National Theatre Of Wales Announces 2010/2011 Season, Features Michael Sheen

Today, John McGrath, Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales announced the company's first year of work for the 2010 - 2011 season at a press briefing in Cardiff that was simultaneously broadcast to the world via the internet.  The season will culminate with a special production Owen Sheer's PASSION, directed by international stage and screen star Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon).

In a unique event during which the season launch occurred simultaneously live and online, key staff, guests and artists gathered at the company's shop/office at Castle Arcade, Cardiff, while many thousands of others logged on to nationaltheatrewales.org to watch the global digital broadcast of the event. Launch gatherings were held simultaneously across Wales in locations where National Theatre Wales will produce work between March 2010 and April 2011.

The first ‘launch' year of work will theatrically map Wales. One show per month, each month (plus an additional finale) will take place in locations across the country, bringing the very best of Welsh writing, performing and directing together with world class artists and world class ideas from across the globe.

National Theatre Wales will create bold, invigorating theatre in the English language, rooted in Wales, with an international reach. It will produce theatre indoors and outdoors across spaces and landscapes in Wales. It will explore theatre as a space for debate and discussion, and develop programmes to respond to current events happening across the road or around the world.

National Theatre Wales actively encourages dialogue with the people of Wales and beyond, and therefore it welcomes response to its work at nationaltheatrewales.org

The Upcoming Season Features:

March 2010
South Wales Valleys

A GOOD NIGHT OUT IN THE VALLEYS
Written by Alan Harris
Directed by John E McGrath
Designed by Angela Davies

In their heyday, the coal mines created thriving communities and considerable wealth in the towns of the Welsh Valleys. Those communities were full of a sense of pride and spirit, something that was embodied in the creation of the Miners' Institutes. Taking a penny from every pound the miners earned, they built these Institutes which became their concert halls, theatres, meeting places and snooker halls. Originally used for tea dances, rehearsals, union meetings and reading groups, the Institutes were buildings in which the communities met and socialised. Many a good night out was had!

Over the years, the Institutes have become local arts centres or meeting halls. Others have fallen into disrepair.

Writer Alan Harris and National Theatre Wales Artistic Director John E McGrath have visited these places and have spent time with the local communities, asking them for their definition of a good night out. From these stories, six will be chosen and presented back to the local people, and finally one will become a full production which will tour five of the existing Miners' Institutes over three weeks.

Alan Harris is an ex-journalist whose previous plays have been presented in London, Cardiff and Newport. John E McGrath is Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales (full biog in press kit). Angela Davies is a highly renowned theatre designer whose recent work includes Life Is A Dream at the Donmar Warehouse.

Thur 11 & Fri 12 March 2010, 7.30pm
Blackwood Miners' Institute
High Street
Blackwood, Gwent, NP12 1BB
Tel. 01495 227 206

Tue 16 March 2010, 7.30pm
Blaengarw Workmen's Hall
Bridgend, CF32 8AW
Tel. 01656 871 911

Thur 18 & Fri 19 March 2010, 7.30pm
Pontardawe Arts Centre
Herbert Street
Pontardawe, SA8 4ED
Tel. 01792 863 722

Tue 23 March 2010, 7.30pm
Bedwas Workman's Hall
Newport Rd, Bedwas
Caerphilly, NP1 8BJ
Tel. 07983 708 663

Fri 26 & Sat 27 March 2010, 7.30pm
Coliseum
Mount Pleasant, Trecynon
Aberdare, CF44 8NG
Tel. 01685 881 188

Tickets from £5.00
Booking Opens Fri 6 Nov 2009

April 2010
Swansea

SHELF LIFE
In partnership with Volcano Theatre and Welsh National Opera
Directed by Paul Davies
Music by Peter Swaffer Reynolds

Volcano Theatre and Welsh National Opera have recruited a choir of librarians to take over the evocative domed reading room of Swansea's Old Library. They will guide you through the abandoned book stacks on a journey to whisper about for a long time to come.

