Fisk Dramaturgy: Ross MacKay @ manipulate

UK Premiere Manipulate Festival 2017

FISK  

by Tortoise in a Nutshell, in co-production with Teater Katapult in association with Macrobert Arts Centre.  

A new devised piece of theatre by award-winning Tortoise in a Nutshell, Fisk (fish), delves into how we manage struggles with our own mental health, with the support of others.  The theatre company, renowned for their innovative puppetry and visual theatre – perform the show in both Danish and English.  

The show welcomes us into the world of Man (Alex Bird), who, in the moment in which he cannot help falling under – meets Fisk (Arran Howie) coming from the depths. In a new highly physical and visual piece – the company draw on their own experiences living with depression and anxiety to create a portrait of how it’s possible to pull through – and how those around us become vital in balancing our brains.  

This new poetic and visual exploration of masculinity, mental health and cups of tea at kitchen tables has been created working in collaboration with Teater Katapult, Aarhus Denmark. This collaboration has allowed Ross, Arran and Alex to stretch their wings and push the scale of their work, working with a diverse creative team. The script was devised with Danish playwright Anne Sophie Oxenvad.

The latest production from Edinburgh based theatre company, Fisk marks a huge step up for the company developing their practice and returning to venues across Scotland taking on bigger spaces. They are proud to be working with Manipulate Festival to premiere the piece in Scotland.  

I always feel kind of guilty when I ask this one, because it's like the relentless merry-go-round of the critical preview. So, I am going to try and get around it... it doesn't really matter what 'visual' or 'physical' theatre actually means, but it does offer a label that sets certain work apart from other work, and operates as a suggestion for marketing purposes: but do you think there is any kind of quality that sets 'visual' theatre apart from 'scripted' theatre that enables a particular kind of theatricality?
Good way to tackle that question. The idea of visual versus scripted means that the semiotics of  spoken words doesn't take precedence and can exist on an equal or lower footing than other aspects of the show. 

This means that the mise-en-scene can dominate, or sometimes it's the music or sometimes it's the expression on a performers face.This means we don't always rely on words to drive the narrative in: sometimes we actively seek a more theatrical method of telling the story. Hopefully in exploring the piece in this way we do create imaginative staging. 

Leaping straight from that to something blunt and obvious: I got excited to see that you have a dramaturg. Does the dramaturg have a specific set of functions within your making process, and can these be observed within the performance?
The Dramaturg was vital to us. In this particular story we were awash with metaphors and Kirstine role was teasing them out and interrogating the journey that they all go on. 

For example: black boil like barnacles are important in the story and Kirstine was keen that this element had its own narrative e and fed into the greater story. As this story is itself a huge metaphor Kirstine was able to help us looking at when to peel back the layers of the show and show glimpses of the truth. 

It's delicate and if we give to much or too little at any point we ruin the journey of the piece so Kirstine was vital there. Also importantly, the playwright was Danish and Kirstine is a great interpreter so she became a conduit to ensure we were all on the same page at many points of the process. 

There's talk in the press release about this production marking out the company's career: how it does it relate to previous work? And has the collaboration changed anything in your process?
It has. Each show we approach brings a slightly different process. We try to make each show unique in style and to make the form work with the content. 

One of the biggest departures here was working with an incredible movement director, Darren Brownlie. We have never worked so expressively with our bodies. Usually the performance is left to the puppets but working with a movement director gave us a whole other layer of language to use. 

Shifting to the content: that seems to be a pretty heavy topic. What was the inspiration for it?
We started out just with an image of a man on a boat and a fish. We didn't have any preconceptions of the theme. But as we continued to explore the piece we realised that time and again the imagery drew parallels to depression. Rather than run from that we decided to go for it. 

And as we pushed we found more and more that this seemed to be the story. On top of this we all had experiences we could relate to whether it was our own depression or witnessing someone else go through it. It felt pertinent and the idea of a young couple going through this. 

One person having to support as another suffered the illness was a story we were talking about a lot but felt we hadn't seen on stage. We felt we had something we could say here, something that would leave the audience with questions. Which is what we like to do.

Do you think that theatre - and especially your approach - can be a good place to address issues about mental health? I am assuming you have not gone for an information packed, 'theatre in education' strategy, but maybe I am wrong again...
No you are quite right. No facts and figures here. We worked really closely with an audience panel of mental health sufferers, carers and those who support in a professional capacity to ensure the show felt truthful and relevant but we wanted to steer clear of it being an issue based show. 

