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Press Information
1980-2010 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE
The Finborough Theatre presents
Vibrant
– An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
30 NEW PLAYS TO CELEBRATE
30 YEARS OF THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE IN JUST UNDER
30 DAYS
Van Badham
Mike Bartlett
Bekah Brunstetter
Claire Dowie
Christopher Dunkley
David Eldridge
John A.D. Fraser
James Graham
Sarah Grochala
Titas Halder
Steve Hennessy
David Hutchison
Nicholas de Jongh
Aram Kouyoumdjian
Brian Logan
Anders Lustgarten
Iain Finlay MacLeod
Alistair McDowall
Colleen Murphy
Peter Oswald
Nick Payne
Mark Ravenhill
Simon Vinnicombe
Laura Wade
Jane Wainwright
Naomi Wallace
Michael Louis Wells
Joy Wilkinson
Phil Willmott
Alexandra Wood
Directors include
Adam Barnard. Zena Birch. Ellie Browning. Daniel Burgess. Claire Dowie. Helen Eastman. Clive Judd. John Kachoyan. Stephen Keyworth. Ben Kidd. Adam Lenson. Clare Lizzimore. Michael Longhurst. Chris Loveless. Tim Luscombe. Alex Marker. Jo McInnes. Blanche McIntyre. Rae Mcken. Caitlin McLeod. Wilson Milam. Nick Philippou. Eleanor Rhode. Alexander Summers. Kate Wasserberg. Colin Watkeys.
Phil Willmott. Robert Wolstenholme.
Curated by Finborough Theatre Artistic Director Neil McPherson
Produced by Dara Gilroy, Lucy Jackson, Rachel Lambert and Sarah Loader.
Vibrant – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
30 NEW PLAYS TO CELEBRATE
30 YEARS OF THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE IN JUST UNDER
30 DAYS
To celebrate its 30th anniversary year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents an anniversary festival of thirty new works for the stage by thirty UK and international playwrights, discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre, featuring many premieres of brand new plays by some of the famous playwrights who began their careers at the Finborough Theatre.
Artistic Director Neil McPherson says: “Instead of celebrating our birthday by just reviving all our old successes, and following the great success of Vibrant A Festival of Finborough Playwrights in October 2009, we decided to celebrate by presenting another festival, but this time featuring staged readings of brand new plays by some of the well-known names who began their careers at the Finborough Theatre over the last thirty years including Mike Bartlett, Claire Dowie, David Eldridge, James Graham, Nicholas de Jongh, Peter Oswald, Nick Payne, Mark Ravenhill, Laura Wade, Naomi Wallace, Phil Willmott and Alexandra Wood, alongside some of the new writers we have discovered, developed or championed in recent years.”
“We hope that our anniversary festival will be a broad celebration of both the past and the future of our work with a fascinating and idiosyncratic selection of new plays, ranging from the startlingly contemporary to drama in blank verse, from hard hitting political work to two new pieces of British musical theatre, from intimate monologues to ambitious epics. The writers’ ages vary from their early 20s to their 60s (building on our commitment to nurture new writers over 30 who continue to be neglected by other new writing organisations) and they come from a wide variety of backgrounds including playwrights from all over England (including a brand new British Asian playwright and debuts from writers from the North East and the East Midlands), Scotland (including an English language world premiere by Scotland’s leading contemporary Scots Gaelic writer, and a new play in the Scots language itself) as well as playwrights from Australia, Canada and from all over the United States (including a European premiere from one of the USA’s leading Armenian-American playwrights).”
Despite remaining completely unfunded, the Finborough Theatre has an unparalleled track record of discovering new talent who go on to become leading voices in British theatre and entertainment.
In the 1980s, the Finborough Theatre featured the first work of many comedians, writers and artists such as Clive Barker, Neil Bartlett, Jo Brand, Rory Bremner, Nica Burns, Kathy Burke, Ken Campbell, Julian Clary, Claire Dowie, Jenny Éclair, Harry Enfield, Jeremy Hardy, Ainsley Harriott, John Hegley, Wendy Houstoun of DV8, Mark Lamarr, Paul Merton, Neil Mullarkey, Mike Myers, Mark Rylance, Arthur Smith, Mark Steel, Mark Thomas and Benjamin Zephaniah. “I cannot recommend strongly enough a visit to the Finborough” Michael Coveney, Financial Times 1984.
In the 1990s, it became a “hotbed of new writing” with first plays by such well known names as David Eldridge, David Farr, Conor McPherson, Tony Marchant, Anthony Neilson, Mark Ravenhill, Naomi Wallace and Phil Willmott, and actors such as Rachel Weisz and Nicola Walker. “Over the last three years, the Finborough has seriously rivalled the Royal Court, Hampstead and the Bush as a venue for new writing" Michael Billlington, The Guardian 1994.