Wales is a country of wordsmiths. One of the best known, Dylan Thomas was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive in Swansea. The now abandoned Swansea Old Library was home to The Dylan Thomas Collection, which was established in the 1950s and consisted of over 3000 books and periodical articles written about or by Thomas.

A choir of librarians will inhabit the beautiful empty spaces of the Old Library, bringing to life the memories, stories, and spaces in a promenade piece fusing song, movement and space.

Volcano is an internationally renowned touring company based in Swansea which has produced over 25 shows, using a powerful physical style coupled with visual impact and innovative use of text. In this production, the company has been partnered by Welsh National Opera to create a hugely evocative, riotous and moving paean to the linguistic tradition in Wales. Peter Swaffer Reynolds is a multi-instrumental composer who has worked with circus, silent movies, theatre, dance and site-specific events since the mid-1980s.

6 - 25 April 2010
Tue & Wed, 7pm
Thur - Sat, 7pm & 8.30pm
Sun, 3pm & 4.30pm

Old Library
Alexandra Road
Swansea, SA1 5DU

Tickets from £7.00
Booking Opens Fri 6 Nov 2009
Taliesin Arts Centre
Tel. 01792 602 060

May 2010
Cardiff

THE DEVIL INSIDE HIM
By John Osborne
Directed by Elen Bowman
Designed by Alex Eales

The Devil Inside Him is the first play that John Osborne wrote to be produced for the stage. Written at the age of eighteen, it predates Look Back in Anger by some six years, and was thought lost until its recent discovery in the archive of the Lord Chamberlain, who had the power to censor all plays until 1968. National Theatre Wales will produce the world premiere of this version of the play.

The Devil Inside Him is the story of Huw Prosser, a plain-speaking young poet growing up in a deeply conservative Welsh village. The play is set in a boarding house in that village, and sits somewhere between the world of 1950s melodrama and the ground-breaking ‘angry young man' writing for which Osborne became famous.

The production will be directed by Elen Bowman. Bowman is one of the most highly respected directors in Wales. Her work has won numerous awards and she taught direction techniques to Katie Mitchell and Ian Rickson among many others. Bowman lives and works in Wales, holding the post of artistic associate at Sherman Cymru Theatre in Cardiff.

6 - 16 May 2010
Tue - Sat, 7.30pm
Thur & Sat, 2.30pm
Sun, 4pm

New Theatre
Park Place
Cardiff, CF10 3LN

Tickets from £5.00
Booking Opens Fri 6 Nov 2009
Tel. 02920 878 889

June 2010
Barmouth

FOR MOUNTAIN, SAND & SEA
Conceived and curated by Marc Rees
With a company of Welsh and International Artists

"It all started with an opportunity to explore the Welsh seaside - we went on a tour of the coastline of Wales and chose Barmouth."

What is it about the seaside that brings out the most unusual in people? Wales' leading exponent of contemporary performance and installation, Marc Rees, is bringing together a group of artists from around the world to create a multi sensory journey through a quirky Welsh seaside town.

"Apparently, Darwin wrote part of the Origin of Species here and John Ruskin and Wordsworth came here to work and relax."

Barmouth's location on the west coast of Wales and lying between a mountain range and the sea on the mouth of the river Mawddach makes it arguably one of the most beautiful places in Wales. It rests just within the south west corner of Snowdonia National Park, and is steeped in a history rich with connections to the shipping and slate industries. However, as with so many similar seaside towns, over the summer months an influx of tourists from the Midlands and the North-West give way to a winter of harder times in Barmouth. Chapels on the main street have become ‘Pound Shops', with cash registers in the pulpit and giant inflatable crocodiles hanging from the church organ.

Making their base in one such chapel, Marc Rees' performers will take people on very unusual and unexpected guided tours of the town.