The theme can support a much more emotional journey than that. Also with visual theatre and these big symbolic metaphors it allows space for the audience to project on to it. Mental Health can be experienced in so many different ways and each persons own experience can be very unique even if there is a universality, we wanted people to feel there is space within the visual world to see their own story. Hopefully we have got a little close to that. 

You've been working with PAS for a while. What keeps you connecting with them, and do you think that your work might bear certain hallmarks that mark it as part of 'manipulate'?
They keep asking us back. They have supported us so much through many of our project. We are even staging a new Work In Progress with them during Manipulate so the relationship goes beyond Fisk. 

Manipulate was a huge inspiration for us. When I was a student, Simon Hart gave me a bursary to attend the first ever festival in Dundee. I attended the masterclasses and saw all the shows. It was incredible. I felt part of the community and even more importantly felt inspired to make work. All of s at Tortoise have manipulate marked in our calendars. We draw a lot of inspiration and talking points from the festival so we are delighted to feel our work sits alongside these great artists. 

Fisk opened at Teater Katapult, Aarhus, Denmark, in October 2016.  

Scottish Tour dates  

Macrobert Stirling 26 Jan  

Traverse Theatre Edinburgh 28 Jan  

Eden Court Inverness 1 Feb  

Lemon Tree Aberdeen 3 Feb  

Traverse Theatre Edinburgh 9 - 11 Feb  

Perth 14 Feb  

Eastgate Arts Centre 16 Feb   

Platform Glasgow 20 Feb  

The Company

Tortoise in a Nutshell have toured extensively over 250 performances across 78 cities in 7 countries around the globe – they have taken shows to Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Mexico and toured extensively across the UK.

The company have worked with Imaginate Festival, Cumbernauld Theatre, Manipulate Festival and performed year in year out at the world’s largest arts festival – the Festival Fringe - in their home town of Edinburgh.

2010 – The Last Miner – Idea’s Tap ‘Edinburgh Ideas Fund’ – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

2012 – Grit shortlisted for Arches Brick Award and Total Theatre Award for Emerging Artist or Company Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Bedlam Theatre  

2013 – Feral wins Fringe First, shortlisted Total Theatre Award for Physical / Visual Theatre Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Summerhall.

2014 – Feral returns to Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Underbelly – as part of Made in Scotland’s expo programme.  

2015 – The Lost Things – commissioned by Imaginate Festival. A bespoke piece of theatre for young audiences.  

Danish co-pro background

The relationship with Teater Katapult began when Artistic Director saw Feral in 2014 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of Made in Scotland. Invited to perform at the theatre as part of a Scandinavian tour, the companies began to work together. The EU collaboration has been an exciting way to consider other ways of working and draw on new perspectives when creating theatre.

Ross MacKay – Co-Artistic Director Tortoise in a Nutshell.

“For Tortoise in a Nutshell, art and theatre is about crossing borders and breaking down boundaries. Theatre allows you to put yourselves into someone else's world. It's important then that we can take theatre across cultures and communities. We can share different experiences and outlook on the world. Collaboration allows us to draw on different experiences, different styles of making work and different political climates. International co-productions allow us to create richer and deeper theatre and find the universal experiences even in the smallest of stories and individual of experiences.”

Creative Team

Director: Ross MacKay

Cast/Devisers: Alex Bird and Arran Howie  

Designer: Ana Ines Jabares-Pita

Composer: Jim Harbourne

Lighting Designer: Simon Wilkinson

Movement Director: Darren Brownlie

Production Manager: Andrew Gannon

Dramaturg: Kirstine Christensen

Writer:  Tortoise in a Nutshell and Anne Sophie Oxenvad

Producers: Dawn Taylor and Nick Wong

Updated: Heads up on Tour, 2017. Kieran Hurley @ across the UK

Heads Up

Kieran Hurley with Show And Tell

credit: Jassy Earl

A city. Just like this. Right now. A woman staggers home after a two-day bender. A priest who doesn’t believe in God stares blankly at the endless disasters on the TV news. A finance worker tears down a Keep Calm And Carry On sign outside a Café Nero. In just one moment, all their worlds will end.

With an original innovative score by Michael John McCarthy, multi award-winner Kieran Hurley (Beats, Chalk Farm, Hitch) weaves a picture of a familiar city at its moment of destruction, asking what would we do if we found ourselves at the end of our world as we know it.

