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P R E V I O U S   P R O J E C T S

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READ 'I AM GAVRILO PRINCIP' 
REVIEWS AT BROADWAYBABY AND THE STAGE.

I AM GAVRILO PRINCIP
by
Oliver Yellop


I am Gavrilo Princip is the story of one of histories greatest unknowns: Gavrilo Princip, the young assassin who shot the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, the event that kick started the First World War.

​The play finds Gavrilo in purgatory watching the blood and carnage of the 20th century unfold. It is his punishment to watch the consequences of his actions over and over again, as time loops over the last century. History has not been kind to Gavrilo Princip. He has either been overlooked, misrepresented or misunderstood.
But this is not a story about the colossal impact of his actions. This is a story about a young man trying to find his place in the 
world. A young man who sacrificed so much and got so little in return. About wanting so desperately to belong, to be remembered that violence became his only course of action.
We are often taught that history is a story of kings and queens, of very important people doing very important things. But it is not so in case of Gavrilo Princip... Much ink has been spilt discussing the legacy of Princip's contribution to history. Weather he was a freedom fighter or a terrorist will continue to be debated long into the future. However what I wanted to do, was to create a narrative on the man himself: his thoughts, his feelings, his reflections on the world he lived in, and the one he watched unfold. The idea for this show was to give a voice to someone who so often has had others speak for him.​
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International Voices

International Voices is an ongoing, evolving project for Presence Theatre in which we aim to bring communities together in London, to explore national theatrical repertoires, and to work toward a greater understanding of the world’s diverse theatre and storytelling cultures. We aim to rediscover the best in classic and contemporary international  writing, whilst honouring the spirit and cultural context in which the plays were written.
In July 2017 we presented a reading of They Have Given Us the Land, You Don’t Hear Dogs Barking and Luvina from The Plain in Flames by the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo at the Chalton Gallery in London. Previous staged readings include The Deep by Jón Atli Jónasson at the Embassy of Iceland.
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"Powerful theatre in a non-theatrical setting ... an impressive achievement." British Theatre Guide on The Deep​
Photos: David Secombe.

*If you are interested in International Voices please contact
Anna Mors @ annamors@gmail.com
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​THEY HAVE GIVEN US THE LAND,
YOU DON'T HEAR DOGS BARKING
 and LUVINA 
by Juan Rulfo

A staged reading presented by:
Presence Theatre 
and the Chalton Gallery in association with the University of Texas Press.
​

Translated by Ilan Stevens with Harold Augenbraum
Directed by Simon Usher
S
ound and music performed by Blanca Regina
Cast: Sebastian Viveros

30th July 2017 - The Chalton Gallery


Three stark and startling dramatic monologues from one of the greatest Latin American writers. 

Born in 1917, Juan Rulfo set all his short fiction in his birthplace of Jalisco, Mexico, depicting the tumultuous post-revolutionary period of his childhood.

​Written in the 1940s and 1950s, Rulfo’s elemental and universal tales draw on the poverty and violence of his childhood and document the experience of rural depopulation and migration to the cities.

Taken from his collection of short stories The Plain in Flames, Presence presented this staged reading at 
the contemporary Mexican and British art specialists the Chalton Gallery as part of the evolving International Voices project.

‘Juan Rulfo didn’t write more than three hundred pages, but they are almost as many and, I believe, as durable as those we’re acquainted with from Sophocles.’ Gabriel García Márquez.

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THE DEEP
​by Jón Atli Jónasson 
​

A staged reading presented by:
Presence Theatre 
in association with International Performing Rights.

Translated by Brian FitzGibbon
Directed by Jack Tarlton
Sound design by David Gregory
Sound operated by David Gregory and Harry Linden
Cast: Samuel Edward-Cook


29th June 2017 - Old Fire Station, Offbeat Festival, Oxford

29th November 2016 - Embassy of Iceland


A day in the life of one man and the fishing community that sustains him. A day in which he must face his fears and desires amongst the ice-cold waters off the coast of Iceland in a desperate attempt to survive. 

Based on a remarkable true story Jón Atli Jónasson’s monologue takes this tale of extraordinary fortitude to create a beautifully humane story where we enter the heightened hallucinatory state of the protagonist's mind as he pushes his body beyond endurance. 


Presence were invited to share a work in progress of The Deep at the theatre, comedy, spoken word and music festival Offbeat after a successful staged reading at the Embassy of Iceland that launched our  International Voices strand.

"A direct and fully felt performance ... Samuel Edward-Cook shares this fisherman’s difficult journey with every one of his audience, creating powerful theatre ... an impressive achievement." British Theatre Guide 
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EMPEROR FUKUSHIMA
by Jacob 
Hirdwall

Staged reading presented by:
Presence Theatre and Empty Deck in association with International Performing Rights.
Translated by Rochelle Wright 
Directed by Jack Tarlton
Sound design by David McKeitch
Cast: Tom Freeman & Anna Leong Brophy


15th August 2016 - Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe


A story of man’s relentless quest for energy.
 