Rees' artworks are known for their flamboyant, humorous and often extreme interpretations of history, culture and personal experience. In addition to working with some of Britain's foremost physical theatre companies (Brith Gof, Earthfall and DV8) his own body of work through his company RIPE (Rees International Projects Enterprise) has been premiered throughout Europe and the UK. He recently won the Wales bid for the Cultural Olympiad project ‘Artists Taking the Lead', for which he will transport the fuselage of a DC9 aeroplane across Wales as a mobile art space.

25 June - 10 July 2010
Barmouth, Gwynedd

Tickets from £1.00
Booking Opens Mon 8 March 2010
Theatre Harlech
Tel. 01766 780667

July 2010
The Beaches of North Wales

THE BEACH
Created by Rhiannon Cousins, Carl Morris and Bethan Marlow
In partnership with Hide and Seek

From fairgrounds to Carnival, from situationism to cheese-rolling, playing games in public has long been a part of popular culture. National Theatre Wales has asked three leading young artists to create a new outdoor gaming event for the beaches of North Wales.

What would life be like without time to play? Chasing, hiding, deducing, observing, drawing and betraying, The Beach is sure to bring out the gamer in anyone.

Theatre games are interactive events in which the audience or participants' experience is determined by their own choices. Participants are given set aims, which they must achieve within the rules of the game. Playfulness and spontaneity are the watchwords.

One game created by Hide and Seek - Paparazzi - saw players stalk a ‘celebrity' through the streets of London, armed with their own cameras, each competing for the best stolen image. Another - Pulgar Libre - pitted audience members against elaborately costumed Mexican thumb wrestlers.

The Beach will be a brand new game, commissioned from Hide and Seek by National Theatre Wales.

26 July - 1 August 2010
On the Beaches of the North Wales Coast

TIckets from £5.00
Booking Opens Mon 8 March 2010

August 2010
Cilieni Village, Brecon Beacons Military Range

THE PERSIANS
A new version of Aeschylus's classic play, by Kaite O'Reilly
Directed by Mike Pearson
Conceptual design by Mike Brookes
Designed by Simon Banham
Music by John Hardy

One of Wales's most celebrated directors, Mike Pearson will bring the first ever European play to shocking new life in the heart of the Brecon Military Range, an area rarely seen by civilians.

Aeschylus' play recounts the story of the return to his homeland of the defeated Persian King Xerxes. It is a moral lesson on the subject of tyranny, designed to touch the conscience of every oppressor.

"We cannot let the public come up here all that often, because of all the training that happens."

In the heart of the Brecon Beacons, the English army has built a village - no-one lives there. It is a village in which special forces soldiers are trained to ‘clear' insurgents. We have all seen the footage of soldiers going through villages in Bosnia and Iraq and Afghanistan, clearing the way. This is where they trained to do that.

"I command and run all the Army training areas in Wales, and here at Sennybridge is the largest one at about 31,000 acres, the scenery is tremendous. This training village was built in 1982 and is a very typical replica village.

"One of the houses we use as a demonstration facility here in the village will be used by National Theatre Wales as a stage set. The front of the house is cut away so that you can see the action on all four floors: down in the cellar, the ground floor, the first floor and then up in the attic and the roof space. We use it to demonstrate how to clear a house, how to clear a room. National Theatre Wales will use it for their show".

Chris Sernberg, Lieutenant Colonel Commandant

Mike Pearson, best known for his work with the groundbreaking and inspirational theatre company Brith Gof will direct The Persians in the village and in the house in the military range. Audiences will be taken on a completely unique and never to be repeated journey into the heart of the Welsh countryside, where ancient and modern worlds will collide.

11 - 21 August 2010
Cilieni Village, Ministry of Defence
Brecon Beacons, Powys
Tickets from £10.00
Booking Opens Mon 8 March 2010
Theatr Brycheiniog Tel. 01874 611 622

October 2010
Bridgend

LOVE STEALS US FROM LONELINESS
In partnership with Sherman Cymru
Written by Gary Owen
Directed by John E McGrath

In 2010 Gary Owen, one of Wales's foremost playwrights, returns to his hometown of Bridgend to research and write a new piece of theatre.

