Photo: Neil Hannah
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
About THE CONTAINER
My first play, Northern Lights, was the story of a Kurdish refugee in London. Although I went on to write other plays on other subjects, I kept coming back to stories of refugees and migrants coming to this country. In many ways those seem like the most important stories there are to tell at the moment. The more I encountered people who had come to the UK fleeing persecution or poverty, the more all other stories seemed to pale into insignificance.
Immigration has always been an integral part of our country’s make up, and never more so than now. Yet despite this, the coverage these stories get in much of the mainstream media focuses entirely on a xenophobic, NIMBY-ish little Englander point of view. The real story – the story of what people have come from, what they have gone through to get here, and what they are confronted with when they do arrive – is largely ignored.
As a playwright, it was this I wanted audiences to understand. And if they could get some sense of what those stories involved by experiencing them from the inside of a container, then so much the better.
Clare Bayley, writer, THE CONTAINER
Credits
THE CONTAINER is made possible through the generous support of Creative Partnerships Thames Gateway and Arts Council England, East, through its Escalator East to Edinburgh programme. Particular thanks go to Sue Lawther, Executive Producer of THE CONTAINER and Creative Director, Creative Partnerships Thames Gateway. Special thanks also go to Charlie and Ed at Underbelly; Sonya and Monique at Spiegeltent; and to Lorna, Caroline and everyone in the Festivals Office at University of Edinburgh.
Media interest in THE CONTAINER should be directed to Kevin Wilson at KWPR, kevinwilsonpr@googlemail.com or 07884 368 697. Promotional or touring interest should be directed to Greg Klerkx, nimble.fish@yahoo.com or 07930 394 158.
THE CONTAINER is produced by Nimble Fish in association with Underbelly Productions.
CREDITS
CLARE BAYLEY (Writer)
Clare attended David Edgar’s prestigious playwriting course in Birmingham. Her new version of The Enchantment, a 19th C. Swedish play by Victoria Benedictsson, premiered in August 2007 at the National Theatre. Her writing for the stage includes The Woman Who Swallowed A Pin, directed as a promenade production, Southwark Playhouse (listed as one of the Top Ten Plays of 2000 by both Time Out and The Observer); Blavatsky and The Shift (both with Andy Lavender), Young Vic Studio; Northern Lights, Grove Theatre, London. Radio credits include The Bringer of Sweets, (Catherine Bailey Ltd/BBC R4) ‘This clever and affecting play gradually unveils the world of secrets and unresolved pain that lies behind the reunion of two sisters separated after World War 1’ (Daily Mail ****); Guatemala Moon, Asham Award and broadcast on BBC R4; Northern Lights, BBC R4 (Dir. David Hunter). Film includes Corridors in the Air, winner of The Sunday Times Screenwriting Award and subsequently developed by Zephyr Films.
Doreene Blackstock (Fatima)
Theatre includes One Under (Tricycle Theatre); 25/7 (Talking Birds Theatre Company Coventry); I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA (Ice & Fire @ The Finborough Theatre); The Gift (Birmingham Rep Studio & Tricycle Theatre); Downfall & The Carver Chair (The Contact Theatre, Manchester); Leave Taking & Girlie Talk (Belgrade Theatre & Studio, Coventry); Rosie & Jim’s Big Theatre Adventure (Ragdoll Theatre Productions @ Oxford Playhouse); Leonora’s Dance (Black Theatre Co-operative @ The Cockpit Theatre); Devil Going to Dance (Birmingham Rep Studio); Beauty & the Beast (Tic Toc Theatre Co); The Children (Theatre of Black Women); Top of the Box, The Under 11s Writers’ Festival ‘00, The Westminster Prize ‘’01 & ‘98 (Soho Theatre). Television and film includes Wire in the Blood series 1; Holby City, Judge John Deeds, Dialziel & Pascoe, The Dark Room, Casualty, The History of Tom Jones, The Foundling & Common as Muck II (BBC); Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, (Tiger Aspect/BBC); The Bill (Thames Television);
This Year’s Love (Kismet Films).
