Since the curtain was raised on its first production in March 2010, National Theatre Wales has staged 13 stunning productions in locations across the country, and much more besides…
GAINED A REPUTATION FOR SUPERIOR SITE-SPECIFIC WORK
“[a] supreme, outdoor, site-specific company” The Observer
Productions staged in locations across Wales, including miners’ institutes in the south Wales valleys, a house in Penygroes, the entire town of Port Talbot, and a beach in Prestatyn
FANTASTIC AUDIENCE ATTENDANCE
88% of all tickets sold
A crowd of 12,000 watched the finale of The Passion in Port Talbot
CONSISTENT CRITICAL SUCCESS
“The big success story [of 2010] was the foundation of National Theatre Wales” Michael Billington
Five-star reviews for The Persians (The Daily Telegraph) and The Passion (The Guardian)
A LEGACY OF ONGOING, TANGIBLE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
helped set up a Young Critics’ scheme in Bridgend, a radio station in Barmouth, and a filmmakers’ club in Prestatyn
"Here’s to National Theatre Wales continuing to put Bridgend on the map for all the right reasons"
 The Telegraph on Love Steals Us from Loneliness
A GROUNDBREAKING MULTI-PLATFORM APPROACH
published a novella, helped create a feature film, commissioned new music and inspired several BBC documentaries
pioneering use of digital operating systems and online media with an online community of over 2,500 members, groundbreaking viral content, and Augmented Reality Gaming
BUCKING THE TREND IN ARTS CUTS WITH INCREASED FUNDING
the largest uplift in the Arts Council of Wales’ 2010 Investment Review (an increase of 25%)
awarded a £483,000 grant in October 2010 from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to work with emerging artists over a five-year period
COLLABORATED WITH SOME OF THE MOST HIGH-PROFILE ARTISTS AND THEATRE COMPANIES IN THE UK AND BEYOND
artists including Michael Sheen, Marc Rees, Paul Clay and Manic Street Preachers
theatre companies including WildWorks, Rimini Protokoll, and Welsh National Opera
directors including Elen Bowman, Bill Mitchell and Mike Pearson
At midnight on the evening of Thursday 26th May 2011, National Theatre Wales will announce details of its second year of productions (#ntwY2) online at nationaltheatrewales.org
These will include…
The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning - a re-imagining of the teenage years in West Wales of the young American who passed the secrets of the US embassy to Wikileaks, and is now languishing in prison. Written by Tim Price and directed by John E McGrath.
· Legendary director Peter Gill will tackle Chekhov’s story A Provincial Life.
· Three projects produced as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad:
1. The award-winning team that created first year highlight The Persians reforms to reinterpret Shakespeare's Coriolanus in the era of 24-hour news and celebrity culture.
2. Artistic director John McGrath joins forces with Nigel Charnock, designer Paul Clay, and award-winning writer Kate O'Reilly and a cast of deaf and disabled performers.
3. The new choreographic sensation from Argentina (now based in Berlin), Constanza Macras comes to Wales to create a new dance piece in the wilds of the north Wales forests.
· Multi award-winning company Frantic Assembly return to the town of its birth, Swansea, to create a show about furtive teenage goings on, inspired by Dylan Thomas' Just Like Little Dogs.
· Continuing its commitment to reaching every corner of Wales, National Theatre Wales will tour The Village Social by Dafydd James and Ben Lewis (Total Theatre Award winners 2009) – a surreal musical – to village halls throughout the country.
· National Theatre Wales’ first foray across the border sees its first year partnership with Told by an Idiot, The Dark Philosophers, travel to Scotland to play at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival.
Artistic Director John McGrath and Executive Producer Lucy Davies said: “After a wonderfully rich and fulfilling launch year, we are truly excited to be announcing our second year's programme. We'll be travelling across Wales, and also stepping beyond the borders to Edinburgh. As well as our signature large-scale site-specific work, we'll be touring into village halls, exploring digital space, and celebrating some great Welsh artists. It's going to be another extraordinary adventure.”
Chair of National Theatre Wales’ board Phil George said: “In our first remarkable year of productions, we set out to make bold, transformative theatre in locations across Wales. We wanted to engage deeply with communities and landscapes, surprising audiences with what theatre can be and where it can weave its magic. From the valleys to the North Wales coast, from The Persians on the Beacons to The Passion in Port Talbot, we have provoked excited comment both in and outside Wales. We're full of inspiration to take into our second year, where a schedule of productions is lining up which already makes the heart race.”
