SHAKESPEARE / BRECHT

DIRECTED BY MIKE PEARSON / MIKE BROOKES

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A NATIONAL THEATRE WALES PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

MATT BALL CREATIVE ASSOCIATE @MATTBALL_NTWMICHELLE CARWARDINE-PALMER DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT @MICHELLE_NTWJULIA COLES COMPANY CO-ORDINATOR @JULIA_NTWLUCY DAVIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER @LUCY_NTWDEVINDA DE SILVA TEAM CO-ORDINATOR @DEVINDA_NTWDAVID EVANS HEAD OF PRODUCTION @DAVID_NTWSTEPHEN GRANT FINANCE MANAGER @STEPHEN_NTWKATHERINE JEWKES DIGITAL ASSOCIATE @KATHERINE_ANNMATTHEW LAWTON COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR @MATT_NTW

JOHN MCGRATH ARTISTIC DIRECTOR @JOHN_NTWJENNY MCCARTHY FINANCE ASSISTANT @JENNY_NTWYUSUF MOHAMED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ASSOCIATE (DE GABAY) @YUSUF_NTWANNA POOLE TEAM ASSISTANT @ANNA_NTWGAVIN PORTER CREATIVE ASSOCIATE (DE GABAY) @GAVINP0RTERCATRIN ROGERS MEDIA OFFICER @CATRIN_NTWMICHAEL SALMON COMPANY ASSISTANT @MICHAEL_NTWABDUL SHAYEK CREATIVE ASSOCIATE @ABDUL_NTWJEN THORNTON COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT @JEN_NTW

HANGAR 858 RAF ST ATHAN VALE OF GLAMORGAN8-18 AUGUST

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STAFF TEAM

2—3 GERALD TYLER PHOTOGRAPH: WARREN ORCHARD / NATIONAL THEATRE WALES

MIKEBROOKES

MIKEPEARSON

/

DIRECTORS

CORIOLANUS: ‘THE BEAST WITH MANY HEADS BUTTS ME AWAY.’— SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS

Mike Brookes is an award-winning artist, director and designer. Although initially trained as a painter, his work has always bridged media - engaging elements as diverse as photography, sampling, large scale and multiple projection, short-range and satellite radio broadcast technology, mobile telephones, helicopters, cars, trains, surveillance cameras, ice sculpture and drawing - proposing innovative practices and strategies within the form, function, and placement of performance and live art. He co-founded the performance collective Pearson/Brookes with Mike Pearson in 1997, most recently co-creating their acclaimed production of The Persians for National Theatre Wales’ inaugural season. He is associate artist to dada(prod) (Italy), nido (Spain), and to the theatre company Quarantine (UK) with whom he has now collaborated on 11 consecutive productions. In 2007, he was appointed Creative Research Fellow within Aberystwyth University. He is currently developing a long-term collaborative practice with Spanish artist Rosa Casado, producing live art and gallery works under the umbrella title ‘some things happen all at once, some things happen more slowly’. His work has been commissioned and shown in North and South America, Asia, Australasia, and throughout Europe. Recent awards include: The Arts Council Creative Wales Award 2007; CCG Fellowship, Centro de Arte Torrente Ballester, Ferrol (Spain) 2008; MAPA Residency, Girona (Spain) 2008; Bilbao Eszena Residency, Bilbao (Spain), 2009 and 2010; winner of the TMA Best Design Award 2010; and a PACT Zollverein residency award, Essen (Germany) 2012.

DIRECTOR / DESIGNER MIKE BROOKES

Mike Pearson was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire; he came to Wales in 1968 to study archaeology at University College, Cardiff. He was a founder member of Transitions Community Arts Project, Cardiff (1971-2); a member of internationally renowned physical theatre group R.A.T. Theatre (1972–3), with whom he appeared at the World Theatre Festival in Nancy, France. He was an artistic director of Wales-based companies Cardiff Laboratory Theatre (1973–80) and Brith Gof (1981–97), with whom he presented performances in South America, Hong Kong and throughout Europe. Brith Gof was particularly noted for its large-scale, site-specific productions staged in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and Wales in the early 1990s. He continues to make performance as a solo artist and with long-time collaborator composer John Hardy, and since 1997 he has worked in partnership with artist/designer Mike Brookes in Pearson/Brookes. In 2010 he directed a site-specific version of Aeschylus’s The Persians for National Theatre Wales on the military training ranges of mid-Wales in collaboration with Simon Banham, Mike Brookes, John Hardy and Pete Telfer. He is co-author with Michael Shanks of Theatre/Archaeology (2001) and author of In Comes I: Performance, Memory and Landscape (2006); Site-Specific Performance (2010) and Mickery Theatr: an imperfect archaeology (2011). He has taught in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies since 1997 and is currently Professor of Performance Studies.

In October 2012 he begins a two-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship: to recall experiences of theatre-making in Cardiff in the early 1970s in a new book and through restaging elements of his early work.