Owen's drama will look at what it means to be a young person growing up in Bridgend today. It may be about the suicides, it may not, but they will always be there.

The Bridgend suicide incidents were an unusual sequence of deaths involving young people in the South Wales county borough of Bridgend. Reports speculated that a "suicide cult" was to blame. Between December 2008 and January 2009 there were twenty-four known deaths, though police have found no evidence to link the cases together. The media have told us their Bridgend story, but what will a writer who spent his own teenage years there have to say?

‘I grew up in Bridgend. Although I've written plays set or drawn from there, either consciously or not, I've so far avoided writing anything connected with the young people who took their own lives in 2008. I don't think you can shirk from taking on the big topics, and what's important is that this work will happen in Bridgend with and for the people of Bridgend. I can remember growing up and people saying "Oh, isn't this a shithole" and that's similar to what so many young people think about any small town they grow up in. This will be from someone who has been through that and can say "just hold on a bit longer"'.
Gary Owen, playwright

Gary Owen was born in Pembrokeshire in 1972, and was raised in Narberth, Clynderwen and Bridgend. His current projects include A Christmas Carol, a new adaptation of Dickens, for Sherman Cymru which opens December 2009; Free Folk, a new play for Forest Forge; Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, a new play for the Watford Palace Theatre; Spring Awakening, a free adaptation of Wedekind, for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; Blackthorn, a new play co-commissioned by Hampstead Theatre and Clwyd Theatr Cymru; Voices Wales, an oral history project, funded by a Creative Wales Award from ACW and a new commission for the National Theatre of Scotland. His previous work includes: Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco for Paines Plough and Sgript Cymru; The Shadow of a Boy for the National Theatre (Winner, Meyer Whitworth Award, joint winner, George Devine Award) and The Drowned World for Paines Plough (Winner, Fringe First; joint winner, Pearson Best Play Award).

Bridgend

Booking Opens Mon 5 July 2010
Sherman Cymru
Tel. 029 2064 6900

November 2010
Newport

THE DARK PHILOSOPHERS
A new theatre production based on the stories of Gwyn Thomas

National Theatre Wales will celebrate one of Wales' most distinctive voices of the last century with The Dark Philosophers, a brand new dramatisation of the ink-black comic tales of Gwyn Thomas, the great Welsh storyteller and dark, hilarious chronicler of the Valleys.

This adaptation will bring out the bleak, wild humour in the stories, taking no prisoners, and respecting no laws other than man's right to survive. Laced with sex, murder and a devastating wit, Gwyn Thomas is the true voice of the Valleys.

"As if Thomas Hardy met Damon Runyon over a loving cup of small beer."
New York Herald Tribune, 1947

The youngest of twelve children, Gwyn Thomas (1913-1981) was born and brought up in Cymmer, in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. Growing up in poverty, he won a scholarship to Oxford University, and returned to Wales to teach. The Dark Philosophers - a collection of short stories - was published in 1946, while his novels include The Alone to the Alone (1947); All Things Betray Thee (1949); The World Cannot Hear You (1951), and Now Lead Us Home (1952). His play The Keep opened at The Royal Court Theatre in 1961, to great acclaim.

The Riverfront
Bristol Packet Wharf
Newport, NP20 1HG

Booking Opens Mon 5 July 2010
The Riverfront
Tel. 01633 656 679

December 2010
Snowdonia

THE WEATHER FACTORY
Directed and designed by David Harradine
In partnership with Fevered Sleep

Where does all the weather in Wales come from? Artist David Harradine invites you to step inside his Weather Factory. Discover the real drama of the elements, and a year's worth of weather all in one magical place.

After a year spent collecting weather samples in Snowdonia, Harradine will open his Weather Factory to audiences for the first time ever. At last, it will be possible to witness the magical, mysterious process in action.