Dai Smith, Chair of the Arts Council of Wales said: “National Theatre Wales’ inaugural programme has challenged familiar notions of what theatre is, and what it could be. With imagination, intelligence and wit, it has created exciting new partnerships that have been the catalyst to an explosion of creativity in communities across Wales. We look forward to supporting the company’s next phase of development.”
Wales’ Heritage Minister Huw Lewis said: “This has been a spectacular first year for the National Theatre Wales, with groundbreaking productions, global recognition and successful ticket sales. No doubt the company's approach to working with other arts organisations and building relationships with local communities has been pivotal to its success. From various performing arenas to community involvement and attracting Hollywood stars, the company offers something for everyone right across Wales.”
NTW#14
THE DARK PHILOSOPHERS TOUR
A co-production with Told by an Idiot
9th – 28th August 2011
Traverse 1
Edinburgh
**** The Guardian, The Times
National Theatre Wales and Told by an Idiot bring their critically-acclaimed celebration of Gwyn Thomas – one of the most distinctive Welsh voices of the last century – and an outstanding Welsh cast to the Edinburgh Festival.
Taking as its inspiration Thomas’ ink-black comic tales, The Dark Philosophers is a funny, violent and passionate depiction of a community teetering on the brink of humanity. Using Told by an Idiot’s trademark anarchic physicality and inventive storytelling, this adaptation brings out the bleak, wild humour in tales laced with sex, murder and Thomas’ devastating Valleys wit.
This production will be performed at the Traverse Theatre as part of the British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase 2011, and is National Theatre Wales’ first performance outside Wales. It was first staged at Newport and Wrexham in November 2010.
Told by an Idiot has established an international reputation for its startlingly original productions. Recent productions include: And The Horse You Rode In On (national tour, co-produced with Drum Theatre Plymouth, co-commissioned by Barbican and Brighton Festival), The Comedy of Errors (RSC), Michel Faber’s The Fahrenheit Twins (Drum Theatre Plymouth, barbicanbite and Unity Theatre), Beauty and the Beast (Lyric Hammersmith and Warwick Arts Centre), Casanova (a collaboration with poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and co-produced with West Yorkshire Playhouse and Lyric Hammersmith) and Philip Pullman’s The Firework-maker’s Daughter (Sheffield Crucible).
-LISTINGS INFORMATION-
THE DARK PHILOSOPHERS
A co-production with Told by an Idiot
Adapted by Carl Grose and the company from the stories of Gwyn Thomas
Directed by Paul Hunter
Designed by Angela Davies
Music composed and directed by Iain Johnstone
Cast includes David Charles, Nia Davies, Nia Gwynne, Ryan Hacker, Daniel Hawksford, Bettrys Jones, Matthew Owen and Glyn Pritchard
Tuesday 9th – Sunday 28th August 2011
Times vary
Traverse 1 / The Traverse Theatre
10 Cambridge Street
Edinburgh, EH1 2ED

Box Office
The Traverse Theatre
Tel. 0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
Tickets £2/£17/£19
Concessions £6/£12/£13
Tag: #ntw14
NTW#15
THE VILLAGE SOCIAL
Created by Dafydd James and Ben Lewis
October/November 2011
In village halls across Wales
Multi-award-winning duo Dafydd James and Ben Lewis bring their surreal and macabre world-view to the village halls of Wales.
After unfortunate recent events, the village hall will play host to a much-needed fundraising evening of fun and jollity as the winter nights draw in. Enjoy music and entertainment from local talent before we welcome our main attraction – a clairvoyant who promises to put us in touch with spirits from beyond the grave.
The evening’s delights include entry into the raffle, a refreshment of your choice and a depraved orgy of blood.
Dafydd James trained at the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA) and is a composer, writer and performer. My Name is Sue, which he performed and co-created with Ben Lewis, won the Total Theatre Award for Music and Theatre, 2009. Recently he has translated Spring Awakening for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru. His critically acclaimed play Llwyth will be co-produced by Sherman Cymru and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru as part of this year’s British Council Showcase in Edinburgh. He is also developing the screenplay. The Hunting of the Snark, one of his first theatrical scores, won the Cameron Mackintosh Award.