DIRECTOR / DRAMATURG MIKE PEARSON

4—5 MIKE BROOKES AND MIKE PEARSON PHOTOGRAPH: WARREN ORCHARD / NATIONAL THEATRE WALES

SICINIUS: ‘WHAT IS THE CITY BUT THE PEOPLE?’— SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS

BY MIKE PEARSON

FRAMING THE TEXT

The overarching theme is politics: martial life versus increasing, though provisional, bureaucracy: the emergence of a world in which Coriolanus finds it difficult to locate himself. He is a battle-hardened war machine, an anachronism: the product of his caste, his mother’s ambition and his own impulsive nature. It’s all now happening in the public domain: event follows event, wave upon wave, experienced and dealt with expediently, as they arrive. The military hero is out of his element in this civic arena; he is unable – or refuses – to perform a role for the plebeian public, to play a part, to act politically. In this, ironically, he is perhaps the only constant figure in the drama.Shakespeare’s world is crowded: unlike other tragic protagonists, Coriolanus is rarely alone – he has few private moments, little room or opportunity to go away to reflect on his condition and only two soliloquies. That and the play’s open and direct setting – there are no sub-plots, very few indoor scenes yet ever-present crowds – make it a fascinating counterpoint to current political events – with their unreliable leaderships, ad-hoc factions and coalitions, fleeting allegiances and shifting loyalties, civic uncertainties and disturbances, military adventurism and fledgling democracies – and attendant round-the-clock news and social media. A conjoined world of celebrity and surveillance: of constant media attention and intrusion, of embedded transmission, of improvised recording and uploading, of covert monitoring...

Why Coriolan/us? Because it is always unsettling: seeming to reflect the time in which we live without offering any easy solutions. Because it is always contemporary: ever challenging of our beliefs, demanding of us that we think politically, again.

COMINIUS: ‘FROM FACE TO FOOT HE WAS A THING OF BLOOD, WHOSE EVERY MOTION WAS TIMED WITH DYING CRIES.’— SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS

In 75 AD, Plutarch sets down the story of Roman warrior Caius Martius, later Coriolanus. He has: ‘A voice and look which made him a fearful man for a foe to encounter’; though even in this first appearance: ‘He found the chief end of glory in his mother’s gladness.’ Between 1605 and 1608, at a time of rural unrest, William Shakespeare dramatises it: ‘From face to foot he was a thing of blood, whose every motion was timed with dying cries.’ Between 1952 and 1955, Bertolt Brecht adapts Shakespeare’s version, aiming to recover it from fascist appropriation and ‘to experience the tragedy not only of Coriolanus himself but also of Rome, and specifically of the plebs’: ‘Down with him! Down with the grain robber!’ In 1972, Günther Grass critiques Brecht’s own attempt to direct Shakespeare’s version during the 1953 uprising in East Germany: ‘The people have risen.’

Coriolanus...Coriolan...The Plebians Rehearse the Uprising... In 2012? Coriolan/us: Shakespeare infused with Brecht’s words, in the mouths of Citizens at least. And perhaps too a hint of Peter Brook’s 1968 RSC production, enigmatically entitled US. Coriolan; Us; Coriolan/us. As the Tribunes protest: ‘What is the city but the people?’

The narrative of Caius Martius Coriolanus threads five irreconcilable strands of conflict: wars between the infant Roman republic and the neighbouring state of the Volsces; the intense personal rivalry between Coriolanus, Rome’s greatest soldier and the Volscan leader, Tullus Aufidius; the struggle for power in Rome between the patrician class and the plebeians; the battle of wills between Coriolanus and his mother Volumnia over political expediency; and the tensions within Coriolanus himself in his desire for revenge against Rome following his banishment. And the implications, effects and outcomes of their entanglements – for both individuals and states – are epic as much as they are personal and psychological.

FRAMING THE TEXT

CITIZENS: ‘DOWN WITH HIM! DOWN WITH THE GRAIN ROBBER!’ — BRECHT’S CORIOLAN

SECOND CITIZEN: ‘HE MOCKED US WHEN HE BEGGED OUR VOICES.’ — SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS

CREATIVE TEAM

#NTW21

MIKE PEARSON — DIRECTOR / DRAMATURGMIKE BROOKES — DIRECTOR / DESIGNERSIMON BANHAM — DESIGNERJOHN HARDY — COMPOSERMIKE BEER — SOUND DESIGNERJON STREET — AUDIO-VISUAL DESIGNERRUTH STRINGER — ASSISTANT DESIGNERLOWRI JENKINS — EMERGING DIRECTOR

LUCY DAVIES — PRODUCERDAVID EVANS — PRODUCTION MANAGERMATTHEW NORTH — COMPANY STAGE MANAGERBRYONY RUTTER — DEPUTY STAGE MANAGERCASSIE BROOM — ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERTIM RICH — SITE MANAGERJO NICHOLLS — COSTUME SUPERVISORLEIGH CONROY-HORSCRAFT — WARDROBE MISTRESSMICHAEL CORBIDGE — VOICE COACHBENJAMIN TALBOTT — COMPOSITION ASSISTANTTOM BENNETT — PRODUCTION ELECTRICIANJAMES MARSH — SOUND OPERATORNIK PALMER — SOUND OPERATORDAVID ABRA — PRODUCTION AUDIO VISUAL OPERATIONCLAIRE WILKINS — AUDIO VISUAL MIXERRICHARD MOWBRAY — AUDIO VISUAL MIXERIAIN MACRITCHIE — CAMERA DOLLY OPERATORTOM PAYNE — CAMERA DOLLY OPERATORMACS HESSION — AUDIO VISUAL ASSISTANTRICHARD HUW MORGAN — CAMERA OPERATORPETE TELFER — CAMERA OPERATORHARRIET WALLIS — CAMERA ASSISTANTSAM JONES — CASTING DIRECTORLUCY TAYLOR — CASTING ASSISTANTISABELLE MARSHALL — CAST STAND-INHELEDD GWYNN — CAST STAND-INCATHERINE PASKELL — PROMOTERPRODUCTION 78 — FRONT OF HOUSE

