TIE DRLDS THEWAR - HOME Manchester
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THEWAR
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Rhum and Clay Theatre Company presents Written with Isley Lynn Directed by Hamish MacDougall and Julian Spooner Originally commissioned by New Diorama Theatre Co-produced by Brighton Festival and HOME Manchester Supported by China Plate, Corn Exchange Newbury, MAST Mayflower Studios Southampton, New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich and Redbridge Drama Centre Supported using public funding by Arts Council England Duration: 120 minutes (including interval) Age 12+ Contains strong language, flashing lights and haze
The War of the Worlds What stories do we choose to believe, and why? In the darkest of times,
Written with Isley Lynn the truth is a very precious commodity…
Directed by Hamish MacDougall As humans we are fascinated and consumed by the stories that we tell each
and Julian Spooner other. It’s how we navigate and explain the world. There is nothing more alluring
to us than a satisfying narrative.
Cast
When Orson Welles adapted H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds in 1938 he
Gina Isaac
wanted to create a thrilling piece of radio drama that would ‘feel’ real. In fact,
Jess Mabel Jones
it felt so real that it caused a level of hysteria amongst listeners that was in part
Julian Spooner down to Welles’s consummate skill as a storyteller, but that was also a feature of
Matt Wells the time in which he told it. Europe was on the brink of the Second World War,
Writer Isley Lynn Hitler was becoming bolder and more ferocious, the Hindenburg airship disaster
Co-Directors Hamish MacDougall, Julian Spooner had just taken place, and all of this was being transmitted into people’s living
rooms via the radio — the first piece of technology that allowed world events
Movement Director Matt Wells
to invade the family home. So perhaps it is no surprise that in such a febrile
Set and Costume Designer Bethany Wells atmosphere Welles’s Martian invasion felt entirely plausible.
Lighting Co-Designers Nick Flintoff, Pete Maxey
Sound Designer Benjamin Grant Fast-forward to 2016, and terrorist threats are gripping Europe, Donald Trump is
Video Designer Iain Syme promising a Muslim ban if he is elected, and the internet has replaced the radio
as the medium through which we make sense of the world. We remain just as
susceptible to a convincing narrative, even more so if that narrative seems to
Technical Stage Manager Paul Milford offer an explanation for our sense of unease.
Deputy Stage Manager Carys Davies
Executive Producer Sally Cowling
General Manager Amy Strike
Biographies
Nick Flintoff Lighting Co-Designer Jess Mabel Jones Performer
Nick Flintoff trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and studied Jess Mabel Jones is a multidisciplinary artist, producer and collaborator who
documentary film at the Metropolitan Film School, London. He ran the technical makes work that strives to incite change. She is co-creator of the Total Theatre
department at the Gantry, Southampton, and was Production Manager with Award-winning Backstage in Biscuit Land with Touretteshero, The Paper Man
Imagination Ltd before joining the company’s lighting design team, working on with Improbable and the Total Theatre Award-shortlisted The Flop with Hijinx
various large-scale projects. Returning to the theatre, he worked at the Corn and Spymonkey. She is co-founder of the inclusive punk collective Where’s
Exchange, Newbury, and lit numerous national tours and various shows for the My Vagina?, who create disruptive happenings and digital artworks, and is
Watermill Theatre, Newbury. He is currently Technical Associate for the National one half of the creative partnership Motherhoody, which makes radical public
Theatre’s New Work Department. He previously designed the lighting for Rhum interventions through workshops and film. Jess is neurodivergent and an alumna
and Clay’s production Hardboiled and is thrilled to be back with the team for of Rose Bruford and The BRIT School.
