The team behind National Theatre Wales’ award-winning production The Persians will stage a multimedia, promenade performance entitled Coriolan/us in a 90m x 50m aircraft hangar in the Vale of Glamorgan this August, as part of the World Shakespeare Festival.
Inspired by today’s era of 24-hour news, CCTV, and political instability and upheaval, co-directors Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes (pictured above) will build a ‘theatre machine’ in Hangar 858, at RAF St Athan. Using a dynamic combination of media - live, on-screen, in-ear, and delivered from a multitude of viewpoints, this site-specific production will cast the shifting audience as the plebeian crowd, appealed to, lobbied and petitioned by political factions and its battle-hardened leader. They will move around the space, creating their own version of the story according to where they find themselves and what they hear and see.
“What is the city but the people?”
The production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus - National Theatre Wales’ first staging of play by Shakespeare - will also draw upon Bertholt Brecht’s 1950s adaptation Coriolan, highlighting the role of the people and the impact of conflict in and on urban populations in contemporary political situations.
“The story of Coriolanus fascinates me,” explains Mike Pearson, “because it is so unsettling: seeming always to reflect the time in which we live, yet offering no easy solutions. It demands of us that we think politically.
“Unlike other of Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists, Coriolanus is very rarely alone – he has only two soliloquies, and little room or opportunity to go away to reflect. It’s all happening in the public domain, yet he refuses to perform a role for that public, to play a part. That and the play’s very open and direct setting – there are no sub-plots, very few indoor scenes yet an ever-present crowd – make it a fascinating counterpoint to contemporary political life, with its round-the-clock news and social media, unreliable leaderships and civil unrest.”
Coriolan/us is a co-production for the World Shakespeare Festival, which is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the London 2012 Festival. The London 2012 Festival is the spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration running from 21 June until 9 September 2012, bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK.
CORIOLAN/US
A co-production for the World Shakespeare Festival, which is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the London 2012 Festival
8th-11th and 15th–18th August 2012
Location: Hangar 858, Picketston, RAF St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan
Directed by: Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes
Designed by: Mike Brookes and Simon Banham
Sound Designer: Mike Beer
Director of Photography: Pete Telfer
Music by: John Hardy
Emerging Director: Lowri Jenkins
Cast: Brendan Charleson, Jonny Glynn, Nia Gwynne, Richard Harrington, Chris Jared,
Richard Lynch, Rhian Morgan, John Rowley, Matthew Thomas, Gerald Tyler and Bethan Witcomb.
Dates: 8th-11th and 15th–18th August 2012, 7.30pm
Audience to arrive by 7pm for preparation and kit supply
Location: Hangar 858 Picketston, RAF St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, CF62 4DN
Tickets: £15 (£7 conc)
Groups of 10+ £3 off each ticket
Booking fees may apply |