FRAMING THE TEXT

6—7 GERALD TYLER AND JOHN ROWLEY PHOTOGRAPH: WARREN ORCHARD / NATIONAL THEATRE WALES

Jon has worked in professional theatre since the age of 16. He trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and Dartington College of Art. For the last 8 years he has specialised in Video Design and Audio-Visual operation within live performance. His work has taken him all around Europe and his designs have premiered in at least 9 countries. Jon has no interest in the use of cinema as an element of theatre. Instead, his work focuses on the live element, and the physical space of production: augmenting the performance with live cameras (to allow the audience new points of view), and digital wizardry to ‘projection map’ real objects with virtual images. This is his 3rd show with National Theatre Wales, having worked on The Persians and The Passion.

AUDIO-VISUAL DESIGNER JON STREET

Simon Banham is a freelance designer and Senior Lecturer in Scenography and Theatre Design at Aberystwyth University. He is a founder member of Quarantine theatre company and is responsible for the scenography on all their productions. In 2005, Quarantine were awarded the Art 05 prize for outstanding achievements in the arts. His work has been part of a Gold medal-winning British entry at the Prague Quadrennial. Two of his designs, Ion (Opera National du Rhin) and Rantsoen (Quarantine and Victoria Theatre Company) were chosen for presentation at the inaugural World Stage Design 2005 exhibition. For WSD 2009, he was invited to exhibit For You (Music Theatre Wales), Grace (Quarantine) and Rebekka (Norwegian National Opera). Beyond his work for Quarantine, Simon has recently designed La Traviata for Den Nye Opera in Norway, The Persians for National Theatre Wales (awarded the Best Design 2010 award by the TMA) and Greek (awarded outstanding achievement in Opera 2011 at the Theatre Awards UK) for Music Theatre Wales.

CO-DESIGNER SIMON BANHAM

After rigorous training in cathedrals, at Birmingham Conservatoire, Oxford and the Guildhall, and with Cardiff Laboratory Theatre and Brith Gof, John has composed countless scores for theatre, radio, television & films, including the Oscar-nominated Hedd Wyn.Orchestral works include Fever for the Welsh Proms, and Blue Letters From Tanganyika, for BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He has been awarded five BAFTA Cymru Awards for Best Original Music. Vocal music includes De Profundis for Westminster Abbey/BBC Singers/London Brass, operas for Music Theatre Wales and Welsh National Opera, Not Darkness But Twilight for BBC National Chorus Of Wales and Spaces, commissioned by Vivace and Only Men Aloud. In 2006 he received an Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Award. John has worked extensively with Mike Pearson for over three decades. In April 2010 John became Head of Contemporary Music at the Royal Welsh College Of Music and Drama.

COMPOSER JOHN HARDY

Mike started his career at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff in 1986. Since then he has toured theatre and corporate events worldwide with companies including DV8 Physical Theatre, Theatre Royal Bath, Bristol Old Vic, Diversions Dance, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Stage, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Act Productions, Fiery Angel, Theatre Gwynedd, Imagination, Sony, and Ford Motor Car Company. Mike’s designs include: Coasting and Treasure Island (Bristol Old Vic), A Provincial Life, The Passion, Love Steals Us From Loneliness, The Persians and The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (National Theatre Wales), Deffro’r Gwanwyn (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru), BFG (Fiery Angel), Great Expectations (Aberystwyth Arts Centre), Desire Lines, The Borrowers and Merlin (The Sherman Theatre Company), The Firework Maker’s Daughter and Danny the Champion of the World (Birmingham Stage Company), Single Spies, Legal Fictions and The Importance of Being Earnest (The Theatre Royal Bath), Don Quixote (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Much of Mike’s work for the last 5 years has been with Stage Sound Services, working as sound designer and production consultant on theatre and corporate events.

SOUND DESIGNER MIKE BEER

CREATIVE TEAM

ASSISTANT DESIGNER RUTH STRINGER

Ruth trained in Theatre Design at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and works as a designer and scenic artist in theatre, opera, dance and community performance. Ruth previously worked with National Theatre Wales in association with Wildworks as a design assistant in The Passion, and was designer/curator for the Passion Memory Exhibition the following year. Her designs also featured in the feature film The Gospel of Us. Previous theatrical production designs include Mammals (Caird Studio), The Wind in the Willows (Theatre 503), The Darkroom (Alma Tavern Theatre) and The Master-Madam (Eastmoors). Ruth has also collaborated extensively with London-based performance company Shunt on various installations and events in their Shunt Lounge project.

