Nat'l Theatre Wales' THE SOUL EXCHANGE To Be Created By Local Artists

Past and present collide on the streets of Cardiff's Butetown, in an exploratory journey formed by a group of artists from a range of creative and cultural backgrounds. Unearth the secrets of these well-loved streets; meet millionaires and paupers, seamen and dockers, gamblers and poets, royalty and rogues. Explore the myths and truths that have made Tiger Bay - as Butetown is affectionately known - roar.

The Soul Exchange is site-specific performance which will begin at the Wales Millennium Centre. The audience will travel in a procession of taxis through the streets of Butetown, hearing as they go the story of John, who is desperately searching for his father, whom he has never met.

The journey ends with an unexpected ceremony at the Coal Exchange - where the world's first million-pound deal was struck. The audience and community will reclaim this historic building, once synonymous with wealth and commerce, posing for a commemorative photograph.

The production is directed by?Kully Thiarai and designed by?Jane Linz Roberts. The Musical Director is Cardiff DJ Keith Murrell. Other artists include Welsh photogragher Rhodri Jones and Welsh-born Gavin Porter, Anthony Brito and Kyle Legall from Butetown, and Borhan Mohammadi, Ali Gadema and Yusra Warsama from Manchester.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

National Theatre Wales presents
The Soul Exchange
In association with the Wales Millennium Centre

27-28 January 2010
7pm
Butetown, Cardiff (starting point: Wales Millennium Centre)

Directed by?Kully Thiarai
Designed by?Jane Linz Roberts
Musical Director Keith Murrell

Artists:
Anthony Brito
Ali Gadema
Rhodri Jones
Kyle Legall
Borhan Mohammadi
Gavin Porter?
Yusra Warsama

Age guidance: recommended for 12+

Box Office
Wales Millennium Centre?
Bute Place?
Cardiff Bay?
CF10 5AL
Tel. 029 2063 6464
and
Butetown History & Arts Centre
Bute Street
Cardiff
CF10 5AN
Tel. 029 2025 6757

Tickets
£10
£8 conc
£5 for local residents (available only from the Butetown History & Arts Centre)

Cast and Creative Team biogs

Director Kully Thiarai is an independent theatre direcor and arts consultant. She was Director of the Theatre Writing Partnership and a Clore Fellow in 2007-8, and in 2001-2007, was Joint Artistic Director of Leicester Haymarket, where her directing credits included Bollywood Jane by Amanda Whittington, Roald Dahl's The Witches, West Side Story, Plague of Innocence by Noel Grieg and Unsuitable Girls by Dolly Dhingra. Her next project will be The Digital Tea Dance for Bangor University's Pontio project, - a piece created with the people of Bangor and inspired by interviews with the generation that lived through the blitz.

Designer Jane Linz Roberts's work for new writing has been seen throughout the UK and abroad.
She was Resident Designer of the Sherman Theatre and has designed for Birmingham Rep, Theatr Clwyd, Sheffield Crucible, Nottingham Playhouse, the New Victoria, Stoke-on-Trent, the Wolsey Theatre, the Traverse, and the Unicorn.

Photographer Rhodri Jones was born in Gwynedd in 1963, and is presently based in Italy. Having travelled widely in Europe, South America and East Africa, he began working as a professional photographer in 1989 in Central America. He has since worked on projects around the globe, and his work has been used by many leading newspapers, NGOs, magazines and publishers worldwide.

Cardiff-born Musical Director Keith Murrell is a DJ on Radio Cardiff 98.7FM, and is Musical Director of UHS, a local women's singing group. He has been DJing in and around Butetown for almost 40 years, and was a founding member of local group Roots & Branches. In the 1980s he frequently collaborated with Welsh-language artist Geraint Jarman, before making a move towards community-based music in the 90s.

From Cardiff, Butetown community co-ordinator Anthony Brito is also a storyteller and writer, and runs butetown.org with multimedia artist Gavin Porter. Anthony and Kyle Legall were the founders of Community Helps Itself, a Butetown community organization that gives young people in the area an opportunity to explore art and media.

From Manchester, Ali Gadema is an actor, rapper, poet, hip hop theatre practitioner and, and is from Manchester. He has received national and international recognition performing in Jamaica, Washington DC and other places around the globe. Borhan Mohammadi is a youth leader and theatre director at Contact Theatre. Yusra Warsama is a performance poet, actor, workshop leader and theatre practitioner. She has worked with national and International Artists and companies such as Morganics, Sista Native, and Lemn Sissay. Her most recent project is in a lead role in Stolen, a new BBC film directed by Justin Chadwick.