Actors’ Touring Co Sets Spring Season, Begins With THE GOLDEN DRAGON

Following The Golden Dragon, Ramin Gray's debut production as Artistic Director of Actors' Touring Company (ATC), the company launches a programme of work this Spring that is set to consolidate its reputation for touring ambitious Contemporary Theatre with a strong international focus and its commitment to working closely with regional, national and international partners in order to take theatre everywhere.

In March, Actors' Touring Company will become the first UK theatre company to take its work to Kurdistan, as their production of Roland Schimmelpfennig's The Golden Dragon guests at the region's first ever interNational Theatre festival. The Kurdistan InterNational Theatre Festival, which takes place in Suleimania is being held in honour of Harold Pinter who was a tireless campaigner for raising awareness of the plight of the Kurds. The Golden Dragon, which received rave reviews when it premiered last year, tackles the subjects of exile and dispossession, themes that are expected to have a particular resonance with a Kurdish audience. This trip follows a hugely successful tour of India in January

The company then takes to the road from the end of March to the end of May with two chamber pieces, a major revival of Sarah Kane's Crave and the English language premier of Illusions by Ivan Viripaev. The same group of actors will perform both plays in rep.

Love & death, loyalty & betrayal, truth & fiction, hope & despair, Illusions is a beguiling comedy that takes the audience through a hall of mirrors. Russia's foremost contemporary playwright and screenwriter, Viripaev, has won several major awards for his work including the prestigious Golden Mask and the Presidential Council Prize for Literature in Russia and awards at the Venice, Warsaw and Sochi Film Festivals.

About Crave: When Crave was first performed in 1998, Sarah Kane used the pseudonym of Marie Kelvedon. By that time her work had developed a reputation for on-stage violence but Crave was seen as a departure from this. The poetic quality of the work eschews narrative and setting and presents disconnected meditations on love and yearning. Crave is about what life does to people. Four performers embody the competing voices of a mind in torment and ecstasy, embittered, dismayed and often bewildered by an existence over which they have no control. The production is the first major revival in ten years of a contemporary classic, a groundbreaking work that challenges the very notion of what makes a play

Actor's Touring Company also co-produces the first ever stage version of Jung Chang's true story Wild Swans in a major international collaboration with the Young Vic and American Repertory Theatre opening at The Young Vic in April. Wild Swans tells the story of China at the heart of the 20th century through the eyes of one fiercely courageous family. The book sold over 13 million copies in 36 languages, making it the best-selling non-fiction work in British publishing history. This new production is part of World Stages London - an unprecedented collaboration between 8 London producing venues and 12 UK and international co-producers that celebrates the exhilarating cosmopolitan diversity of London.

Ramin Gray says "I am incredibly proud of the breadth of Actors' Touring Company's Spring season. The Golden Dragon going to Kurdistan illustrates perfectly our ambition of taking the work to new audiences. This compliments the tour of Crave and Illusions which shows our intent to develop a company that presents actor led ensemble theatre whilst Wild Swans is a real statement of our commitment to international collaboration between companies and artists to produce work that is both challenging and exciting".

SPRING PROGRAMME

THE GOLDEN DRAGON
By Roland Schimmelpfennig
Kurdistan InterNational Theatre Festival - Suleimania
March 1 – 8 2012
Translated by David Tushingham
Director – Ramin Gray

TOUR
CRAVE
By Sarah Kane
In association with North Wall Oxford
Director – Ramin Gray

ILLUSIONS
By Ivan Vyrypaev
Translated by Caz Liske
Director by Ramin Gray

North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
29th and 30th March – Crave only
Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
31st March – Crave only
Northern Stage Newcastle
3rd – 6th April – Crave only
Manchester Royal Exchange Studio
19th – 21st April – Crave only
Bristol Old Vic at the Wickham Studio, University of Bristol
24th Illusions only
25th – 28th April Crave & Illusions
Hull Truck
10th- 12th May – Crave & Illusions
The Point, Eastleigh
17th May - Crave & Illusions
Quarterhouse, Folkestone
18th May - Crave & Illusions
Gulbenkian Theatre Canterbury
19th May - Crave & Illusions
York Theatre Royal
21st-23rd May - Crave & Illusions
Traverse Theatre Edinburgh
25th – 26th May - Crave & Illusions

WILD SWANS
By Jung Chang
Adapted by Alexandra Wood
Directed by Sacha Wares
A Young Vic/ American Repertory Theater/ Actors Touring Company co-production
Young Vic main house
13th April – 13th May