THE COVID-19 MONOLOGUES – SEPT/OCT
We are incredibly proud to announce our next creative project, five new monologues by five new writers written, performed and filmed by Elysium actors during lockdown:
Five playwrights were asked to write a short monologue each. No subject was given, each was free to write whatever they wanted about whatever they wanted. The result was five fantastic monologues on diverse, but, fascinatingly, not unrelated topics.
They are:
ONE OF A KIND by Rachael Halliwell, performed by Sarah Boulter: a local reporter goes undercover in a care home to be close to her father. Online September 30, 2020.
PUSH YOURSELF, SLIGHTLY by Chris Dance, performed by Amy Gavin: meet Diane, wellness consultant and demotivational speaker, who will help you realise your dreams, a bit. Online October 2, 2020.
THE MOTH by Paul Herzberg, performed by Victor Power: a chance encounter on a train in 1994 between a black British man and a white South African soldier leaves a long shadow nearly three decades later. Online October 5, 2020.
SUGAR by Mike Elliston, performed by Edmund Dehn: Bristol, 1721, the Reverend Harcourt is given the task of writing the sermon for the funeral of famous philanthropist and notorious slave trader Sir Edward Colston. Online October 7, 2020.
THE ART OF BEING A SOLUTION by Hamza Rafique, performed by Shobna Gulati: Preeya, Government Advisor and so-called ‘racial gatekeeper’, sits her child carer, Deborah, down for good speaking to. Online October 9, 2020.
COVID-19 NEWS MARCH-JUNE
Well, no-one expected 2020 to be what it has been! But Elysium has not been idle. In fact somehow lockdown has been more productive than we could have possibly imagined!
To rally everyone and lift spirits, we began a series of internal online play readings with our ensemble of actors. These were private, purely for our entertainment, but gave us a chance to stay creative, work with some old faces and enlarge our ensemble by bringing in some new ones.
Then we launched a season of public online workshops. These were enormous fun and a huge hit. We explored Greek Tragedy, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov. If you want to catch key ones, you can find them here:
Shakespeare: the Comedies:
Shakesapere: the Tragedies:
Shakespeare: the Late Plays:
Ibsen:
Strindberg:
Chekhov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ORYnQKTrew&t=11s
As well as this, we have produced a short online play, ‘Isolations’ by Gary Kitching, which you can see here:
AS WE ENTER 2020
We are thrilled to end the last year with the news that our production of MISS JULIE won Best Revival In The North East in the British Theatre Guide:
https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/features/the-best-of-north-east-theatre-284/2?fbclid=IwAR3gSIHsqtH3GFR586jiaZXlO4Ort0_u1a93qWzAsG9CeSQcswXw_KEhDrA
And received two accolades on Nicola Brierley’s Manchester theatre blog The Play’s The Thing:
Best Theatre Discoveries in 2019
A great way of beginning a new year of Elysium creativity! Onwards to 2020!
LOOKING BACK ON 2019
PLAYLAND by Athol Fugard
Black History Month
North East Tour & Empty Space Theatre, Manchester
We were incredibly proud to present the Northern premiere of Athol Fugard’s great play about the end of Apartheid during Black History Month this year. We played at Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Hexham – with whom we are building a powerful ongoing creative relationship – the Exchange, North Shields, City Theatre, Durham (where we performed ‘The River’ last year), the new Empty Space Theatre in Salford, Greater Manchester and the wonderful Hullabaloo Space in the Darlington Hippodrome.
‘Playland’ got some of the best reviews and audiences responses we have ever had. It also gave us the opportunity to work with Show Racism The Red Card, the UK’s foremost charity dedicated to working against racism in this country. It was also a real pleasure to reunite Danny Solomon and Faz Singhateh who did such wonderful work for us last year in ‘Jesus Hopped The A Train’…
On to the future!