sheet and that pretend eraser, then they moved the seats around the stage, or rather we did, so I suppose that I was a stage-hand as well as an actor, I wonder what the Equity rate would be for that work?) because that was a rare occasion during which I took notes during a performance (a habit that I disdain in other critics and reviewers). 

Sorry - for a minute there, I lost myself. There's some point I wanted to make: oh yeah. Polemical theatre, entertainment, academic research,right. 

The immersive experience did get across the academic research: this is an example of theatre that has something to say and uses the format of a play to express an idea, rather than just banging on about it, a cup of tea would have been nice in the interval. 

Man to Dramaturgy: Bruce Guthrie @ Traverse

Polly Thomas (photo credit)

A Wales Millennium Centre production

Man to Man

By Manfred Karge

Translated by Alexandra Wood

A modern German fairy tale

Opens in Cardiff September 2017 prior to UK tour and playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York as part of the Next Wave Festival

This acclaimed one woman play tells the life story of a woman called Ella Gericke, who lived with her husband Max until one day he died. Then the Nazis arrived…

Based on an incredible true story, we witness Ella's struggle and determination in a volatile 20^th century Germany where she adopts the identity of her dead husband to survive.

Polly Thomas (photo credit) 

 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Inspiration always starts with the play itself. I first learnt of the play when I was reading a book written by director Stephen Unwin. He mentioned a play he had directed Tilda Swinton in at the Traverse Theatre called Man to Man. It sounded like an extraordinary play and I was looking for a play I could direct my wife in.  I got a hold of the script and was utterly intrigued by the story of this woman who assumed her husband’s identity. It reminded me of epic poems like The Odyssey or The Wasteland.

I was also drawn to the fairy-tale aspect of the play. It is littered with quotations from great works of German literature so they played a big role in our creative discussions. Also, what it was like to be a working class German during the time of the Wiemar Republic. The cinema and the artwork of that culture during the 20^th century were also major sources of inspiration.

Maggie and I spent time in Germany and visited several theatres including the Berliner Ensemble – where it was first performed in German 1982. Manfred Karge (the playwright) met us in the courtyard of the Berliner and talked to us about his inspiration for the play. He was incredibly generous with his time and his insights were a vital part of us understanding the essence of his play.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Absolutely. The ability to be able to explore the world from the point of view of others is vitally important to our growth as a species. Telling stories and learning from each other is a part of who we are as humans. Our constant self analysis through art is the most effective arena for us to engage on an intellectual and emotional level with issues that may otherwise be taboo. They allow us to be at a distance and yet involved. 

I believe, it is important for a play to present a set of circumstances and how characters react to those circumstances rather than to preach. It is all about the audience experience.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I saw Joseph and the Amazing Tehnicoloured Dreamcoat at the Edinburgh Playhouse when I was nine years old. From then I was obsessed with being involved with theatre. I trained as an actor but switched to directing when I found myself more interested in telling stories from the outside than the pressures of being an actor.

I admire actors above all other people in theatre. The great ones give up a little piece of themselves with every performance they give. It is a gift not to be underestimated.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I like to think I am a collaborator. I want people’s ideas and the best idea can come from anywhere.

I am through with my research about the history and around the themes of the play.  Research is one of the most fun parts of any new project because you are constantly learning. Rehearsal is like that too because you have several imaginations in the one space focused on the same thing.

I am incredibly proud of the work the whole team has done on Man to Man. I feel this production is the best example of the way I like to work. The entire team has had input into every aspect of the production.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

I hope my work is as varied as my taste but I think this show represents a bit of a departure from my earlier work. It is more bold and fragmented than other work I have done. However, I think my work as a director is evolving in a way I find exciting. Thankfully audiences seem to enjoy it. I am all about getting a great group of creative people in a room and we make the show together. It will be different every time. That is exciting.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope they will be engaged and enthralled for the whole play. It is an absorbing 75 minute piece that challenges and entertains. But beyond that I think it’s up to them. Man to Man is an incredible story. It has moments of beauty, terror, comedy, loss and suspense. We want our audiences to see the world from a different point of view. Alexandra Wood’s translation is beautiful, bold and fragmented. She trusts the audience to make the connections between the fractured memories of our main protagonist.

Polly Thomas (photo credit)

Man to Man is a striking and spellbinding modern fairy tale inspired by the traditions of German storytelling. 