Since 2000 – under Artistic Director Neil McPherson – the Finborough Theatre has discovered some of the UK’s most exciting new talent including playwrights Mike Bartlett, James Graham, Sarah Grochala, Nicholas de Jongh, Chris Lee, Anders Lustgarten, Nick Payne, Al Smith, Jack Thorne, Simon Vinnicombe, Laura Wade, Joy Wilkinson and Alexandra Wood. It is the only theatre without public funding to be awarded the prestigious Pearson Playwriting Award bursary (2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010) as well as twice winning Pearson’s Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play written by a bursary holder. During this time, the Finborough Theatre has also expanded its repertoire to include music theatre and an unwavering commitment to the rediscovery of neglected drama from the past. ”One of the most stimulating venues in London, fielding a programme that is a bold mix of trenchant, politically thought-provoking new drama and shrewdly chosen revivals of neglected works from the past.” Paul Taylor, The Independent 2007.
The festival is also an opportunity to see the fruits of the work that happens behind the scenes at the Finborough Theatre as we continue to discover and develop a new generation of theatre makers through our hugely successful internship programme, our Resident Assistant Director Programme, our partnership with the National Theatre Studio – the Leverhulme Bursary for Emerging Directors, and our Literary Department.
Working closely with the Artistic Director, the Finborough Theatre’s Literary Department – Literary Manager Van Badham, Senior Reader Laura Jessop and Literary Assistant Daniel Burgess – discovers and nurtures new playwrights, both in the UK and internationally, and is evolving a new model for “literary management”. “It says a great deal about the systems and structures of new writing in UK theatres that [Sarah] Grochala's nugget of a play has been lying around for two years unproduced. At its best it reminds us of Pinter and Bond.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 2009.
Working in the text-based tradition, the unique energy of the Finborough Theatre is the paradox sustained by staging ambitious and epic work within the confines of a boutique space. We seek to develop new work that is:
Thematically expansive: In the words of our Artistic Director, the Finborough Theatre is interested in “plays that matter on subjects that matter, regardless of fashion”. We are interested in playwrights and plays that present unique challenges to ideological assumptions about community, nation and world.
Ideologically Brave: The Finborough Theatre has developed an enviable reputation as an intellectual hot-house of ideas and confrontation. We are a theatre that programmes plays to challenge the vanities, hypocrisies and oppressions of our times. We actively bring fresh voices into social debates and the world into a 50-seat space in Earl’s Court.
Artistically Ambitious: We actively seek playwrights who have moving and unusual insights into the nature of our social world, and whose theatrical voice and vision are unique.
We do hope that you will come and help us celebrate our 30th birthday…
The festival includes – and is centred around – a month long run of award-winning Finborough Theatre Playwright-in-Residence James Graham’s new play, The Man…
Tuesday, 25 May – Saturday, 19 June 2010
Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm. Saturday Matinees at 3.00pm (from 5 June 2010). Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm.
World Premiere
The Man
by James Graham. Directed by Kate Wasserberg. Lighting by Tom White.
Award-winning Playwright-in-Residence James Graham reunites with former Finborough Theatre Associate Director Kate Wasserberg to present a blackly comic and uniquely interactive storytelling event – a different actor, telling a story in a different order, selected at random, every single night. The Man was first performed in last year’s Vibrant A Festival of Finborough Playwrights by the playwright himself.
Tax is really, really taxing for Ben Edwards. Self Employed. And afraid… And now he must face his dreaded self assessment form, with every receipt evoking the good times and the bad. With each receipt drawn out at random, Ben begins to stitch together the patchwork quilt that was the Tax Year 2009/2010 – a year that was both hilarious and tragic, all mixed up in one shoe box of receipts.
Full casting for The Man will be announced shortly, but some of the actors will include Samuel Barnett (The History Boys, Desperate Romantics, The Whisky Taster, winner of a Drama Desk Award on Broadway and a WhatsOnStage Theatregoers Choice Awards, and a nominee for an Olivier Award, a Tony Award and an Evening Standard Award); Leander Deeny (The Representative, Shakespeare’s Globe, Atonement) and the playwright himself.
Performance length: 65 minutes with no interval.
Playwright James Graham is a Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre. In 2003, James sent an unsolicited script to the Finborough Theatre which went on to present his Pearson Award-winning Albert’s Boy (2005), Eden’s Empire (2006), winner of the Pearson Award’s Catherine Johnson Best Play Award 2007, Little Madam (2007) on the life of Margaret Thatcher, and Sons of York (2008), named Time Out Critics’ Choice. He was also the Finborough Theatre’s nominee for the BBC’s and Royal Court’s ‘The 50’ programme (of the 50 most exciting new writers in the UK) in 2006. Since being discovered by the Finborough Theatre, he has gone on to write for the Soho Theatre (Tory Boyz), Clywd Theatr Cymru (A History of Falling Things), BBC Radio 4, ITV1 (Caught in a Trap starring Connie Fisher), and the Bush Theatre (Sudden Loss of Dignity and The Whisky Taster – Five Stars, The Independent and The Telegraph), as well as the forthcoming Huck (National Tour and Southwark Playhouse).