Tron Theatre

63 Trongate, Glasgow, G1 5HB

Wednesday 22 February 2017 (as part of TAKE ME SOMEWHERE, a new citywide festival of contemporary performance that builds on the legacy of The Arches arts programme)

7.45pm | £14 (£10)

Tickets: 0141 552 4267 | www.tron.co.uk

Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2)

10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED

Thursday 23 – Saturday 25 February 2017

Post show discussion: Thursday 23 Feb 2017

8pm | £16.50 (£13.50/£8.50)

Tickets: 0131 228 1404 | www.traverse.co.uk

Crewe Axis Arts Centre

Cheshire Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University, Crewe Green Rd
Crewe, CW1 5DU

Thursday 2 March 2017 

7.30pm | £8 (£5)

Tickets:  0843 2080 500 | www.axisartscentre.org.uk

Dundee Rep Theatre

Tay Square, Dundee, DD1 1PB

Tuesday 14 March 2017

7.30pm | £14

Tickets:  01382 223530 | www.dundeerep.co.uk

Crucible Theatre (Studio Theatre)

55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA

Thursday 16 March 2017

7.45pm | £12

Tickets: 0114 249 6000 | www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Battersea Arts Centre

Lavender Hill, London, SW11 5TN

Monday 20 – Saturday 25 March 2017 | £10 (all tickets)

Monday 27 March – Saturday 1 April 2017 | £12.50 (£10)

8pm

Tickets: 020 7223 2223 | www.bac.org.uk

Oxford Playhouse

Oxford Burton Taylor Studio, 11 - 12 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2LW 

Monday 3 April 2017

8pm | £10

Tickets: 01865 305305 | www.oxfordplayhouse.com 

Marlborough Theatre

4 Prince's Street, Brighton, BN2 1RD

Tuesday 4 April 2017

8pm | £12 (£10)

Tickets: 01273 570028 | www.marlboroughtheatre.org.uk

South Street Arts Centre

21 South Street, Reading, RG1 4QU

Wednesday 5 April 2017

8pm | £12 (£10)

Tickets: 0118 960 6060 | www.readingarts.com/south-street 

Northern Stage

Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RH

Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 April 2017

7.45pm | £10 (£8)

Tickets: 0191 230 5151| www.northernstage.co.uk

HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN

Thursday 18 – Saturday 20 May 2017

7pm (Thu & Fri) // 2.15pm & 7.45pm (Sat only) | £10 (£8)

Tickets: 0161 200 1500 | www.homemcr.org

ARC, Stockton Arts Centre
Dovecot Street, Stockton on Tees, TS18 1LL

Thursday 8 June 2017

7pm | Pay what you decide

Tickets: 01642 525199 | www.arconline.co.uk

What was the inspiration for this performance?
I don't think it's possible to point to one singular moment of inspiration for a show - at least not this one - so I'll be a bit annoying and avoid answering the question directly. 

I wanted to make something that was about how it feels to live in a

world that is built on catastrophe. I was aware - for myself at least - of this world we find ourselves living in feeling more and more like a constant cavalcade of crisis. The disaster of now. 

I also think it feels like we're living in times of great change, like the end of something big, be it this particular stage of capitalism, or old certainties around nationhood and social structures. I knew I wanted to think around some of this stuff, and I wanted to do it by telling an apocalypse story.

I also really wanted to make something in a kind of DIY way again, like I did when I was first starting out working in a room in the Arches basement collaborating with musicians or whoever before a word was even written. You'd know a show was going to happen at the end of it because there was a date in the programme where I'd stand in front of a room with a microphone with some people. I'd begun to miss some of the urgency and immediacy of making work and meeting an audience in this way, so I rang up Tom Searle (of Show And Tell) who helped me get the necessary stuff in place and away we went.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
After Tom came on board I brought in Alex Swift, who I've been developing a completely different piece with and who I've built quite an important working relationship with over these last couple of years. Alex and I spent some time supported the Playwrights' Studio experimenting with stuff do with form and storytelling and he's really made a significant mark on the work. 

I tend to work with musicians a lot, and I thought of MJ McCarthy for this because of how versatile and collaborative he is and also because he's got a really sharp dramaturgical brain as well as a musical one. Julia Taudevin has had a major hand in everything I've ever made that I perform in, so I knew I wanted her by my side for this again. 

It's true that there's no such thing as a solo show, and everything I do is really collaborative because it's theatre. I knew that I wanted this show to be kind of back-to-basics in terms of process, but that I wanted to take risks and make new demands on myself through that - so I needed a team that I could trust but who could also challenge me and breathe a different kind life into what I do.

