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From Tiny Volcanoes great things grow...
Posted by Literary on 2nd Jul 2010 at 16:24 | Everyword, Tiny Volcanoes | 0 comments
If you can cast your mind back to two Everywords ago, you will remember Nabokov Theatre’s challenge to a group of Liverpool theatre artists – to take on the rise of the BNP in seven days – and the fantastic work that was made that scorching hot week by musicians, choreographers, actors and, of course, writers.
Laurence Wilson responded with balls and black humour (and hymn sheets for good measure), and as Kevin Harvey and Shaun Mason tore across the stage, morphing from tea-drinking monkeys to zealous choir masters, Tiny Volcanoes was born.
Fast forward less than a year, and the Everyword 2010 audience were in stitches at what had now become a full length co-production with Paines Plough, albeit still a work-in-progress. Michael Ryan was now partnering Kevin onstage, and the cast of characters now included sweaty stand-ups, dogs on heat and every prime minister since WWII.
Laurence and director James Grieve were invited to the Orchard Project, a theatre residency programme in the Catskills Mountains outside New York (lucky things!) to spend more time developing the play, and the script continues to evolve and keep up to date with political machinations and breaking news, as the premiere approaches… Tiny Volcanoes will open at Latitude Festival (a landmark arts festival involving some of the most prestigious theatre companies in the country) this month, catapulting the audience into Broken Britain and ploughing a comedy rollercoaster through religion, family, society and of course the grubby world of politics.
It’s fantastic to be invited to showcase our work there, and to work alongside Paines Plough, one of the most exciting new writing companies in the country and helmed by James and former Nabokov co-founder George Perrin. But equally to be proud of is the fantastic creative team that are working on the show. The production has the weight of the Everyman and Playhouse team behind it, and with company stage manager Sarah Lewis, technical manager and sound design by Xenia Bayer and AV design by Tim Brunsden Tiny Volcanoes is really being forged in this city. And of course two fantastic local actors and Laurence’s incredible script make this truly a Liverpool show to be proud of – watch out Latitude!
Lindsay x
Lindsay Rodden
Literary Officer
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