The Weather Factory is designed for adults and children, and will approach the timeless question of the weather with a lively and magical curiosity.

Director and designer David Harradine is Artistic Director of the company Fevered Sleep. Working across the UK and internationally, the company makes exquisite work for children and curious adults. Previous projects have included An Infinite Line - an installation in an underground industrial space in Brighton - and And The Rain Falls Down, part of a trilogy of installations for children based on the rituals and games of everyday life. Fevered Sleep is an Associate Company at the Young Vic Theatre.

Snowdonia

Booking Opens Mon 8 Nov 2010
Galeri Caernarfon
Tel. 01286 685 222

January 2011
Butetown, Cardiff

SOUL EXCHANGE
Devised by a team of International Artists, working with the communities of Butetown

It was in Butetown Coal Exchange that the world's first ever million-pound deal was struck, paid by a cheque from the local bank in 1901.

Butetown is one of the most ethnically diverse regions of Wales. It has a Welsh-Somali population of around 10,000 - the largest Somali community outside Somalia itself.

Soul Exchange will see a team of International Artists blend these and many other facets of Butetown's history in a year of work with the local community.

At the year's climax, 1,000 audience members will be given the riotous, raucous taxi ride of their life through Butetown, all converging at the Butetown Coal Exchange.

Music from across the seas will mix with local lives and distant wars to create stories about millionaires, tower blocks and unforgettable voices. Then, when these members of Butetown's diverse population all arrive at the Coal Exchange, they will be photographed, recreating a famous picture of a thousand coal traders, which hangs in the Exchange.

The Coal Exchange
Butetown, Cardiff

Booking Opens Mon 8 Nov 2010

February 2011
In Aberystwyth

OUTDOORS ( Working Title)
Created by Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel (Rimini Protokoll) with The Farmers, environmentalists, rock climbers and landscape of Wales.

Commissioned by National Theatre Wales, Outdoors will be the first ever UK production by acclaimed Berlin-based theatre company Rimini Protokoll - leaders of the new ‘Reality Trend' in theatre. With the help of a cast of ‘experts' in everything from farming to climate change, Rimini Protokoll will place the reality of the outdoor world into a vital, beautiful, stimulating new piece of theatre.

Wales is one of the few countries with the natural resources to meet its energy needs through sustainable means. It is also a country built on the commercial and emotional foundations of coal-mining and farming. Rimini Protokoll will explore the urban and rural crossroads of a nation of populated corners and wide empty spaces.

‘What you will see will not be acting, it will be real - ordinary people with extraordinary stories."
Ina Driemel, Creative Associate Assistant

Rimini Protokoll are based in Berlin and are recognised as being among the leaders and creators of the theatre movement known as 'Reality Trend‘. Each project begins with a concrete situation in a specific place, and is then developed through an intense exploratory process. Past award-winning productions include Shooting Bourbaki, Deadline, Schwarzenbergplatz, Wallenstein and Call Cutta in A Box. In April 2008 Rimini Protokoll won the European Theatre Prize and in November 2008, they were awarded the Der Faust prize for theatre,.

Aberystwyth

Booking Opens Mon 8 Nov 2010
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Tel. 01970 623 232

March 2011
In Milford Haven

MUNDO PARALELO
In partnership with NoFit State Circus and Torch Theatre

For the first time, Wales' internationally renowned touring circus packs up its tent and brings its skills and magic inside a traditional theatre, mixing the stories and characters of drama with the excitement and beauty of circus.

NoFit State is the UK's leading contemporary circus company. The company was founded in 1986 by five friends (Ali Williams, Tom Rack, Peter Gregory, Richie Turner and Dave Id) who put together a street circus show for Live Aid and had so much fun that they decided to set up a circus company. They proceeded with the aim of being bigger and better each year.

NoFit State have worked with Welsh National Opera, performed at the Big Chill and the Roundhouse and worked all over the world. Rooted in a specifically Welsh tradition of community arts in which the creative voice is an expression of and grows from collective identity, Nofit State has developed a unique performance form.

