A Play for the living in a time of extinction
Written by Miranda Rose Hall.
currently Touring to:
York Theatre Royal 27.09.23
previously shown at:
Barbican Centre 26.04.2023
Belgrade Theatre Coventry 10.05.23
Shakespeare North 16.05.23
New Vic 19.06.23
Theatre Royal Plymouth 28.06.23
A Headlong and Barbican co-production
Miranda Rose Hall’s darkly funny, life-affirming show directed by Katie Mitchell is a bold experiment in eco theatre-making. Co-produced by the Barbican and Headlong.
“The difference between death and extinction is this: death is to cease to exist. Extinction is to extinguish. I think of death as individual. Extinction is collective.”
Naomi is part of a theatre company who have made a play especially for you, those living through extinction, but the actors haven’t shown up yet. In the meantime, Naomi has a plan.
This innovative one woman show takes us on a life-changing journey to confront the urgent ecological disaster that is unfolding around us. Part ritual, part battle cry, and powered by bicycles, this fiercely feminist off-grid production is a moving exploration of what it means to be human in an era of man-made extinction.
Sharing learning from Europe and Katie Mitchell, Headlong present an innovative touring model, the first of its kind in the UK, which sees a play tour, while the people do not.
The Barbican hosts the beginning of this journey wherein each city a blueprint of the show will be uniquely brought to life by a different team of theatre makers in each venue. It forms part of a ground-breaking international experiment in reimagining theatre in a climate crisis.
Headlong will partner with and stage the play at Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Shakespeare North, New Vic Newcastle-under-Lyme, Theatre Royal Plymouth and York Theatre Royal.
Running time: 1hr 20 mins
Barbican Creative Team
Writer: MIRANDA ROSE HALL
Director: KATIE MITCHELL
Assistant Director: FRANCESCA HSIEH
Set & Costume designer: MOI TRAN
Lighting: BETH GUPWELL
Composer and Sound Designer: PAUL CLARK
Associate Sound Designer/creator: MUNOTIDA CHINYANGA
Bike specialist: COLIN TONKS
Choir: CITIZENS OF THE WORLD CHOIR
Casting Director: AMY BALL
belgrade Creative Team
Director: NYASHA GUDO
Associate Lighting Designer: ROB CLEWS
Sound desinger: IAIN ARMSTRONG
Choir Musical Director: KEVINA WILLIAMS
Casting Director: AMY BALL
SHakespeare north Creative Team
Director: NATHAN POWELL
Designer: ELLIE LIGHT
Sound Desinger: XENIA BAYER
Choir Lead: RACHEL WAITE
Casting Director: AMY BALL
NEW VIC Creative Team
Director: ELLIE TAYLOR
Designer: LIS EVANS
Lighting Designer: DANIELLA BEATTIE
Associate Sound Designer: ALEX DAY
Musical Director: OLLIE MILLS
Assistant Musical Director: SUSAN MOFFAT
Casting Director: AMY BALL
PLYMOUTH Creative Team
Director: KAY MICHAEL
Lighting Designer: JOHN PURKIS
Sound Designer: DAN MITCHAM
Casting Director: AMY BALL
YORK Creative Team
Director: MINGYU LIN
Casting Director: AMY BALL
Background
This is Headlong’s second major touring experiment, having begun with Signal Fires during the pandemic, a national festival that saw over forty touring companies return to the origins of theatre: telling stories to audiences in their thousands around fires. Together with Katie Mitchell, we are continuing to rethink theatre making in a time of crisis.
Internationally renowned artist Katie Mitchell, who has made six pieces about climate change, directs this new version of Miranda Rose Hall’s acclaimed play. Both director and writer share an artistic and social awareness about the intersection between feminism and eco-activism.
Katie Mitchell is drawing on and furthering her work on the Sustainable Theatre? project with this production and tour, which she originally conceived with the support of the French choreographer Jérôme Bel and Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne. The three joined forces to imagine a theatre experiment of international scope that would be ecological both in its content and in its production process.
The original production of “A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction” directed by Katie Mitchell was created at the Theatre Vidy-Lausanne as part of the project “Sustainable Theatre?”, conceived by Katie Mitchell, Jérôme Bel and Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, with the collaboration of the Competence Centre in Sustainability of the University of Lausanne, co-produced by STAGES - Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green Environmental Shift (NTGent - Théâtre de Liège - National Theatre of Croatia in Zagreb - MC93, Maison de la culture de Seine-Saint-Denis - Trafo House of Contemporary Arts - Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Teatro d'Europa - Lithuanian National Drama Theatre - Teatro Nacional D. Maria II - Maribor Slovene National Theatre - The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Dramaten, Stockholm - National Theater & Concert Hall, Taipei) and co-funded by the European Union. “Sustainable Theatre?” includes two shows and a workshop touring in the form of scripts recreated locally.
Miranda Rose Hall’s A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction was first commissioned by LubDub Theatre Company.
“Transfixing.”
“This could - and should - become a blueprint for environmentally sustainable theatre.”