The War of the Worlds. He is a member of the Association of Lighting
Designers. jessmabeljones.com
Benjamin Grant Sound Designer Isley Lynn Writer
Benjamin Grant studied at Central School of Speech and Drama, London, and Isley Lynn’s work includes A Good Story (Canace) as part of 15 Heroines at the
has designed for theatre, dance and installations, specialising in devised work Jermyn Street Theatre, London; Tiny Dancers for the National Youth Theatre; Skin
and new writing. His recent sound design credits include Death of England at a Cat, which toured nationally, was named Pick of the Year at VAULT Festival,
the National Theatre; Maggot Moon at the Unicorn Theatre, London; I’ll Take London, and was nominated for four Off West End Awards, including Most
You to Mrs Cole for Pleasance Beyond; Education Education Education at the Promising New Playwright and Best New Play; Albatross for Paines Plough at
Trafalgar Studios, London; Prurience at the Southbank Centre, London, and the the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, and the Gate Theatre,
Guggenheim Museum, New York; and The Road Awaits Us at Sadler’s Wells, London; The Swell for a HighTide First Commissions play reading; Totty for
London. His credits as Associate Sound Designer include Beware of Pity at the Paines Plough and Tamasha’s Come To Where I’m From: London; Sie und Wir
Schaubühne, Berlin, and The Kid Stays In the Picture at the Royal Court Theatre, for Werk X, Vienna; Tether at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe; What’s So
London. He is an Associate Artist of The Wardrobe Ensemble, Bristol. Special at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London; Bright Nights at
The Space, London; Sleight of Hand as part of Little Stitches, an evening of four
plays at Theatre503, the Arcola Theatre and the Gate Theatre, London; and
Gina Isaac Performer
Lomography, which won a special commendation in the 2012 Soho Young
Gina Isaac trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Her recent Writers Awards.
theatre work includes A Streetcar Named Desire for Rapture Theatre; Made
isleylynn.com
in India for Tamasha at the Soho Theatre; The Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night-Time for National Theatre Productions; Saturday Night and Sunday
Morning, Top Girls, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons and Three Sisters at the
Mercury Theatre, Colchester; The Grapes of Wrath at the Chichester Festival
Theatre; The Winter’s Tale at the Salisbury Playhouse; Small Miracle at the
Tricycle Theatre, London; and Mother Courage and Her Children for English
Touring Theatre. Her television and film credits include EastEnders, Holby City,
Casualty, Derek, Men Only, The Bill, Fast Girls, Unidentified and Walking with
Shadows.Hamish MacDougall Co-Director Julian Spooner Performer/Co-Director
Hamish MacDougall’s recent directing credits include Friend for James Julian Spooner studied drama at the University of Bristol before training at the
Seabright Productions in Edinburgh and Adelaide; Hammerhead (named The École Jacques Lecoq, Paris, where he co-founded Rhum and Clay Theatre
Pleasance’s Best Comedy Show and the winner of the Brighton Comedy Company, of which he is currently Co-Artistic Director. He he has co-created and
Award) and Soothing Sounds for Baby (which won four Chortle Comedy performed in all of the company’s productions. In 2018 he won The Stage Award
Awards and was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award) at the Soho for Acting Excellence for his performance in the acclaimed solo show Mistero
Theatre and Southbank Centre, London, and on tour; The Narcissist, which he Buffo for Arcola Theatre. He directed Testosterone for Rhum and Clay on tour
co-wrote, at the Underbelly (Edinburgh), the Battersea Arts Centre and Toomler, nationally and internationally, and co-directed and performed in 64 Squares. He
Amsterdam; Willy at the Soho Theatre and the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh; is also a writer and director for film, producing under Skym Bay Films. His short
Life and Rhymes at the Udderbelly, Southbank, and in Edinburgh, where it won film To by, made with the director Tom Savage, has won numerous awards as
an Arts Voice Award; and Zoo for Theatre 503. He is also a performer and a Best Comedy at festivals worldwide. He was most recently seen on stage playing
member of Kandinsky Theatre Company, with which he co-devised and Hugh Hughes’s father Daniel Hughes in Hoipolloi’s production The Ladder at the
performed in Trap Street at the Schaubühne, Berlin, and the New Diorama Adelaide Fringe and the Norfolk & Norwich Festival.
Theatre, London; and Dog Show (winner of the Off-West End Award for Best
Ensemble and a Peter Brook Award), Still Ill and Dinomania (nominated for the Iain Syme Video Designer
Off-West End Award for Best Ensemble last year) at the New Diorama Theatre.
Iain Syme trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London.