Ben Lewis is a writer, director and performer, and trained at LAMDA. He co-created and directed My Name Is Sue (Soho Theatre/touring, Total Theatre Award 2009) with Dafydd James. He is co-Artistic Director of Inspector Sands, and co-created its shows, If That’s All There Is (EIF Award 2009) and Hysteria (Total Theatre Award 2006), which have toured extensively, most recently to Brits Off Broadway 2010. The company is currently developing its third show, Mass Observation (working title) with support from the Southbank Centre, the National Theatre Studio and the Almeida. Ben has also written two plays for BBC Radio 4; Blue Sky Thinking and Tiny.
Produced with the support of the Arts Council of Wales’ Night Out scheme (see Editors’ Notes).
Tag: #ntw15
NTW#16
NOFIT STATE TOUR
February 2012
In theatres across Wales
National Theatre Wales join forces again with worldwide circus heavyweights NoFit State Circus and circus artists from all over the world, for the next stage of their journey together.
Total Theatre Award-winning NoFit State Circus is one of Europe’s leading contemporary circus companies. With a reputation for new and innovative mixed media circus performance, their shows Immortal and Tabú gained cult status on the international festival scene, selling out in France, Belgium, Demark, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Canada and all over the UK. Other projects in development include Parklife and Barricade; large-scale outdoor circus shows commissioned by a consortium of UK and European festivals.
Tag: #ntw16
NTW#17
A PROVINCIAL LIFE
From Chekhov’s story
Adapted and directed by Peter Gill
March 2012
Sherman Cymru, Cardiff
One of Wales’s greatest writers and directors, Peter Gill, returns to Chekhov’s Russia with his adaptation of this intriguing story, exploring how lofty ideals can decay into frustration and hatred.
“We are living among animals. Let them bite out each other’s throats.”
Peter Gill was born in 1939 in Cardiff and started his professional career as an actor. He has directed over eighty productions in the UK, Europe and North America. At the Royal Court Theatre in the 1960s, he was responsible for introducing D.H.Lawrence’s plays to the theatre and was the founding director of Riverside Studios and the Royal National Theatre Studio. Classical plays directed include: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Theatre Royal Bath, Tour & Vaudeville Theatre, 2008); Gaslight (Old Vic, 2007), Look Back in Anger (Theatre Royal Bath, 2006), The Voysey Inheritance (NT, 2006), and Romeo and Juliet (RSC, 2004-05). Other directed work includes: The Breath of Life by David Hare (Sheffield Theatres, 2011); The Aliens by Annie Baker (Bush Theatre, 2010); Hens by Aila Bano (Sky Arts Live - Riverside Studios, 2010); Semper Dowland and The Corridor by renowned composer Harrison (Aldeburgh Festival / Southbank Centre, 2009); Epitaph For George Dillon by John Osborne and Anthony Creighton (ATG, 2005); Days of Wine and Roses by J P Miller, in a new version by Owen McCafferty (Donmar Warehouse, 2005), Scenes from the Big Picture by Owen McCafferty (NT, 2003); and Speed the Plough by David Mamet (ATG, 2000).
Tag: #ntw17
NTW#18
THE RADICALISATION OF BRADLEY MANNING
By Tim Price
Directed by John E McGrath
March/April 2012
Haverfordwest and beyond
Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old held responsible for the release of thousands of US embassy emails to Wikileaks is currently in the brig in Kansas. Many people believe he is being tortured. He may face the death penalty. But just a few years ago he was a teenager in Wales. How does his story impact on the people he left behind? And who is responsible for his ‘radicalisation’? A political fantasy by Tim Price.
Writer Tim Price’s television credits include: Casualty, Eastenders, Holby City, Doctors and River City (BBC), Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, Sold! and The New Worst Witch (ITV), Herman And Sherman (Films/Cartoon Network), Caerdydd and Y Pris (S4C).
For Y Pris, he won Best Drama at Celtic Film and TV Festival 2009, and was nominated for Best Screenwriter at Bafta Cymru 2008, and Best Drama at Prix Europa 2008.
