Passion, Thursday 6th November, Cygnet Theatre, 7:30pm
Marking the start of The Great War and the present withdrawal from Afghanistan 2014, Dorset’s multi-award winning AsOne Theatre Company presents a gripping new play with live music that will Cygnet Theatre this November.
Including five stories of soldiers and families 100 years apart and interweaving newly gathered, original testimony, Passion is poignant, funny and bravely honest. It takes you into the living room of news-obsessed parents; into diaries of soldiers; down the camera lens, and over the top then and now; revealing how the ravages of war ripple down the generations.
Intertwined with extensive research and dusted with experienced creative talent, this is affecting theatre at its best.
AsOne Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Jane McKell, accompanied by film and radio expert Andy Worth, collected and recorded real stories from Wessex families, visiting them in their homes. These have been made into pod-casts for all who wish to have access to on the internet as a legacy. This recorded research – along with some general research of Wessex’s WW1 completed by a second researcher, Jane Mongini – became the heart of the play.
Jane McKell said: “The result is a mixture of mostly verbatim theatre and thoroughly researched invention dusted with the director’s and cast’s creative vision. Playwright Stephanie Dale told me the interviews we had done were as ’gold-dust’ from remarkable, communicative people with affecting stories who made her writing a mixture of joy and tears. Three thousand plus actors looked at our advert on Casting Call Pro to cast PASSION; 100 sent in serious submissions to claim their chance of audition.”
Jane’s decided to tour a commemorative piece marking the Great War anniversary and present Afghanistan Conflict withdrawal of British troops, and she will be the only female actor in the piece.
Ticket Information:
Thurs 06 Nov, 7:30pm – Cygnet Theatre, Exeter. Box office: 01392 277189 or buy tickets online
Also showing on Fri 07 Nov, 7:30pm, at Manor Pavilion, Sidmouth, Devon (Tel: 01395 514 413)
The Creative Team
Artistic Director: Jane McKell – 30 yrs nationally: an actor/director/educational facilitator /broadcaster/presenter, she has performed all over the UK in panto and farce through to serious contemporary drama and the classics – in theatre, on radio, TV and film.
Playwright: Stephanie Dale – Writes for stage, radio and large-scale theatre. Current commissions include: (Birmingham REP, 2014) Alice in Wonderland; (Theatre in the Quarter, 2014) Passion, a play about the First World War and the exit from Afghanistan, (AsOne Theatre, touring 2014) and A World Beyond Man; (Arena Theatre and tour, 2014). Recent work includes: Chester Mystery Plays;(cast of 250 at Chester Cathedral, June-July 2013) an adaptation of Moonfleet; which toured the South West (BristolOld Vic Theatre School, May-June 2013).
Director: Peter Leslie Wild – A theatre director and audio drama producer of 20 years’ experience and has worked in theatre, radio and video. He set up and ran the Community Programme for the Orange Theatre between 1991 and 1995, before moving to the BBC where he produced and directed hundreds of radio dramas for Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 3 and Radio 2. He has also made a speciality of site-specific work, creating theatre and audio in vast cathedrals, city streets, museums and art galleries.
Composer: Tim Laycock – Composer/musician/actor/playwright/director The RSC, The National, The New Hardy Players, The Dorset County Museum Playmakers. is well known in Dorset as a folk musician, composer, playwright, director, actor, and storyteller. Tim toured as musical director for A Winter’s Tale with the RSC earlier this year, directed the local New Hardy Players The Woodlanders, and continues to perform his Tuneful Stories at Max Gate, tour the his own ‘Time Clock’ performance piece . Tim is an extraordinary talent and genuinely loved wherever he performs or works. Tel: 07747 755480
Designer: Annette Sumption – 30 years experience of Theatre design and has worked for prestigious large-scale and smaller touring productions throughout the UK since 1977 including: The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield; The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke; Contact Theatre, Manchester and in London’s West End. This will be her fourth design for AsOne Theatre having designed and made for the company’s: Hey Baby, She Opened the Door, and The Cabinet Maker’s Daughter.