COSTUME SUPERVISOR JO NICHOLLS

Jo studied Theatre Design at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating in 2004. She went on to work as a costume maker at Welsh National Opera. Since leaving to become freelance she has worked for various theatre companies in the UK working on a wide range of shows including wardrobe assistant on Love Never Dies (Really Useful Group, The Adelphi Theatre). Film credits include costume maker on Game of Thrones (HBO) and The Gospel of Us (Rondo Media and National Theatre Wales). For the past 5 years she has also been co-designer with National Youth Theatre Wales. This is her sixth show with National Theatre Wales having previously worked on The Devil Inside Him, Mundo Paralelo (with NoFit State Circus), The Passion, A Provincial Life and The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning.

Tim trained in Stage Management at RADA. He has worked in various roles at Greenwich, Watford, Contact, Lyric Hammersmith, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Irish National Ballet, National Dance Company Wales, The Old Vic and the Fortune Theatre in the West End, as well touring extensively in the UK and abroad. His work for Welsh companies includes Gwent Theatre, India Dance Wales and Hijinx. He has also site managed many outdoor events for Cardiff Council, the Food and Drink festival being a favourite! This is his first hangar-based production.

SITE MANAGER TIM RICH David is the Head of Production for National Theatre Wales. Prior to joining the company last year, he has Production Managed in a variety of locations, including dance in a shed in Jamaica, Chicago in a 3,000-year-old temple in the Lebanon and Measure for Measure in a Roman amphitheater in Verona. He naturally feels at home in an aircraft hangar just west of Cardiff. Interestingly, some years ago he bought a Sea Harrier Jump Jet for a show, which may well have been serviced in this hangar.

After starting his theatre career with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre lighting department at 16, Matthew went on to become the youngest sound designer the company has had working on their fringe season. He then went on to train in stage management at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he was awarded the college’s 2004 Stage Management Award. This is Matthew’s fourth production for National Theatre Wales after The Passion, A Provincial Life and Little Dogs. Other companies he has worked for include: Royal Shakespeare Company, Wales Theatre Company, London Classic Theatre, 360 Events, Bare & Ragged Theatre Company, Caerphilly Youth Theatre, Production 78, Second Thoughts Theatre Company and Cardiff Council Special Events Team. Matthew also works in television and film. Credits include: The Gospel of Us, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Holby City, Pobol Y Cwm, The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Big I Am, Gwaith/ Cartref, Great British Stories, Mankind, Totally Doctor Who, Jools Holland’s Hootenanny and Sacrifice.

PRODUCTION MANAGER DAVID EVANS

COMPANY STAGE MANAGER MATTHEW NORTH

Bryony trained at Clwyd Theatr Cymru and has worked there extensively, most recently as Deputy Stage Manager for As You Like It, directed by Terry Hands. Other recent work includes two international Shakespeare tours with Propeller Theatre Company and a UK tour with Northern Broadsides. She has taken productions into theatres across the world, as well as into more unusual spaces – a disused warehouse, a Roman amphitheatre, a cattle market and an Eisteddfod big-top tent. This, however, is her first show in an aircraft hangar. Bryony is delighted to be part of the National Theatre Wales team this summer, and is practising DSM-ing mostly using hand signals and semaphore.

Cassie has recently graduated from Swansea Metropolitan University where she studied Technical Theatre. Coriolan/us is Cassie’s third show with National Theatre Wales after Shelf Life and The Passion. Cassie has recently finished working as stage manager on Mal Pope’s award-winning show Cappuccino Girls at the Evening Post Theatre, Swansea. Other theatre credits include several tours of Wales with TPP Theatrical Productions: Aladdin, Aesop’s Fables, The Wizard of Oz, Little Frankie, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dead Air, and The Great Easter Adventure, productions with Eddie Ladd, Shaun Tuan John, The Clarks and National Dance Company Wales.

DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER BRYONY RUTTER

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER CASSIE BROOM

CREATIVE TEAM

EMERGING DIRECTOR LOWRI JENKINS

Lowri is from the Vale of Glamorgan. She works mainly devising new theatre in Spain and the UK. As dramaturg/writer, Lowri created three shows with site-specific theatre company 19;29. In 2010 she began writing for award-winning bilingual theatre company Teatro Entre Escombros, with whom she most recently premiered Fuga Per Canonem at Escena Abierta Festival in Burgos. She has trained with Tamasha and SITI Company (Suzuki and Viewpoints). Lowri is currently developing a show about lemons.

WARDROBE MISTRESS LEIGH CONROY-HORSCRAFT

Leigh has recently graduated with a degree in Theatre Design from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Whilst there she specialised in costume and particularly enjoyed working on production. With experience in both television and theatre the challenge and variation of both mediums of performance appeals to her creative and organisational skills. She also has a keen interest in dance and has previously worked with National Dance Company Wales on their dance platform 2011.

Tom started his career at Stage Lighting Services in 2002 where he worked for 5 years and then moved to 11th Hour events. In his time working for both companies he worked on such events as Wales rugby pre-show, True Taste Awards and the Cardiff Big Weekend. In 2011 Tom became freelance and since then has toured with Sound Affairs and worked on events including V Festival and Isle of Wight Festival.

PRODUCTION ELECTRICIAN TOM BENNETT

CREATIVE TEAM

PRODUCTION AV AND OPERATION DAVID ABRA

David Abra trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music And Drama. Co-founder of Magic Wall Productions, his camera credits include promotional material for Fujitsu, South Wales and live theatre recordings for RWCMD and Newport Riverfront Theatre. Since leaving Magic Wall to concentrate on design and live work, his credits include lighting and video design for The Snow Queen (Milford Haven), Angie Le Mar’s In My Shoes (Soho Theatre), as well as operational credits for HSBC and Horrible Histories tour.