His theatre credits include: Salt Root and Roe (Donmar Warehouse, Trafalgar Studios, to be produced November 2011), For Once (Pentabus, Hampstead), Café Cariad (National Youth Theatre of Wales) and short plays: Teamwork (Paines Plough/Sherman Cymru), Under The Sofa (Paines Plough), Fairy Wands And Keys (Nabokov - Present: Tense), The Whole Truth (Act 1, Dirty Protest, performed at the Latitude Festival), From The Hip (Theatre 503, performed at the Green Man festival), and Sell Out Generation (Royal Court). His play Will and George has been shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award 2011.
Tag: #ntw18
NTW#19
LITTLE DOGS
In partnership with Frantic Assembly
May 2012
Patti Pavilion, Swansea
Across the city, hearts are beating and the mating ritual has begun. In the nightclubs, the bus shelters, the back streets and the sand dunes, daring girls and reckless boys engage in a desperate dance while the less fortunate observe and pretend it doesn't hurt. Devised by Frantic Assembly and staged in Swansea’s richly atmospheric Patti Pavilion, this production is inspired by the Dylan Thomas’ story Just Like Little Dogs, and the furtive hours so many of us have spent searching for kindness and warmth in the shadows of the city.
Founded in Swansea, Frantic Assembly is celebrated at home and abroad for creating thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Vivid and dynamic, Frantic Assembly's unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text. Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett formed Frantic Assembly in 1994. Scott and Steven have since performed in or directed all of the company's work. They seek to collaborate on original ideas with today's most exciting artists. Frantic Assembly has toured widely throughout the UK, building its reputation as one of the country's most exciting companies. Internationally, Frantic Assembly has performed, created and collaborated in 28 different countries.
Tag: #ntw19
NTW#20
IN WATER I’M WEIGHTLESS
An Unlimited commission for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad
By Kaite O’Reilly
Directed by John E MGrath
July/August 2012
Weston Studio, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Award-winning writer Kaite O’Reilly has always lived with a visual impairment. For this poetic, provocative and sometimes grotesquely funny piece of theatre, she has taken inspiration from the experiences, attitudes and imagination of disabled and deaf people from across the UK. Working with choreographer Nigel Charnock, designer Paul Clay, National Theatre Wales’ artistic director John McGrath, and a powerful cast of deaf and disabled performers, Kaite’s unique texts will explore the endless possibilities of human difference.
Kaite O'Reilly is an award winning writer and dramaturg. Her work has been widely produced across the UK and internationally. Kaite recently won the 2010 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her retelling of Aeschylus’ play, The Persians, for National Theatre Wales.
Tag: #ntw20
NTW#21
CORIOLAN/US
A co-production for the World Shakespeare Festival, which is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the London 2012 Festival
From Shakespeare
Directed by Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes
August 2012
Dragon Film Studios, near Bridgend
From the team that created National Theatre Wales’ award-winning version of Aeschylus’s The Persians
(***** The Daily Telegraph), the story of Caius Martius – Coriolanus – is re-imagined in the era of 24-hour news, of celebrity culture, and of a new global polity. Staged in the massive spaces of Dragon Film Studios, with outside broadcasts from the battlefield, popular grievances delivered straight to camera, audience participants as the body politic, this production is a ‘mash-up’ of previous attempts to get to grips with a contrary and perplexing figure.
Mike Pearson is best known for his work with the groundbreaking and inspirational theatre company Brith Gof, which specialised in site-specific work. He continues to make performances as a solo artist and in a long-term collaboration with Mike Brookes as Pearson/Brookes. He is Professor of Performance Studies at Aberystwyth University. He directed The Persians for National Theatre Wales in 2010.
Mike Brookes is an award winning artist, director and designer. He co-founded the performance collective Pearson/Brookes with Mike Pearson in 1997, most recently co-creating their acclaimed production of The Persians for National Theatre Wales. He is associate artist of dada(prod) Italy and theatre company Quarantine, and in 2007 was appointed Creative Research Fellow within Aberystwyth University. He is currently developing a long-term collaboration with artist Rosa Casado.
Tag: #ntw21
NTW#22
BRANCHES (working title)
In partnership with the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad
A new commission from Constanza Macras/DorkyPark
September 2012
In the forests of north Wales
Argentinean Constanza Macras has been setting the world of dance theatre alight with her violent, witty, sensual work. From Johannesburg to Berlin, crowds have flocked to see her latest creations. In a special commission for National Theatre Wales and the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Constanza will create a new site-specific show in the forests of North Wales – drawing inspiration from the ancient stories of the Mabinogion, and our daily dreams and fears.
