If you go down to the woods this summer….you will find anything but a teddy bears’ picnic.What you will find is a gang of friends falling apart, a body, a shellsuit clad wannabe, one multi-award winning writer Gary Owen and a heck of a performance from company Dirty Protest. A month before the theatre company’s first birthday they have accepted the invitation to perform alongside the Royal Court Theatre, Paines Plough and the Bush Theatre at this year’s Latitude Festival. Critically acclaimed and after putting on a eleven months sell-out exciting performances the Cardiff-based company will head over the border for the first time to present The Whole Truth Parts 1-3 by Bafta Cymru nominated writer Tim Price, award-winning playwright Gary Owen and newcomer Rhiannon Boyle. Co-founder Tim Price said, “We are delighted to be going to Latitude Festival. This is where the idea for Dirty Protest was first established when we came last year and decided that this ethos of theatre needed to be brought to Wales. “Coming back now with three plays of our own is really significant to us as an organisation.” As the only Welsh company performing at the festival Dirty Protest was keen to showcase the best of the country’s talent from writers to actors. Dirty Protest’s director Catrin Rees explained how The Whole Truth Parts 1-3 came about. She said, “Tim’s first part was performed in the Sherman Cymru for part of the theatre’s new writing festival. Dirty Protest had been asked to stage three plays and we wanted to show the audience what we were taking to Latitude and also to be inspired by The Whole Truth: Part One (Friends). “After the performance we invited anyone who was interested to try and draft parts two and three, Lovers and Killers. We put the script and a video of the performance on Facebook and waited for the creative minds of Wales to get writing. “We picked the best two but we were hugely encouraged by all the entries from brand new writers and established playwrights. Plus it is great that last August we staged Rhiannon’s first ever work and now she will have her new play performed at Latitude.” Gary Owen reveals his part involves camping, sexual manipulation and murder - all the ingredients of a great knockabout comedy. This inclusive ethos, mixing new and established writers, theatre virgins and stalwarts is key to Dirty Protest’s success. Marketing the theatre nights like a gig, it has garnered rave reviews from British Theatre Guide, Big Issue Cymru and The Western Mail. Co-founder Claire Hill says, “It is amazing to see how we have grown in less than a year. We seem to have tapped a nerve and found people who really care about new theatre. “You can talk to strangers on the street and they’ve heard of us, actors and writers tell us they’ve heard of a performing waiting list and can they please be added and, most importantly of all, every time we party after a Dirty Protest event people want to come back and leave with their creative juices flowing. And they’re a little bit tipsy. “So if anyone tries to tell you that young people don’t want to come and see plays then you just send them our way. If the queues down the street won’t convince them all they have to do is come inside and they’ll be hooked. “If we can recreate a fraction of the atmosphere at Latitude that we have created in Cardiff then we will leave the festival a very happy brigade.” |
| Dirty Protest web site: www.dirtyprotesttheatre.co.uk |
| Claire Hill e-mail: press@dirtyprotesttheatre.co.uk |
Monday, June 23, 2008 |
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