AUDIO-VISUAL BOARD OPERATOR CLAIRE WILKINS

Born in Wales in 1985, Claire Wilkins lives and works in Bristol. Originally trained as an artist, graduating from Dartington College of Arts, she now devotes her time to developing a personal language using video and projection techniques. Her work is characterised by a desire to experiment with the links between audio and visual and finding ways to integrate video into a performance space. These ideas are developed and realised in the form of audio-visual performances and installations. Often being site specific, her works are strongly influenced by questions linked to audience perception and interaction. Claire often collaborates with numerous artists, notably with those of Eye4aneye Visuals, of which she is founding member.

CAMERA DOLLY OPERATOR IAN MACRITCHIE

A graduate of the sorely missed Dartington College of Arts, Iain MacRitchie lends his time to developing specialised wireless communication solutions, and integrated systems for use in the performance and arts industry. His experience of ‘ground up’ development and an eye for detail fuels an extremely flexible approach to nearly all fields of technology, which aids his work as a proficient IT and audio technician. His keen interest in the world of contemporary music technology and its role in music performance has led to many exciting projects while collaborating with musicians in the South West of England and Northern Ireland.

CAMERA OPERATOR RICHARD HUW MORGAN

Ex-Brith Gof core performer (1990-7, 15 productions), Pearson/Brookes performer (1999-2005, 7 productions). Co-director, with John Rowley, of Das Wunden (1992-4, 4 productions) and good cop bad cop (1994 to present, 30 productions) touring internationally with the support of Wales Arts International and British Council. National Theatre Wales’ The Persians (2010) as member of chorus - the non-speaking one with the camera. Devisor, co-producer and co-presenter (with John Rowley) of Pitch, the arts and culture programme for Cardiff and beyond, on Radio Cardiff (2011 - present). Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Major Award for sound-art project ‘Pharmakon - a sonic mapping of Wales’ (2006). Research fellow (2002-4) and lecturer (2004-6) in Time Based Practice at Cardiff School of Art & Design (currently Cardiff Metropolitan University) vocational research fellow in bilingual graphic design through the medium of Welsh at Swansea Metropolitan University (2006-7) and visiting lecturer at University of Glamorgan (2012). Performance director for blown magazine (2010-present). Exhibitor at Y Lle Celf, Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru (2004 - with Matt Cook, 2006, 2008 - good cop bad cop), contributor to Special Exhibition (2012 - good cop bad cop). Arts Council Wales national advisor (2002-present).

Pete Telfer is from the village of Dyffryn Ardudwy in Meirionnydd. He began his career as a photojournalist, with the Welsh language rock scene and Wales-based artists as his main subject in the 80s, including photographing the phenomenal productions by Brith Gof. He also documented the fall of the Berlin Wall and travelled throughout Eastern Europe in the early 90s, including the Balkans Conflict. In 1992 he joined the new Arts and Music Department at BBC Wales and was part of the team who made The Slate arts magazine series. In 1995, Pete decided to go freelance and has worked on all of the arts strands for BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C since then. Pete started his own production company ‘Pixel Foundry’ in 2001, and during his career he has made over 70 documentaries for television and countless items for magazine programmes. Pete now makes films for the online creative network Culture Colony, and was part of the team who worked on National Theatre Wales’ production of The Persians.

CAMERA OPERATOR PETE TELFER

CAMERA DOLLY OPERATOR TOM PAYNE

Tom is a PhD student with Aberystwyth University. He is currently writing up his research into the launch year of National Theatre Wales.

Catherine is a theatre director from Cardiff. She was a founding member of National Theatre Wales: a Creative Associate between 2009 - 2011. She directed the fifth production in the company’s inaugural year, The Beach, and ran the Assembly programme and the New Critics scheme. Catherine has directed for companies including Sherman Cymru, Radio Wales, Unity Theatre Liverpool, Oldham Coliseum, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, Contact Manchester, Tara Arts and the Octagon Theatre Bolton where she was also Resident Assistant Director. She is a WalesLab supported artist. Catherine is also a theatre producer, lecturer and promoter, recently working on National Theatre Wales’ national tours of The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning and The Village Social. She trained on the MFA Theatre Directing at Birkbeck and has a degree in American Studies from Nottingham University.

PROMOTER CATHERINE PASKELL

CREATIVE TEAM

MENENIUS: ‘THE SENATORS OF ROME ARE THIS GOOD BELLY, YOU THE MUTINOUS MEMBERS.’— BRECHT’S CORIOLAN

8—9 RICHARD LYNCH, RICHARD HARRINGTON AND GERALD TYLER PHOTOGRAPH: WARREN ORCHARD / NATIONAL THEATRE WALES

SHAPING CORIOLAN/US

BY MIKE BROOKES

As with much of our work over the years, there is a direct and pragmatic use of technology here. That technology, and the mediation that it allows, is clearly present - structuring both the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ of the events that unfold within it. But however much its use now shapes the place and experience of Coriolan/us, ultimately, for us, it is always simply a bridge.