On March 11th 2011 at 2:46pm an undersea earthquake struck the Eastern coast of Japan with an unbelievable force. The entire country was moved 2.4 metres and the ensuing tsunami swept entire villages away. The earthquake also triggered a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant. Emperor Fukushima details the lives of a woman whose husband is fighting inside the collapsed Japanese reactor and of a man who has just arrived in Japan having survived the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl twenty-five years previously.

Emperor Fukushima has been performed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and broadcast on Swedish radio, winning Best Stage Play from the Swedish-International Theatre Institute.

​
Presence Theatre presented the very first staged reading of Emperor Fukushima in the UK as a response to Empty Deck's production of Cosmic Fear or The Day Brad Pitt Got Paranoia that ran throughout the Fringe at the Bedlam Theatre
.

​"A catastrophically impactful companion piece to Cosmic Fear." Empty Deck
Photographs: David Tarlton
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NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC 
by David Watson and
THE FRUGAL HORN
 
by Nick Payne

(A staged Reading)
Presence Theatre  and Backwell Festival in association with Casarotto and Curtis Brown.

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Directed by Jack Tarlton
Cast: Stephanie Rutherford, Helen Budge, Tom Morley & Jack Sandle


2nd July 2016 - Backwell Festival

Presence Theatre returned to Backwell with a double-bill of short plays exploring love, loss and the sheer joy of music by two of the most exciting British dramatists working today.

Now That’s What I Call Music by David Watson is an all-out verbal barrage of the sharpest, filthiest humour as we meet an over-excited record label panel. The Frugal Horn
 by Evening Standard Theatre Award Winner Nick Payne follows a young women’s quest for her lost flugelhorn, as she negotiates her way through the many strangers who have come into contact with it.
"The excessively talented Presence Theatre ... a magnificent double bill." Jane Sabherwal, Backwell Festival ​
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Photograph: John Seaman
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THE RETURNINGS
​by Fredrik Brattberg

Presence Theatre in association with International Performing Rights and Colombine Förlag present a staged reading.
​Translated by Henning Hegland
Directed by Jack Tarlton

​Cast: Julia Barrie, Bill Nash & Adam Newington.
​

A mother and father are grieving for the loss of their son Gustav, whom they presume to be dead. Until one day there is a knock at the door and there he is. Their son has returned and daily life is restored, but events soon twist wildly out of control as what seemed to be a bleak tragedy transforms into a brilliant black farce. 

Top photo: John Seaman.
READ MORE IN OUR ARCHIVES
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​"To get the essence of Sam Shepard, you have to hit the road." 
Chicago Tribune
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10th May - 4th July 2014  - Belgrade Theatre, Coventry; Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking; Òran Mór, Glasgow; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh; The Poly, Falmouth; The Acorn, Penzance; Eden Court, Inverness; CLF Art Café at The Bussey Building, London; The Dugdale Centre, Enfield.

“So intriguing and varied … seeing all the pieces demonstrates how diversely Shepard deals with recurring themes … you’re faced with a surreal yet romantic vision of a troubled America.” ★★★★ Time Out

“Beguilingly poetic rock and roll theatre.” ★★★★ The Herald

PICK OF THE WEEK The Guardian

“Memorably intense performances … a fine, sustained reflection on the forces that drive Shepard’s male characters onto the road.”  The Scotsman

"Mythic and mysterious, tough and testing ... so believable and bewitching." West Briton


“A tour de force … unmissable.” ★★★★★ Behind the Arras   ​

READ MORE IN OUR ARCHIVES
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THE HOLY GHOSTLY 
​by Sam Shepard

Arnim Friess
Directed by Simon Usher
Music by Ben Kritikos
Design and Costume: Carmen Mueck
Lighting and Projection: Arnim Friess
Sound Design: Paul Bull
Cast: John Chancer, Valerie Gogan & Jack Tarlton


What if I was to tell you there was a Chindi out there with more faces and more arms and legs than the two of us put together? You really think we're alone, don't ya boy?

​
​Pop has come to the desert to destroy the ghost of a Navajo demon, bringing with him a supply of marshmallows, a bazooka and his rock-star son.

Shepard tears apart the dysfunctional father/son relationship that haunts his work with this early play, a brutally entertaining campfire tale full of abrupt transformations, freewheeling myth and bodies that just won't stay dead.