William El-Gardi (Jemal)
William trained at Mountview Academy. Recent theatre credits include Failed States (Pleasance Theatre) and Time of the Tortoise (Theatre 503). William also recently completed national tours of: Tangier Tattoo with Glyndebourne Opera House; OneFourSeven with the Dende Collective/Lyric Hammersmith, and a Welsh national tour of Flowers From Tunisia with Theatre Ibyd/Theatre Clwyd. Other theatre includes Laters with Rikki Beadle-Blaire (Tristan Bates); Release The Beat-The Musical (Arcola Theatre); Funky Stuff, (Kingshead Theatre). In Film and TV, William has recently completed guest roles in the The Bill, the new BBC series Whistleblowers, and Channel 4’s new drama Saddam’s Tribe. Other recent credits include Last Flight to Kuwait for the BBC, a lead role in the BBC/HBO film Dirty War, and Danish Dogma feature, Brothers with Suzanne Beir.
Deborah Leveroy (Mariam)
Deborah studied English at Liverpool University before training at Drama Studio London. Theatre credits include Emma (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); The Snow Maiden (Hampstead Theatre); My Best Friend and The Lower Depths (Pentameters); Doctor Faustus (Barons Court); The Dice House (Madame Jo Jo’s) plus several student films and medical role-play.
Omar Mostafa (Ahmed)
Born in Cairo, Omar was involved in plays, films and commercials in Egypt as well as doing a degree in literature. Coming to the UK to pursue an acting career, he studied drama at City and Islington College. Recent television work includes The Hamburg Cell directed by Antonia Bird, Waking the Dead, and Time Trumpet. Feature films include The Judge, Batman Begins, Syriana, and Munich. Theatre includes Tangier Tatto and One Hour Before Sunrise.
Mercy Ojelade (Asha)
Theatre credits include Mother Africa (Anna Scher Theatre), Eclipse (Sydney Opera House Studio & Royal National Theatre) and The Lion & The Jewel (Barbican Pit & National Tour). Television includes: Holby (BBC), Doctors (BBC) & Ørnen / The Eagle (DR / Denmark). Film includes FESPACO award winning and Sundance 2007 nominated Ezra (2006 / Cinefacto – France) and Incendiary (2007 / Film4). In 2001 Mercy was a winner of the BBC Talent 'Acting Up' national search.
Chris Spyrides (The Agent)
Chris’ credits have included Sancho Panza in Labyrinth Theatre’s Don Q (Pick of the Fringe, Edinburgh 2003), Dracula in Feel The Fangs Of Dracula (Old Red Melodrama Company, 2005), Prospero in The Tempest (North Haven Theatre, Maine, USA, 2000) and the title role in Slupianek, (Origen's Scream, 2001), directed by Norwegian National Theatre director Terje Naudeer. Chris also appeared as Percy Shelley in the Paines Plough collaboration Moments Of Great Discovery, written by Abi Morgan (Bafta winner, Sex Traffic and Murder). Chris has also been part of Canal Café Theatre’s long-running News Revue, playing, among others, Gordon Brown, Prince Phillip and Diego Maradona, and is one half of cabaret duo The Cunning Stunts.
Tom Wright (Director)
Credits include Young Hamlet, The Soul of Ch’ien-Nu Leaves Her Body (Young Vic), Twelfth Night (Cambridge Arts Theatre), The Tempest (Southwark Playhouse), Shoes (Nottingham Arts Theatre), The Water Engine (Theatre 503/Young Vic), Workplay (TIS, Madrid), Small Waves (The Powerhouse, Nottingham and Methodica, Vancouver), Ay Carmela! (York Theatre Royal and international tour) and The Good Person of Sichuan (The Drum, Birmingham). Tom has assistant directed at the Young Vic (on the C4 Director’s Scheme), Bristol Old Vic, West Yorkshire Playhouse and the RSC. His work is dedicated to his mentor, Daisaku Ikeda.
Naomi Dawson (Designer)
Naomi’s 2006-07 design credits include Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic), Different Perspectives (Contact Theatre, Manchester), Widows (BAC), and The Cherry Orchard (Southwark Playhouse). She trained at Wimbledon School of Art and Kunstacademie, Maastricht.
Adrienne Quartly (Sound Design)
Theatre credits include The Silver Birch House, (Arcola Theatre); Woyzeck (St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn NYC & Gate Theatre); 93.2FM (Royal Court Theatre, London); Playing For Time, A Touch Of The Sun (Salisbury Playhouse); Last Waltz Season, (Arcola); Mercy Fine (Clean Break Theatre); Tejas Verdes (Gate Theatre); Hideaway (Complicite); Hysteria, Attempts On Her Life (Battersea Arts Centre); Jarman Garden, Inflated Ideas (Riverside Studios); Habeas Corpus, Quartermaine’s Terms (Royal Theatre, Northampton).