Balancing our hopes and intention for this work has inevitably required that we enable a very specific set of possibilities and behaviours. Allowing performers, and the text itself, to move and connect directly, regardless of the physical distances and limitations of the vast space that hosts them. While the rest of us need tools to meet and connect equally directly, with all aspects of the unfolding events, wherever we may individually be, and however we personally choose to engage. The layers of technology that we have employed, while also framing and evoking the place that we have built here, simply bridge those two sets of needs. Allowing things to happen, and be met, that would not otherwise be possible - either here or elsewhere.

At its heart, for me personally, Coriolan/us is an attempt to usefully realise this text, on the south coast of Wales, amongst the crowd of people who will meet us there, and who will ultimately shape each performance of this work. An event where, in the final analysis, the main thing happening, is simply ‘us’ and ‘here’.

MENENIUS: ‘THERE WAS A TIME WHEN ALL THE BODY’S MEMBERS REBELLED AGAINST THE BELLY.’— BRECHT’S CORIOLAN

In our imaginings, from the inception of this work, Coriolan/us was always going to unfold amongst a crowd, as it moved and flowed around the open public space of this event. Act following act, one thing leading another, the rolling consequences of our choices and reactions accumulating as they ripple on through the body and structure of a social forum constituted by all those present.

And it was always going to happen at scale. A large open place where that crowd was free to gather and move as it needed to. Where scenes and incidents could be placed, constructed, and walked to - finding and revealing themselves within a ‘field’ of activity, where ideas and individuals might meet and locate themselves in actuality.

A genuinely public space, large enough, and open enough, for the things that happen here amongst us to be seen and read against those happening over there. All viewed within the specific ‘landscape’ of a work that takes shape around us.

And yet, without knowing quite where or how, we had always imagined that all this would happen inside, behind closed doors, out of the weather. A field under cover. A landscape with a lid.

Walking into Hangar 858 for the first time, halfway through this process, it was immediately clear that here was a building where all these intentions and aspirations might actually be possible. Built in the late 1930’s, and beautifully directly engineered, the vast open space contained and framed below its sweeping single span cast cement ceiling has provided us with both a place to realise this work, and also a context within which we can locate it. And all the formal and structural details of Coriolan/us have developed and taken shape specifically within that context.

SHAPING CORIOLAN/US

CORIOLANUS: ‘O MOTHER, MOTHER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?’— SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS

JAN KOTT: ‘CORIOLANUS CAN ONLY CHOOSE HIS PLACE IN THE WORLD THAT HAS BEEN SET ON FIRE.’

SHAPING CORIOLAN/US

10—11 GERALD TYLER AND NIA GWYNNE PHOTOGRAPH: WARREN ORCHARD / NATIONAL THEATRE WALES

CAST

BRENDAN CHARLESON — TITUS LARTIUS, GENERAL AGAINST THE VOLSCIANSJONNY GLYNN — COMINIUS, GENERAL AGAINST THE VOLSCIANSNIA GWYNNE — SICINIUS VELUTUS, TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLERICHARD HARRINGTON — TULLUS AUFIDIUS, GENERAL OF THE VOLSCIANSCHRIS JARED — JUNIUS BRUTUS, TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLERICHARD LYNCH — CAIUS MARTIUS CORIOLANUSRHIAN MORGAN — VOLUMNIA, MOTHER OF CORIOLANUSJOHN ROWLEY — FIRST CITIZENMATTHEW THOMAS — MENENIUS AGRIPPA, FRIEND TO CORIOLANUSGERALD TYLER — SECOND CITIZEN BETHAN WITCOMB — VIRGILIA, WIFE OF CORIOLANUS

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Rhian Morgan studied Drama at UCW Aberystwyth. Theatre credits include: Deep Cut (Sherman Cymru/Tricicle Theatre), for which she was nominated for The Stage’s award for Best Actress, Ty Bernarda Alba (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru), The Importance of Being Earnest (Mappa Mundi), Siwan (Theatr Gwynedd), Hamlet, A Doll’s House, Miss Julie (Theatrig), Three Sisters (Cwmni Theatr Cymru), August (Clwyd Theatr Cymru) and Electra (Dubrovnic Theatre Festival). Television credits include: Gwaith Cartref (Fiction Factory), Ar y Tracs (Tidy Productions), Eros Unleashed (ITV Wales), Jennie Eirian (Cambrensis), Calon Gaeth (Green Bay), and Mine All Mine (ITV). Film credits include: The Black Dog, August (BAFTA nominee). Radio credits include plays for Radio 4 and Radio Cymru and Comedy in the Ll Files and The Royal Diamond Jubilee (Radio Wales).

JUNIUS BRUTUS CHRIS JARED

CAIUS MARTIUS CORIOLANUS RICHARD LYNCH

VOLUMNIA RHIAN MORGAN Chris Jared trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre credits include: Emperor And Galilean (National Theatre), Marathon and Out Of The Goldfish Bowl (Wales Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Regent’s Park) and Three Sisters (Royal Exchange). Film credits include: Untitled Robin Hood (dir. Ridley Scott), The Drop (short), Clown Café (short) and Limbo (dir. Matt McCooey).

Theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kasper, Mountain Language, title role in Hamlet, Hamlet Machine, Bloody Poetry, Galileo, Shoot Get Treasure Report (Moving Being), House of America, Flowers of the Dead Red Sea, East from the Gantry, The Myth of Michael Roderick, Song from a Forgotten City (Fiction Factory), P.A.X, Camlaun, Patagonia (Brith Gof), The Storm (Almeida), The Mysteries (RSC), Penny for a Song (Oxford Stage Group), Snapshots, Ghost Train Tattoo (Manchester Royal Exchange), Macbeth (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Afore Night Come (Young Vic), Gas Station Angel (Royal Court, tour) and The Persians (National Theatre Wales). Television credits include: The Healer, Thicker than Water, Breaking Rank, Sticky Wickets, Debylon By-Passed, Fondue Rhyw a Dinosors, A Mind to Kill, Score and Pobol y Cwm. Film credits include: Boy Soldier, Darklands, Watermarkes, Brauwen. Directing credits include: I Saw Myself (Lurking Truth).

TULLUS AUFIDIUS RICHARD HARRINGTON

Theatre credits include: Look Back in Anger (Theatre Royal Bath), Other Hands (Soho Theatre), Stone City Blue (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Art & Guff (Soho Theatre), Unprotected Sex (Sherman Cymru), Gas Station Angel (Royal Court tour), and House of America (Fiction Factory tour). Film credits include: The Contractor, Daddy’s Girl, The All Together, Joyrider, Mathilde, Secret Passage, Mule (short) and House of America. Television credits include: Alys, Larkrise to Candleford, Crash, Land Girls, New Tricks, Holby Blue, 5 Days, Casualty, Rise & Fall of Rome, Bleak House, Dalziel & Pascoe, Silent Witness, Spooks, Holby City, Rehab, Score and Care, MI High, Midsomer Murders, Pen Talar, Collision, Missing, Sold, Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, Hustle, Hidden City (Hall Mark) and Burton. Richard has also worked extensively in radio, for Radio 4 and Radio Wales Drama.

SICINIUS JELUTUS NIA GWYNNE

Theatre credits include: Clytemnestra, The Almond and The Seahorse (Sherman Cymru), The Dark Philosophers (National Theatre Wales / Told by an Idiot), The Daughter In Law, Dangerous Corner, Love Me Slender, Billy Liar, Top Girls (New Vic), Look Back In Anger (Northern Stage), Lie Of The Land (Pleasance, Edinburgh), Absurd Person Singular (Bolton Octagon), Mirandolina (Manchester Royal Exchange), To Kill A Mockingbird, The Invention of Love (Salisbury Playhouse), Ghost City (Sgript Cymru), Who Goes There? (BAC), Dogmouth (The Evidence Room). Television credits include: The Syndicate (ITV), Casualty, Zip and Hollow, Eastenders (BBC), Stick or Twist (BBC Wales), Belonging (BBC Wales), The Bill (Thames) and Pam Fi Duw? (HTV). Film credits include: Resistance (Rich Films) and The Organ Grinder’s Monkey (Film 4 & Warp Films).

CAST

Theatre credits include: Bus Stop (New Vic, Stoke), Roots, The Taming Of The Shrew, Dancing At Lughnasa, Arden Of Faversham, The Suicide, Measure For Measure, The Two Princes, Brassed Off and To Kill A Mockingbird (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), The Drowned World (Fab Theatre), T he Seafarer (Bolton Octagon), Gulliver (Hi-Jinx Theatre), The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, Cymbeline and The Merchant Of Venice (Ludlow Festival), Beau Rivage (Theatr Y Byd). Television credits include: Gwaith Cartref, Coronation Street, Casualty, Heartbeat, Doctors, The Palace, Abraham’s Point, Living It - Series 2, Dalziel & Pascoe, Torchwood, Nice Day For A Welsh Wedding, The Giblet Boys, Waking The Dead, Caerdydd, Pobol Y Cwm, In Denial Of Murder, Tracy Beaker, Fun In The Funeral Parlour, Without Motive, City Central, Nice Girls, Dirty Work, Holby City, Jack Of Hearts. Film credits include: Killer Elite, Green Street, A Bit of Tom Jones?, Simon Magnus, Anazapta and Shadowfalls. Radio credits include dramas and documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and Live from Dorothy’s, a radio series on air in 2013.

TITUS LARTIUS BRENDAN CHARLESON COMINIUS JONNY GLYNN

Theatre credits include: Lucky Seven (Hampstead Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo & Juliet, King John (RSC), Amy’s View, Arcadia (Library Theatre), Gawain and the Green Knight (Royal Opera House), Pera Palas (The Gate), Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Lyric Hammersmith), Lady Windermere’s Fan (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Rivals, I Have Been Here Before, Crimes of The Heart, Tartuffe, Count of Monte Cristo (Royal Exchange), Hamlet (Birmingham Rep), The New Apartment (Waterman’s Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Blue Angel, Measure for Measure (RSC), Merchant of Venice (English Shakespeare Co), Audience (Bridewell), The Broken Heart (Arts Threshold). Television credits include: Clocking Off, Moll Flanders (Granada), Search (BBC), The Bill (Thames) and Heartbeat (Yorkshire Television). Film credits include: Submarine (Warp Films).