Constanza Macras was born in Buenos Aires in 1970, and studied contemporary dance and fashion design. Following her dance education in New York, where she also danced at legendary Merce Cunningham Studio, she started to develop and present her own performances in Amsterdam.
After moving to Berlin in 1995, Constanza founded the dance company DorkyPark in 2003, in which she is gathering dancers, musicians, actors and artist of various genres and countries around her. In her work, Constanza examines social, political and cultural developments and translates them into multilayered pieces that combine text, video, dance and sound.
As a choreographer and director, Constanza has taught workshops and master classes in Japan, the United States, India, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch and Hochschule für Musik, Berlin.
In November 2010 she was awarded the German Theatre Award DER FAUST for best choreography for Megalopolis.
Tag: #ntw22
Ongoing: NTW#11
OUTDOORS
Created by Rimini Protokoll in partnership with Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Heartsong Choir
Tuesday evenings until February 2012
Aberystwyth
Western Mail ****
“a clever, fascinating and emotional show”
“one of my most memorable theatrical journeys, which will remain with me for a long time to come”
Aberystwyth’s Heartsong choir has been meeting once a week for 12 years. Outdoors takes place on the evening of those choir rehearsals once a week, for a year. Every Tuesday evening during term time, until February 2012, audiences of 13 are given an ipod and earphones, and sent to walk the streets of Aberystwyth. Through those ipods, they see and hear the stories of Heartsong choir members along their journeys – 13 different stories from real locals that lead them in different paths through the town’s narrow streets and famous seafront – until they are finally reunited at the end of the evening in a wonderful celebration of the power of choral singing.
Rimini Protokoll is the label of the works of Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel. They produce theatre pieces, radio shows and work in the urban environment in a diverse variety of collaborative partnerships. Using research, auditions and conceptual processes, allowing what they call ‘experts’ to find their unique voice. Latest productions include Call Cutta in a Box, a one-to-one telephone performance that takes place live from a call centre in India, and 100% Berlin, a living arrangement of statistics for 100 citizens on a revolving stage. In 2007, Rimini Protokoll were awarded with the German Faust theatre award, and in 2008 the European prize for ‘New Realities in Theatre. Rimini Protokoll are based at HAU theatre in Berlin. www.rimini-protokoll.de
Tag: #ntw11
NTW Community
The National Theatre Wales online community has been central to the company’s activities and identity since day one, and is growing from strength to strength – it now has more than 2,500 members. For its second year, National Theatre Wales will be working with its digital network to develop the possibilities of online theatre. Over the course of the year, Blast Theory, experts in the interactions of live theatre and the digital, will curate and develop a new adventure with the online community members.
nationaltheatrewales.org/community
NTW WalesLab
National Theatre Wales’ unique initiative for emerging artists and new theatre ideas places writers, directors, actors, choreogaphers, designers, performance artists, installation makers and multi-media experimenters across the landscape of Wales to develop new ideas. Sharing their progress through itsdigital hub, and inviting local audiences to see their work-in-progress, the company’s ever-growing community of artists will, through WalesLab, get the chance to try out the ideas that will create tomorrow’s theatre.
NTW TEAM
Everywhere that National Theatre Wales goes, it recruits and works alongside a team of local volunteers. These are the people who let their communities know about the company’s productions, who visit rehearsals to give feedback, and who help plan for the future. Throughout its second year, National Theatre Wales will continue to work alongside TEAM members, training and supporting the current TEAM and recruiting new TEAM.
nationaltheatrewales.org/team
NTW Assembly
National Theatre Wales’ Assembly programme runs alongside our main productions and offers participants the opportunity to experience theatre as a space for exploration and discussion.
In our first year, Assemblies were held in pubs, empty shops, disused banks, marquees, bus stations and ice-cream parlours. We worked with local residents to discover a key question for their community. Teams of local musicians, performers, artists, filmmakers, bakers, coastguards, property developers, church ministers, political activists and many more explored those questions through performance and debate. In our second year, we will be developing the Assembly programme in exciting new directions.
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