How did you become interested in making performance?
Dunno, really. I liked drama at school, I suppose. I have a running joke that I probably always just wanted to be in a band but can't play an instrument, so ended up doing this - hence my longstanding admiration for and collaboration with musicians of various stripes.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Yes and no, in that there are different strands to what I do I think. In terms of this kind of writer-performer work, I suppose it is typical in that I was in a room with some collaborators before the script is even close to finished and that music is a big part of it. But the process towards making each show always feels completely different. I don't have a rule book.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
That's a tricky question and I don't know if I know how to answer it to be honest. It's stories, I just tell stories. My stuff has often been described as political, and that's probably true but so is everything else, all the time, always. 

I can tell you that I think this piece is more challenging than a lot of my previous work, both formally and in tone. It's more angry, more hurt, more difficult - and I want it to be difficult. Sometimes difficulty feels like the most appropriate response to the way the world is. Or maybe it's just a reflection of where I'm at just now. I wasn't interested in revisiting the warm-hearted fuzzy optimism of some of my early stuff, like Hitch. That said, I do hope and believe that there is heart and humanity in here. I hope it cares for its audience. I hope there are still some laughs.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
With all the love in the world for both critics and academics (I tried to be one once, don't you know) I do think this is the kind of question that only one of you guys could really come up with. I've chewed it over and I can't think of a helpful way of answering it and I think it's because, for me, the "strategies of shaping the experience" are just like, the whole of the thing of making the show. It's really important but so fundamental that it's actually pretty hard to summarise it in a general way, and a lot of it is way more instinctive than the question suggests.

What I can say is that I realised recently that basically everything I've made has been a variation on a search for connection and community in the face of a hugely atomised and isolating world. It's about a belief that we need each other, even when the world we've built seems set-up towards the opposite. 

And theatre can be a good place to unpick some of this, for obvious reasons. The real reason I continue to persevere with theatre, for all that it infuriates me a lot of the time, is that I still think that theatre and the stories that live within it can create a space for us to meet with each other and take stock of where we're at, together. And that that matters. So in terms of strategies for shaping the audience experience - that sense of meeting an audience, of being present and alive to each other is, for me, always at the forefront of everything.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
Not really, if I'm honest, in that I think that's for other people to decide. There's definitely overlap between what I do and what many of my peers do, and there are other people who I admire hugely, of course. But it'd be presumptuous of me to place myself in a lineage of artists that are better than me,

More Shades of Gay: Gary Lamont @ Oran Mor

What propels you to go on the stage? Couldn't you take it easy, since you are a popular character in River City?
It's the opposite of taking it easy really; I've played Robbie for nearly 8 years and it's been brilliant. At this stage of my career River City has now become the longest job I've ever had in life, so I want to keep myself sharp and on the ball. Nothing gives you that bolt of adrenaline and fear quite like being on the stage. I just seem to be upping the ante a few more notches by taking on a one man show!


What attracts you to this particular script?I met with Stuart Thomas way back in the summer and he spoke to me about the script, we both shared ideas of who the character was and some of the experiences he goes through. It's very funny and I instantly could imagine myself delivering the punchlines. I was drawn into finding out why he says a certain thing that might be a little crass, or what is he covering up by being so bold and bawdy. It's easy to be camp and silly, but I'm interested in finding who's underneath all of that.


Do you identify much with the character in 69 Shades?
I do and I don't. Personally, I'm a bit more private when it comes to

matters of the heart and have a close group of friends who I seek counsel from. Aiden strikes me as the sort who'd spill his guts to the person next to him on the bus if they'd listen. I kind of admire that. No filter. There's also the aspect of him being gay and that being the thing that utterly defines his life, that's not me. I'm not defined by being gay.


What are you hoping that the audience will get from the show?I hope they get a really fun night out, the script is hilarious and some of the escapades will have people in stitches. There are also a few poignant moments in there too and it would be lovely if it resonated with folk. Love is universal and we can all relate to a good heartbreak story!


How do you approach developing a character like this, and does that process change much from how you approach Robbie off the TV?
Robbie is 100% in me now, so in a lot of ways I don't even have to think about how he'd react or how to pitch him in a situation or scene, it's pretty instinctual. Approaching a new character is always daunting, I don't want to be a one trick pony and play the big camp character for laughs. It's got to be authentic. Aiden is way bolder than Robbie, so I'm excited to be more out there and wild. Robbie is a pre-watershed character and Aiden is definitely after hours. I'm excited for that.