Their shows are edgy, grungy and sensual. Mundo Paralelo will see them working away from the tent, in a theatre space, looking to reinvent the art form with an intensity of focus, working with a theatre director.

Milford Haven's Torch Theatre is a distinguished producing theatre. It celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2007 with an ambitious refurbishment project which has transformed it into one of the most comfortable venues in the British Isles, and an arts hub for Pembrokeshire.

Torch Theatre
St. Peter's Road, Milford Haven
Pembrokeshire, SA73 2BU

Booking Opens Mon 8 Nov 2010
Torch Theatre
Tel. 01646 695 267

April 2011
Port Talbot

PASSION
Written by Owen Sheers
Creative Director Michael Sheen

One of Port Talbot's most famous sons, Michael Sheen, returns to his home town to revive a lost tradition - the Port Talbot community Passion play. Working with leading Welsh poet Owen Sheers, supported by professional actors, international designers and extraordinary musicians, Michael will guide residents and visitors in Port Talbot on a journey of rediscovery.

Each evening, performances will tell a contemporary version of the Passion story enhanced by the stories of local people, and throughout the town there will be encounters, exhibitions, happenings and events created and inspired by the community.

The whole town will collaborate in the finale event of National Theatre Wales' launch year.

The Port Talbot Passion Play used to be staged every year in the town until 1998.

"I first saw the Passion Play in Port Talbot when I was about 12. It was a story I knew coming to life in front of me. A ritual taking place before me. A town remembering itself through a story."
Michael Sheen, Creative Director

Michael Sheen is a Welsh actor, born and brought up in Port Talbot. Having worked with screen writer Peter Morgan on five films, Sheen has become best known for his portrayals of well-known public figures: Tony Blair in The Deal, The Queen, and The Special Relationship, David Frost in both the stage production and film version of Frost/Nixon, Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa and football manager Brian Clough in The Damned United. His other stage credits include The UN Inspector (NT), Caligula (Donmar) and Amadeus (Broadway/LA).

Owen Sheers was brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales. He won the 1999 Vogue Young Writer's Award, and his first collection of poetry, The Blue Book, was short-listed for the Welsh Book of the Year. His debut prose work, The Dust Diaries, was short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize and won the Welsh Book of the Year 2005. His 2nd collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill, won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. His play Unicorns Almost was developed by Old Vic, New Voices. Owen's first novel, Resistance (Faber, 2008) won a 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award and was short-listed for the Writers Guild Best Book Award. His recent collaboration with composer Rachel Portman, The Water Diviner's Tale, an oratorio for children, was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms 2007.

22 - 24 April 2011 (Easter Weekend)
Port Talbot
Booking Opens Mon 6 Dec 2010
Debate and Respond

In addition to the 12 shows which form National Theatre Wales' main programme - ‘Create' -, the company will also produce two extra strands of work - ‘Debate' and ‘Respond' - to provide two very different kinds of creative opportunity.

Alongside the Create productions, the Debate programme will provide a forum for audiences to experience theatre as a space for exploration and discussion of ideas, and of shared or wildly difference experiences.

Debate events might take place in the same spaces as the Create productions, or they could be somewhere very different: the library, the pub, the playground, the park, the launderette, the community centre - audiences will help to choose and decide the locations and the subjects.

Featuring creative teams from the shows, experts from all walks of life, National Theatre Wales audience members and local characters, these debates will provide an opportunity for audiences to speak their mind and learn from others.

Running alongside Create and Debate, Respond adds space for something completely unexpected. Teams of writers, performers, directors, designers will be asked to respond to events happening today. It will be an opportunity to see tomorrow's artists respond to today's issues.

In contrast to the programmed productions in the Create strand, which will have months of development and preparation, the Respond events will happen quickly and sometimes unexpectedly. They may even be a bit rough around The Edges. They will always be dynamic and fresh.

 

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