Nimble Fish (Producer)
Nimble Fish (www.nimble-fish.co.uk) devises and produces creative events that enable social change. The company recently produced Generation/LONDON, an event at Tate Modern that explored the connection between young people and London’s architecture. The company is also in early pre-production for TUNAURAL, a sonic exploration of Brighton using the city’s famed Colonnades as both venue and instrument. Nimble Fish was founded by theatre practitioner Samantha Holdsworth and writer/producer Greg Klerkx.
Associate Producer - Laura Davies
Production Manager - Laura Miles
Stage Managers - Robyn Clogg, Laura Hare, Fran Beaumont
Sound Technician - David Gregory
Fight Choreographer - Robert Leonard
Dialect Coach - Marina Tyndall
Production Assistants - Jack Norris, Ryan Williams
Media interest in THE CONTAINER should be directed to Kevin Wilson at KWPR, kevinwilsonpr@googlemail.com or 07884 368 697. Promotional or touring interest should be directed to Greg Klerkx, nimble.fish@yahoo.com or 07930 394 158.
THE CONTAINER is produced by Nimble Fish in association with Underbelly Productions.
CREDITS
CLARE BAYLEY (Writer)
Clare attended David Edgar’s prestigious playwriting course in Birmingham. Her new version of The Enchantment, a 19th C. Swedish play by Victoria Benedictsson, premiered in August 2007 at the National Theatre. Her writing for the stage includes The Woman Who Swallowed A Pin, directed as a promenade production, Southwark Playhouse (listed as one of the Top Ten Plays of 2000 by both Time Out and The Observer); Blavatsky and The Shift (both with Andy Lavender), Young Vic Studio; Northern Lights, Grove Theatre, London. Radio credits include The Bringer of Sweets, (Catherine Bailey Ltd/BBC R4) ‘This clever and affecting play gradually unveils the world of secrets and unresolved pain that lies behind the reunion of two sisters separated after World War 1’ (Daily Mail ****); Guatemala Moon, Asham Award and broadcast on BBC R4; Northern Lights, BBC R4 (Dir. David Hunter). Film includes Corridors in the Air, winner of The Sunday Times Screenwriting Award and subsequently developed by Zephyr Films.
Doreene Blackstock (Fatima)
Theatre includes One Under (Tricycle Theatre); 25/7 (Talking Birds Theatre Company Coventry); I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA (Ice & Fire @ The Finborough Theatre); The Gift (Birmingham Rep Studio & Tricycle Theatre); Downfall & The Carver Chair (The Contact Theatre, Manchester); Leave Taking & Girlie Talk (Belgrade Theatre & Studio, Coventry); Rosie & Jim’s Big Theatre Adventure (Ragdoll Theatre Productions @ Oxford Playhouse); Leonora’s Dance (Black Theatre Co-operative @ The Cockpit Theatre); Devil Going to Dance (Birmingham Rep Studio); Beauty & the Beast (Tic Toc Theatre Co); The Children (Theatre of Black Women); Top of the Box, The Under 11s Writers’ Festival ‘00, The Westminster Prize ‘’01 & ‘98 (Soho Theatre). Television and film includes Wire in the Blood series 1; Holby City, Judge John Deeds, Dialziel & Pascoe, The Dark Room, Casualty, The History of Tom Jones, The Foundling & Common as Muck II (BBC); Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, (Tiger Aspect/BBC); The Bill (Thames Television);
This Year’s Love (Kismet Films).
William El-Gardi (Jemal)
William trained at Mountview Academy. Recent theatre credits include Failed States (Pleasance Theatre) and Time of the Tortoise (Theatre 503). William also recently completed national tours of: Tangier Tattoo with Glyndebourne Opera House; OneFourSeven with the Dende Collective/Lyric Hammersmith, and a Welsh national tour of Flowers From Tunisia with Theatre Ibyd/Theatre Clwyd. Other theatre includes Laters with Rikki Beadle-Blaire (Tristan Bates); Release The Beat-The Musical (Arcola Theatre); Funky Stuff, (Kingshead Theatre). In Film and TV, William has recently completed guest roles in the The Bill, the new BBC series Whistleblowers, and Channel 4’s new drama Saddam’s Tribe. Other recent credits include Last Flight to Kuwait for the BBC, a lead role in the BBC/HBO film Dirty War, and Danish Dogma feature, Brothers with Suzanne Beir.
Deborah Leveroy (Mariam)
Deborah studied English at Liverpool University before training at Drama Studio London. Theatre credits include Emma (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); The Snow Maiden (Hampstead Theatre); My Best Friend and The Lower Depths (Pentameters); Doctor Faustus (Barons Court); The Dice House (Madame Jo Jo’s) plus several student films and medical role-play.
