Cardiff’s pub theatre The Other Room (recent winner of The Stage Awards ‘Fringe Theatre of the Year’) continues its game changing season of work, Insomnia, with new play Constellation Street by Matthew Bulgo.
Constellation Street (12 – 30 April), follows four lost souls under Cardiff skies (played by Roger Evans, Nicola Reynolds, Neal McWilliams and Gwenllian Higginson) as they go looking for answers. After dark, when the world is quiet, their paths weave and collide as they all go in search of salvation. When dawn breaks, life will go on but there will be another night to contend with soon enough. As the sun rises over the Taff, can anyone break free from the past?
Constellation Street is written by Matthew Bulgo (Best Playwright award winner at the Wales Theatre Awards 2015 and writer of Last Christmas and Real Human Being), who has already been a part of the Insomnia season as an actor in Play by Samuel Beckett and Silence by Harold Pinter. Matthew comments:
“I'm immensely pleased that Constellation Street is being staged as part of The Other Room's sophomore season of work. I was wowed by the audacity of their first season and I think their vision for this piece will surprise more than just a few people. It may be one of the most diminutive venues in Wales in terms of its capacity but their level of ambition is simply breathtaking.
The Other Room have provided me with a unique and innovative approach to writing a new play – a repertory season where a new Welsh play will not only be staged alongside work from some of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century but where it will also be created and incubated from within the heart of that curated programme of work. Over the past 6 months, I've effectively had the benefits of being a 'writer-in-residence' in miniature. The process has allowed me to write a play that has been refracted through the other four plays in the season, resulting in what is hopefully a suitable partner-piece for them.
For me, Constellation Street asks the question 'can we ever fully escape the terrible things we've done, or will they consign us, forever, to our personal purgatories?' I've always been of the mind that a good play should rouse its audience with a stiff blow to the head. That it should sting, and bite and shake us. I hope Constellation Street does just that.”
The final piece of the season will be directed by The Other Room’s former trainee directors Chelsey Gillard and Dan Jones. Chelsey comments:
“I've been part of the team at TOR since the very beginning, before it even existed as a physical venue. In that time I've been given the very best opportunities and support as a Trainee Director to learn and hone my skills. I feel incredibly proud to be working on such an exciting show as Constellation Street and really couldn't ask for a more inspiring group of people to be making my professional directing debut alongside.
Constellation Street is a show so close to my heart. It takes place in the city I love, Cardiff. The characters seem so familiar, their voices are so genuine it feels like you are witnessing their real life stories unfold before you. Matthew Bulgo has crafted this script with such care and attention to detail and I can't wait to get into the rehearsal room with Dan and our incredible cast to bring it all to life.
The Other Room is already known for its daring approach to theatre and I can promise Constellation Street will be like nothing you have ever seen in our venue before.”
Dan comments:
“Well I think it’s safe to say I landed on my feet when I fell into rehearsals on my first production at The Other Room. An assistant director position opened up, an email was received, and I was in the rehearsal room by the afternoon. Before I knew it, Kate Wasserberg, Bizzy Day and the rest of The Other Room team, had taken me under their wing and totally immersed me in their sphere.
Now, as my time as trainee director comes to an end, I recognise how fortunate I am to have played my tiny part in what shall be remembered as an exciting period in Welsh Theatre. We know all good things must come to an end, and I cannot think of a better way to end than with Constellation Street. The immense intelligence of Matthew Bulgo is present in every detail of this heartfelt and superbly sculpted script.
I can’t overstate how excited I am for audiences to experience this play; and I do not use the word ‘experience’ lightly. Each time our audience visit our theatre, they constantly remark on how bewildered and pleasantly surprised they are by the way the “room” is transformed. This is a trait of The Other Room we are delighted with; and Constellation Street will be no different. With its semi-promenade layout, audiences will be guided from one corner of the city to another, immersing themselves in four separate worlds inhabited by the cities lost and forgotten.”
Tickets for The Other Room’s Constellation Street by Matthew Bulgo, running 12 - 30 April, are available now from www.otherroomtheatre.com. To keep updated on The Other Room, you can also follow the team on Twitter @TORtheatre and Facebook www.facebook.com/otherroomtheatre |