It gives audiences an incredible insight into what life was like in 20th century Germany, including the radical changes of the Nazi’s rise to power, the Cold War and the Berlin Wall coming down.

Renowned as one of the UK’s leading presenting houses, Wales Millennium Centre has recently embarked on producing work with the intention of taking the very best made in Wales to the world. 

As one of our first productions, Man to Man demonstrates the bold ambition of Wales Millennium Centre as a national home to the performing arts – to Inspire our Nation and Impress the World.

Translated by award-winning playwright, Alexandra Wood, this new version unites the talents of a multi-Olivier and Tony award-winning creative team, led by directors Bruce Guthrie (Director of RENT the Musical & The Last Mermaid) and Scott Graham (Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly and Movement Director of Olivier-winning West End/Broadway production The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time).

Polly Thomas (photo credit)

Bruce Guthrie, said: "Man to Man is a series of fragmented memories that our protagonist Ella is remembering and  re-living. She is a working class character with no sense of self pity: a hero in many ways who finds herself having to make life and death choices on a daily basis.  I found that compelling when I first read the script. It is a familiar yet alien world. This version is about taking the audience on a sensory journey, evoking different reactions based on the series of potent memories explored.”

Maggie Bain, whose credits include Emma Rice's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe, gives a tour de force performance in this beautiful, thought provoking production.

Man to Man

CREDITS

By Manfred Karge

Translated by Alexandra Wood

Performed by Maggie Bain

Directed by Bruce Guthrie & Scott Graham

Design by Richard Kent

Lighting Design by Rick Fisher

Sound Design by Mike Walker

Video Design by Andrzej Goulding

Music by Matthew Scott

Produced by Pádraig Cusack

‘Wales Millennium Centre’s licence to present Manfred Karge’s MAN TO MAN is granted by Rosica Colin Limited, London, by arrangement with henschel SCHAUSPIEL, Berlin.’ 

Age Guidance: 14+ (Contains strong language and adult themes)

TOUR DATES/BOOKING INFO

Manfred Karge's Man to Man 2017

Edinburgh - Traverse theatre                  

Oct 11 - 14

On sale date:

Monday, August 21

traverse.co.uk - 0131 228 1404

Newcastle - Northern Stage             

Oct 17 - 18

On sale Mon 5^th June to members, on sale Thurs 15^th June to general public

northernstage.co.uk - 0191 230 5151

http://bit.ly/M2Mnewcastle

Liverpool - Everyman Theatre

Oct 25 - 28

On sale soon

everymanplayhouse.com - 0151 709 4776

New York - Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)

Nov 7 - 11

On sale date:

Monday, August 7

bam.org

Polly Thomas (photo credit)

Wales Millennium Centre

●    Wales Millennium Centre is a landmark arts venue and a cultural destination, opened by Her Majesty the Queen on November 28, 2004.

●    Its founding mission was to bring the best of the world to Wales and to showcase the best of Wales to the world.

●    Built at a cost of £106m, its construction was funded by Welsh Assembly Government (£37m) and the National Lottery (£41m) through the Millennium Commission (£31m) and Arts Council of Wales (£10m).

●    The Centre is supported by Arts Council of Wales through an annual public investment grant which is less than 20% of its annual turnover. For every £1 received from the public purse an additional £4.50 is generated by its commercial activities and fundraising.

●    Annually the Centre receives over 1.5 million visitors making it Wales’ number one visitor attraction.

●    The Centre sustains up to 1000 jobs and contributes over £60m annually to the economy of Wales.

●    The Centre is internationally recognised for its striking architecture and was recently declared a National Treasure by the National Lottery following a public vote.

●    On its 7.5 acre site in Cardiff Bay, the Centre has a 1900 seat lyric theatre, named after its founding patron Sir Donald Gordon, designed for opera, large scale musicals, ballet and contemporary dance.

●    Other performance spaces include a 250 seat studio theatre, a dance house, 350 seat recital hall and a state of the art recording facility, BBC Hoddinott Hall.

●    Wales Millennium Centre is also home to eight other cultural organisations, including Welsh National Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Literature Wales, as well as inclusive arts organisation, Hijinx Theatre and the Touch Trust.

●    It has been described by Lord Lloyd Webber as the best theatre built in the world in the last 50 years.

●    For further information about the Centre please visit: www.wmc.org.uk

●    Wales Millennium Centre is a registered charity, number – 1060458.