Omar Mostafa (Ahmed)
Born in Cairo, Omar was involved in plays, films and commercials in Egypt as well as doing a degree in literature. Coming to the UK to pursue an acting career, he studied drama at City and Islington College. Recent television work includes The Hamburg Cell directed by Antonia Bird, Waking the Dead, and Time Trumpet. Feature films include The Judge, Batman Begins, Syriana, and Munich. Theatre includes Tangier Tatto and One Hour Before Sunrise.
Mercy Ojelade (Asha)
Theatre credits include Mother Africa (Anna Scher Theatre), Eclipse (Sydney Opera House Studio & Royal National Theatre) and The Lion & The Jewel (Barbican Pit & National Tour). Television includes: Holby (BBC), Doctors (BBC) & Ørnen / The Eagle (DR / Denmark). Film includes FESPACO award winning and Sundance 2007 nominated Ezra (2006 / Cinefacto – France) and Incendiary (2007 / Film4). In 2001 Mercy was a winner of the BBC Talent 'Acting Up' national search.
Chris Spyrides (The Agent)
Chris’ credits have included Sancho Panza in Labyrinth Theatre’s Don Q (Pick of the Fringe, Edinburgh 2003), Dracula in Feel The Fangs Of Dracula (Old Red Melodrama Company, 2005), Prospero in The Tempest (North Haven Theatre, Maine, USA, 2000) and the title role in Slupianek, (Origen's Scream, 2001), directed by Norwegian National Theatre director Terje Naudeer. Chris also appeared as Percy Shelley in the Paines Plough collaboration Moments Of Great Discovery, written by Abi Morgan (Bafta winner, Sex Traffic and Murder). Chris has also been part of Canal Café Theatre’s long-running News Revue, playing, among others, Gordon Brown, Prince Phillip and Diego Maradona, and is one half of cabaret duo The Cunning Stunts.
Tom Wright (Director)
Credits include Young Hamlet, The Soul of Ch’ien-Nu Leaves Her Body (Young Vic), Twelfth Night (Cambridge Arts Theatre), The Tempest (Southwark Playhouse), Shoes (Nottingham Arts Theatre), The Water Engine (Theatre 503/Young Vic), Workplay (TIS, Madrid), Small Waves (The Powerhouse, Nottingham and Methodica, Vancouver), Ay Carmela! (York Theatre Royal and international tour) and The Good Person of Sichuan (The Drum, Birmingham). Tom has assistant directed at the Young Vic (on the C4 Director’s Scheme), Bristol Old Vic, West Yorkshire Playhouse and the RSC. His work is dedicated to his mentor, Daisaku Ikeda.
Naomi Dawson (Designer)
Naomi’s 2006-07 design credits include Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic), Different Perspectives (Contact Theatre, Manchester), Widows (BAC), and The Cherry Orchard (Southwark Playhouse). She trained at Wimbledon School of Art and Kunstacademie, Maastricht.
Adrienne Quartly (Sound Design)
Theatre credits include The Silver Birch House, (Arcola Theatre); Woyzeck (St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn NYC & Gate Theatre); 93.2FM (Royal Court Theatre, London); Playing For Time, A Touch Of The Sun (Salisbury Playhouse); Last Waltz Season, (Arcola); Mercy Fine (Clean Break Theatre); Tejas Verdes (Gate Theatre); Hideaway (Complicite); Hysteria, Attempts On Her Life (Battersea Arts Centre); Jarman Garden, Inflated Ideas (Riverside Studios); Habeas Corpus, Quartermaine’s Terms (Royal Theatre, Northampton).
Nimble Fish (Producer)
Nimble Fish (www.nimble-fish.co.uk) devises and produces creative events that enable social change. The company recently produced Generation/LONDON, an event at Tate Modern that explored the connection between young people and London’s architecture. The company is also in early pre-production for TUNAURAL, a sonic exploration of Brighton using the city’s famed Colonnades as both venue and instrument. Nimble Fish was founded by theatre practitioner Samantha Holdsworth and writer/producer Greg Klerkx.
Associate Producer - Laura Davies
Production Manager - Laura Miles
Stage Managers - Robyn Clogg, Laura Hare, Fran Beaumont
Sound Technician - David Gregory
Fight Choreographer - Robert Leonard
Dialect Coach - Marina Tyndall
Production Assistants - Jack Norris, Ryan Williams
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