Director Kate Wasserberg was previously Associate Director at the Finborough Theatre where she directed Sons of York and Little Madam, both by James Graham, and The Representative, I Wish to Die Singing and The New Morality. She was previously the Finborough Theatre’s first Resident Assistant Director. She is now New Plays Director at Clwyd Theatr Cymru where she has directed The Glass Menagerie (also National Tour), James Graham’s A History of Falling Things (also Sherman Cymru) and Pieces by Hywel John.
The festival then continues with staged readings of…
Vibrant – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
WEEK ONE – 26 May-30 May 2010
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 at 9.00pm
World Premiere
Bull
by Mike Bartlett. Directed by Clare Lizzimore.
“It’s not the losing that matters, - it’s the taking part”. Faced with recession and cutbacks, the company has decided to lose someone from Thomas's team. He is determined it won't be him, but his two colleagues have other ideas. Written in the form of a bull-fight, with graphic language and imagery, Bull depicts ritual competition and bullying in the modern work place.
Performance length: 50 minutes.
Playwright Mike Bartlett’s first professional theatre job was as an Assistant Director on Soldiers at the Finborough Theatre in 2004. He subsequently co-directed Lark Rise to Candleford with John Terry of Shapeshifter, and wrote three plays for the Finborough Theatre – Fearing, Leaving and Falling in 2005. His plays include My Child, Contractions,
Cock (Royal Court Theatre) and Artefacts (Bush Theatre, Nabokov and Off Broadway). His radio plays include Not Talking, The Steps (Radio 3), Love Contract, The Family Man, Liam (Radio 4). He has also directed Honest (Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton), Class (Tristan Bates Theatre) and co-directed King Arthur with John Terry (Arcola Theatre). Mike’s play Cock won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre in 2010. He won the Old Vic New Voices award for Artefacts, the Writer’s Guild Tinniswood and Imison prizes for Not Talking, and was the Pearson Playwright in Residence at the Royal Court Theatre in 2007. His new play Earthquakes in London will be produced this August at the National Theatre.
Director Clare Lizzimore is an award winning theatre director. Her credits include Faces in the Crowd by Leo Butler (Royal Court Theatre), War and Peace, Fear and Misery by Mark Ravenhill (Royal Court Theatre and Latitude Festival), On the Rocks by Amy Rosenthal (Hampstead Theatre), Jonah and Otto by Robert Holman (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Tom Fool by Franz Xaver Kroetz (Glasgow Citizens Theatre and Bush Theatre – Nominated for four CATS Awards), The Most Humane Way to Kill A Lobster by Duncan Macmillan (Theatre 503) and, as Co-Director with Max Stafford Clark, The Mother by Mark Ravenhill (Royal Court Theatre). Her awards include the Channel 4 Theatre Directors Award 2005/06 and the Arts Foundation Theatre Directing Fellowship 2009. Clare has also directed new plays from Russia, Nigeria, Portugal and Romania, and travelled extensively for the Royal Court Theatre’s International Programme, developing new plays with artists in Africa and The Middle East.
_____
Thursday, 27 May 2010 at 9.00pm
European Premiere
Seven Pages Unsigned
by Michael Louis Wells. Directed by Wilson Milam.
It's the evening of the Winter Solstice, ‘The Darkest of the Year’. College friends, gathered for an engagement party in NYC's Hell's Kitchen, escape to the rooftop for fresh air. Still reeling from the suicide of one of their number, they dodge and confront the difficult choices that face them...
Performance length: Approximately 90 minutes.
Playwright Michael Louis Wells’ District of Columbia was given a staged reading at the Finborough Theatre in 2007 following its premiere off-Broadway at New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre (where he is a company member), Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company and Washington DC’s Arena Stage. Michael made his professional debut in New York with Real Real Gone, published by Smith and Kraus. Other plays include Taken by Faeries (Verity Bargate finalist, Soho Theatre), The “I” Word: Interns, produced in New York and published by Faber & Faber, and Detail, winner of the
London New Play Festival and recently produced in a new version in New York. His short piece, Two From The Line, was a Heideman Award finalist at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humanafest and was selected for publication by Smith and Kraus for their Best Ten Minute Plays 2008. Seven Pages Unsigned was a 2008 New Voices West honoree and received a workshop production at the Magic Theatre, San Francisco, under Artistic Director Chris Smith. It has also had readings in New York at The Dramatists Guild, and in Los Angeles for Rogue Machine Theatre Company and The Road Theatre Company.