His work and designs have been described as ‘ingenious’ by The Guardian
Pete Maxey Lighting Co-Designer and ‘responsible for bringing shows to life’ by A Younger Theatre. In 2015 he
Pete Maxey trained at Middlesex University and spent two years with the won the Association of Lighting Designers’ Excellence in Video Design Award.
National Theatre’s New Work department, assisting the development of new He has collaborated with a wide range of companies, directors and venues,
productions including Anna, Treasure Island, Everyman and The Elephantom. including the National Gallery, the BBC, Complicité, the Belarus Free Theatre,
He subsequently joined the technical team at Sadler’s Wells, London, and Katie Mitchell, the Two Door Cinema Club and BLUR.
currently works with several British and international companies, making and
touring shows worldwide. He also runs technical theatre workshops for the
National Theatre and local schools. His lighting design credits include
Nutcracker for Ballet Central and ADC Theatre; Salomé at the Cockpit Theatre,
London, and on tour; Bromley Bedlam Bethlehem at the Old Red Lion, London;
Bon Ami at the 2019 VAULT Festival; the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Breakin’
Convention Festivals at Sadler’s Wells; Wild Card: Spoken Movement at
Sadler’s Wells; The Girl Who Never Looked Up at the National Theatre; The
Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Twelfth Night at the Watermill Theatre,
Newbury; Dying For It at the Brockley Jack Theatre, London; and Ten Women
at Ovalhouse, London.Bethany Wells Set and Costume Designer Rhum and Clay Theatre Company
Bethany Wells trained in architecture and now works in dance, theatre and
Artistic Directors: Julian Spooner, Matt Wells
installation as a performance designer with a particular interest in site-specific
and devised performance. She is an Associate Artist with Middle Child, Hull. Executive Producer: Sally Cowling
Her recent work includes Rallying Cry at the Battersea Arts Centre; Busking It
General Manager: Amy Strike
for High Tide; DISTANCE at the Park Theatre, London; A New And Better You
and Removal Men at the Yard Theatre, London; Legacy at the Theatre Royal, Rhum and Clay is led by its Co-Artistic Directors, Julian Spooner and Matthew
York; TRUST at the Gate Theatre, London; Party Skills for the End of the World Wells, and its Executive Producer, Sally Cowling. Emerging from the École
at the Manchester International Festival (MIF); The Department of Distractions for Jacques Lecoq in Paris, Rhum and Clay’s work is always devised and draws
Third Angel; All We Ever Wanted Was Everything for Middle Child; Cosmic on physical virtuosity. Its productions are noted for their cinematic storytelling,
Scallies for Graeae and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; and We playing with overlapping narratives with flashbacks and montages that create
Were Told There Was Dancing for the Royal Exchange Young Company. Her artful, visually textured narratives. The company works with an ever-changing
current projects include Us Against Whatever for Middle Child; Thank You range of creative collaborators, creating nine productions over the past decade
Very Much with Claire Cunningham at MIF; STORM for Search Party; and the that have toured in the UK and internationally. The last two years have seen its
ongoing WARMTH, a mobile sauna and performance space commissioned by 2017 production of Testosterone and its 2018 production of Mistero Buffo
Compass Live Art. presented in Brazil, Canada, Kazakhstan, France and Venezuela. The
company is based at the New Diorama Theatre, London, and is an associate
bethanywells.com
of the Redbridge Drama Centre. Its numerous awards include the 2018 The
Stage Edinburgh Award for Best Performance.
Matt Wells Performer/Movement Director
rhumandclay.com
Matt Wells is a freelance actor and movement director and has been
Co-Artistic Director of Rhum and Clay Theatre Company since joining in 2011
whilst studying at École Jacques Lecoq, Paris. His recent credits include co-
devising and performing in Testosterone (selected for the British Council 2017
Showcase and named Best Theatre Show at Pleasance 2107) on tour in the UK
and internationally; 64 Squares at the Underbelly, Edinburgh, and on a national
tour; Hardboiled — The Fall of Sam Shadow at the Watermill, Newbury, and
the New Diorama Theatre, London; and A Strange Wild Song for Bedlam in
Edinburgh and at the New Diorama Theatre. He has run workshops for the
National Theatre and the Old Vic in London, and for the British Council in
Brazil, Kazakhstan, Australia and Venezuela.You can also read