Sea Wall Dramaturgy: Eve Nicol @ The Pub

Theatre audiences pick the ticket price when Simon Stephen’s acclaimed monologue, Sea Wall, tours Glasgow bars in January 2017. 

Heroes Theatre presents 

Sea Wall

Written by Simon Stephens, directed by Eve Nicol and performed by Alan MacKenzie.

Touring Glasgow pubs 22 -26 January 2017

Sea Wall will see the emerging Glasgow-based company to break out of existing limiting structures for creating theatre, paying artists and talking directly to audiences in non-traditional spaces.

For their Glasgow pub new tour of Simon Stephens’ acclaimed monologue, Heroes Theatre are implementing the innovative Pay What You Decide pricing model pioneered by Slung Low and ARC, Stockton, where audiences are under no obligation to pay until after they see the show. Pay What You Decide allows audiences to pay only what they can afford and removes the financial risk of buying a ticket in advance without knowing if they are going to enjoy a production or not. For Sea Wall, audiences will get to set the price of their ticket, paying as little or as much as they think the show was worth.

Written by the Olivier and Tony award-winning author of the stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Stephens’ Sea Wall is a portrait of guilt, grief and the still waters that run deep in us all. 

Sea Wall tells the story of young parent Alex. His life is going swimmingly - a great kid, a happy marriage, good job – when everything is swept from him in one devastating moment. Heroes Theatre invites audiences to join them at the table for Sea Wall, sharing this intimate story over a beer in the back rooms, snugs and dens of pubs across Glasgow. Previously seen at the National Theatre and The Bush, London, Sea Wall is pint-sized theatre that packs a crushing emotional punch.

I know that you like good quality, contemporary scripts... in fact, you got me into Philip Ridley, which means I kind of owe you one! So what was it that made you select Sea Wall?

Sea Wall is one of those stories that haunts you. My first encounter with Sea Wall was in performance with Paines Plough's touring production a few years ago. It blindsided me. The friends I was with all sat in the pub afterwards, hearts broken, needing the warmth of human company.

I had been looking for a script that would suit Alan MacKenzie, who I worked with on The Pitchfork Disney. Both Alan and the character in Sea Wall, Alex, have personalities that you make you want to have a drink with them, to spend time in their company. It’s a wonderful trait in a performer and for a writer to accomplish. Like Philip Ridley’s plays, I don’t think we see enough of Simon Stephens’ work in Scotland. I selected Sea Wall as it was an opportunity to work with actor I wanted to work with and a tell story I wanted to share. A perfect combination for me.

As a resolute anti-social non-drinker (most of the time), I am both intrigued and slightly frightened by the idea of theatre in the pub. Can you persuade me why having a performance in a pub is a good idea?

Just as you might not feel at home in a bar, many regular pub goers would be apprehensive to step into a theatre. It’s probably healthy for theatre audiences to be a bit more awake to the real world they inhabit from time to time. The seclusion of theatres can be seductive but false.

Hospitality and a drink amongst friends is important to Heroes and pubs are geared up for this. Putting Sea Wall in a pub setting made me think of barflies who quietly nurse half a pint half the night then slip out into the dark. What’s their story? By inviting audiences to sit down at a table with Alex, I’m hoping to encourage people to consider the still waters that run deep in us all.

From a financial point of view as unfunded company, having a performance in a pub is an excellent idea. You get 90-100% of your box office takings whereas in a theatre 60% is seen as good deal. Heroes simply couldn't do this production in a theatre without breaking employment law. It’s an issue theatres who programme emerging companies need to address. Immediately.

As we've removed the financial risk for Heroes by performing in a pub, we're able to share the benefits with audiences too. Sea Wall is running on a Pay What You Decide pricing model where audiences decide the price of their ticket post-performance based on their experience. We’re busking essentially. If money is a bit tight post-Christmas, we’re not excluding anyone because they’re skint.

Apart from your enthusiasm for a good script, it's clear that you have a passion for getting theatre back into a wider public attention. Was there a particular inspiration that made you think that theatre was the art form that you wanted to engage with, and what makes it special for you?