SAXOPHONESJO ATKIN-REEVES — ALTOBEN TREACHER — ALTOGREG STERLAND — TENORNICK JORDAN — TENORDAN SMITH — BARITONE

BRASSTEDDY SMITH — TRUMPETCORBEN LEE — TRUMPETTONY LOVELL — TROMBONEJOHN HARDY — ADDITIONAL TRUMPET

RECORDED IN WESTON GALLERY, RWCMD, BY ODILON MARCENARO

CREATIVE RESEARCH, RECORDING AND COMPOSITIONAL ASSISTANCE ON THE MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK:

BENJAMIN TALBOTTTRYSTAN HARDYVICTORIA ASHFIELDTHOMAS WILLIAMSODILON MARCENARO

CREATING THE SOUNDTRACK

Theatre credits include: Sea Plays (The Old Vic), A Comedy of Errors, Richard II, Titus Andronicus, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Macbeth, The Changeling (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory), Bronte (Shared Experience), Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Hull Truck), PVT Wars (Finborough), and The Ruffian on the Stair (Old Red Lion). Television credits include: Spooks (BBC), Afterlife (ITV) and Never Never (Channel 4). He has performed in many radio plays for BBC Radio 4.

Gerald Tyler trained at Dartington College of Arts. Theatre credits include: The Passion (National Theatre Wales/WildWorks), In the Penal Colony (Music Theatre Wales), The Persians (National Theatre Wales), Big Hands and Something’s Wrong with Abel (Year of the Bear). He has been a core company member of Earthfall Physical Theatre, and has performed with Brith Gof / Man Act and Scottish Dance Theatre. Television credits include: A Mind to Kill (S4C), Nuts & Bolts (ITV Wales) and Gobble (BBC/Hat Trick). Film credits include: The Gospel of Us, The Darkest Day, Too Old to Dream, My Pipes Need Cleaning and Put It Where It Doesn’t Belong. Writer/director credits include: Year of the Bear, Errol White Dance, The Lovely Cari Munn, Gerald Tyler vs LIMBO (poetry and music). Design credits include: At Swim Two Boys (Earthfall), Attempts on her Life /Ceisio’i Bywyd Hi (Sherman Cymru).

CAST

SECOND CITIZEN GERALD TYLER

MENENIUS AGRIPPA MATTHEW THOMAS

Bethan Witcomb trained at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Theatre credits include: Bruised (Theatr Clwyd), 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices (Old Vic), Cost the Earth and Sing To Me (Gwent Theatre). Film credits include: Deadly Tantrum (short). Bethan is currently filming the second series of Stella (Tidy Productions).

VIRGILIA BETHAN WITCOMB

12—13 COSTUME PALETTE: SIMON BANHAM

John has been working as a professional actor, theatre maker and artist for the past 20 years. In the 1990s he was a core member of the Welsh site-specific performance company Brith Gof, involved in the creation of shows such as Pax, Haearn, DOA and Prydain. Since 2000 he has been touring the world with the highly acclaimed, Sheffield-based theatre company Forced Entertainment. As a visual artist John has been commissioned to make a number of short films, including works for Channel 4 and the BBC and has received several awards from the Arts Council of Wales, including the prestigious Creative Wales Award. In 2010, he performed in The Persians, directed by Mike Pearson. In early 2012, John was cast as nature-phobic Richard in Spirit of the Wood, a First Light, BFI-funded film. He is currently researching two new theatre pieces for his company, good cop bad cop, with his long-term collaborator, Richard Huw Morgan. John has recently returned from Cairo, where he performed Quizoola with Forced Entertainment. John’s first children’s book, The Big Book of Bugs (Hodder Books) is due to be published in early 2013.

FIRST CITIZEN JOHN ROWLEY

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THE CREATIVE TEAM WOULD LIKE TO THANK: BRUCE WARBOYS AT THE WHITE HORSETHE BRECHT ESTATE

THIS PRODUCTION IS IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY. COMMISSIONED FOR THE WORLD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, WHICH IS PRODUCED BY THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY FOR THE LONDON 2012 FESTIVAL.

IN THE PLAYTEXT FOR THIS PRODUCTION THE DIRECTORS HAVE COMBINED SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY WITH MATERIAL FROM BRECHT’S 1950S ADAPTATION, CORIOLAN. SHAKESPEARE’S TWO CITIZENS HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITH THE TWO CITIZENS FROM THE BRECHT, IN A TRANSLATION BY JOHN WILLETT. WE ARE GRATEFUL TO THE BRECHT ESTATE FOR THEIR PERMISSION AND SUPPORT IN THIS PRODUCTION.

REGISTERED COMPANY NO. 6693227CHARITY REGISTRATION NO. 127952DESIGN BY ELFEN.CO.UK

01 THE CAST

07 JONNY GLYNN

10 GERALD TYLER

11 RHIAN MORGAN

03 LOWRI JENKINS

02 MICHAEL CORBIDGE, LOWRI JENKINS AND RHIAN MORGAN

05 CHRIS JARED, MICHAEL CORBIDGE AND NIA GWYNNE

06 RICHARD HARRINGTON AND RICHARD LYNCH

08 JONNY GLYNN AND BRENDAN CHARLESON

09 NIA GWYNNE AND CHRIS JARED

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02PHOTOPGRAPHS WARREN ORCHARD / NATIONAL THEATRE WALES

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04 MATTHEW THOMAS, CHRIS JARED AND NIA GWYNNE

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