My parents instigated theatre trips regularly and I would dog school to go see Jesus Christ Superstar matinees, but it was the Citizens Theatre’s Circle Studio that did it for me as a fifteen year old. It was sexy and clever and it was right in front of you. Going to the theatre as a 30 year old still makes me feel like an impressionable teenager – it shows me new perspectives, new emotions, new images. I’m a fangirl. In sharing plays that excite me with other people, I get to express a little something of myself too.  

You know I have to do this - but can you tell me a little about your thoughts on dramaturgy? Do you have a particular process in creating theatre that can be described? 

My dramaturgy is in detail of the decisions I make to bring the text off the page and in to real space, in real time. Semiotics, right? What does the brand of beer Alex drinks communicate to an audience?  I am a big fan of Katie Mitchell’s preparation process outlined in her book. Her methodical approach of deep textual study and real world research opens doors to avenues of investigation that would otherwise remain hidden.

What am I doing with my life? I mean, seriously, I sit around all day reading about The Enlightenment and worrying about purpose... sorry, I am interested in how you use the theory that you have learnt in the rehearsal room. Does the academic have any use within the creative process?

Theory is fine but practice is everything. With study you learn a lot about what other people in the industry are doing but there’s not a lot of personal excavation going on. Theory can be an impediment. You’re more aware of all the things you don’t know. The books that remain unread. The individual human lifespan isn’t that long. “How do you do you” might be the most informative, surprising, uncomfortable but hopeful point of study for anyone. The art that inspires me - and which I aim to make - are stories that inspire people to take action, to live their lives with more vigour. To do.

The academic does have use within the creative process because they are human and in being human, they have a unique perspective to offer which can enrich the lives of other humans. I think we might only have purpose when it becomes a shared purpose.

How does Sea Wall relate to Nordic Noir?

You can see the influence of The Killing all over contemporary drama. The pacing of storytelling. There’s a slower, more contemplative, burn. It’s not the hyperactive cosmopolitan settings. There’s a lack, a missing. Space.  It’s concerned less with the glamour of the event – the explosion, the hit, the abduction, whatever - but with examining the effects human horrors have on the people left behind.

Sea Wall shares these qualities. Alex takes his time in unloading his story. For the audience there’s a puzzle to work out. What happened? Who is to blame? How do you carry on?

Sea Wall builds on the success of Heroes Theatre’s debut production of Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney at the Tron Theatre in 2014, and 2016’s storming punk performance poetry duet for words and drums, GLITTERED, created for Hidden Door Festival.

Join the conversation: #SeaWall

Touring Glasgow pubs 23 - 27 January 2017

The Bungo, 17 Nithsdale Road, G41 2AL
22 January 2017, 6pm & 7.30pm

Sloans, 108 Argyle St, G2 8BG
23 & 24 January 2017, 6.30 & 8.00pm

Dram!, 232 Woodlands Road, G3 6ND
25 & 26 January 2017, 6.30 & 8.00pm (18+ only at 8.00pm performances in Dram!)

Suitable for ages 14+
Running time: 35 minutes 

Artists’ Biographies

Simon Stephens – writer
Simon Stephens is an Associate Artist of the Lyric Hammersmith and the Royal Court Theatre. His many plays include: a new adaptation of The Threepenny Opera, Carmen Disruption, Heisenberg, Birdland, Blindsided, Morning, Three Kingdoms, Wastwater, Punk Rock, Pornography (Best New Play at Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2008-9), Country Music, Christmas and Herons.  His adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for the National Theatre - concurrently touring the UK, in West End and on Broadway - won the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2013 and the Tony Award for Best Play 2015.

Eve Nicol – director
Eve Nicol is Artistic Director of Heroes Theatre. Work includes GLITTERED at Hidden Door, The Pitchfork Disney and Fairytaleheart. She is a graduate of the Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland Mentoring Scheme and is currently supported by the Tom McGrath Trust and FST Assistant Director Bursary, working with David Greig on the premiere of a new play by Linda McLean at Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

Alan MacKenzie – Alex
Alan has previously worked with Heroes on The Pitchfork Disney. His theatre credits include touring with Mull Theatre’s Movie Time and Visible Fictions’, Friends Electric and as Hamlet with Wilderness of Tigers for Bard In The Botanics.

Notes to the Editors 

About Heroes Theatre 

Formed in 2014, Heroes Theatre is led by theatre director and playwright Eve Nicol and creative collaborators from Glasgow’s grassroots theatre scene. Eve established Heroes to share brilliant contemporary plays and the text-based theatre of tomorrow. Heroes make shared cathartic experiences of hope, heartbreak and horror to make humans feel more human.