"Its narrative completely confounds our expectations, beginning as a father-and-son trip into the desert, and becoming a riff on death, trauma and those we leave behind, following the appearance of fire, guns, a bazooka and a mad shaman spirit." Time Out

Top photo: Arnim Friess.
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THE WAR IN HEAVEN
by Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard

Directed by Simon Usher
Music by Ben Krikitos
Design and Costume: Carmen Mueck
Lighting and Projection: Arnim Friess
Sound Design: Paul Bull
Cast: John Chancer, Valerie Gogan & Jack Tarlton


I died
the day I was born
and became an Angel 
on that day

A plea from both a fallen angel and from a man struggling to be heard once more, that searches for the healing power of words themselves.

Actor and director Joseph Chaikin co-wrote The War in Heaven with Sam Shepard when he was recovering from a major stroke and had been left with aphasia. Simon Usher returns to the piece after directing Chaikin in the UK premiere at the Royal Court and Leicester Haymarket in 1987 and with a cast of fourteen at Shakespeare's Rose Theatre in 2007. 
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​Top Photo: Nina Sologubenko.
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THE ANIMAL (YOU) conceived by Jack Tarlton ​


Created by Jack Tarlton and Simon Usher using material from Nightwalk, Rolling Thunder Logbook, Hawk Moon, Motel Chronicles, Cruising Paradise, Slave of the Camera, Great Dream of Heaven and Day Out of Days by Sam Shepard
Directed by Simon Usher
Music by Ben Kritikos
Design and Costume: Carmen Mueck
Lighting and Projection: Arnim Friess
Sound Design: Paul Bull
Cast: John Chancer, Valerie Gogan, Ben Kritikos & Jack Tarlton

​Worship the animal.
The animal.
You.
A drive through the landscape of Sam Shepard's poetry and prose, played loud to the standard rock and roll progression of C, A minor, F, G chords.
Many of the themes that stalk his work for theatre are laid bare in the tales that Sam Shepard has been writing over the last forty years. From the kid driving a stolen car to Mexico to his unstintingly honest look at his relationships to women and alcohol, through to the older man of today with the "constant swirling chatter" inside his head, they capture the universality of a man trying to find his place in the world. CHORALE marks the premiere of The Animal (You) after its successful preview at Latitude Festival.

"A rolling interior monologue with the irresistible pull of the road at its heart in a piece of beguilingly poetic rock and roll theatre." The Herald  

"Beautifully compiled ... Shepard’s fragmented rhythms are transporting." Time Out


"Memorably intense performances ... a fine, sustained reflection on the forces that drive Shepard's male characters onto the road, on the legendary landscape through which they pass, and on the truth that however deep they travel into America's wild places, they can never escape themselves." The Scotsman


Top photograph: Stephanie Königer
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SAVAGE/LOVE 
by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin


​​Directed by Shirley Clarke
Music by Sam Shepard, Skip La Plante and Harry Mann
Cast: Joseph Chaikin


I'm confused by the yearning
I want to have your dreams inside me
I want to strangle your dreams 
Inside me

A rare chance to see Joseph Chaikin's extraordinary solo performance of desire, pain and elation in the monologue he co-wrote with Sam Shepard, captured on film by Academy Award winning film-maker Shirley Clarke.

"[An] intense, poignant film." Time Out

"[A] masterpiece ... a relentless incantation on the highs and lows of obsessive amour ... an impressionistic interpretation by Clarke and an essential document of Shepard and Chaikin's fertile collaboration." The Herald

"Joseph Chaikin ... an absorbing solo performance." West Briton

By arrangement with 
Milestone Films

Top photograph: Stephanie Königer​
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TONGUES WORKSHOP 
​led by Simon Usher 
​

benkoIncludes a screening of  
TONGUES by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin 
Directed by Shirley Clarke
Music by Sam Shepard, Skip La Plante and Harry Mann
Cast: Joseph Chaikin

A voice.
A voice comes.
A voice speaks.
A voice he's never heard.


A unique opportunity to explore the creative process behind the partnership of two of American theatre’s great innovators - Sam Shepard and Obie Award-winning actor and director Joseph Chaikin. As leader of the Open Theater Chaikin was one of the chief exponents of actor oriented theatre experimentation, evolving techniques of performance and play-making that challenged traditional theatrical dogma. Chaikin believed that through these exercises  people could not only re-conceive the possibilities of theatre, but also their lives. 

​“A powerful fusion of live performance and video … trailblazing.” Edinburgh International Film Festival 

"Simon Usher. Sam Shepard. What's not to love?" Simon Stephens
​

"Interactive with lots of informed opinion, observation and role play." Participant Feedback

By arrangement with Milestone Films

​
Top Photo: Nina Sologubenko.
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HERONS! LIVE ​

​Music by Ben Kritikos

CHORALE's composer and musician Ben Kritikos plays the music of his band Herons! a self-styled mix of punk, folk, classical, jazz and good old fashioned pop, from their albums So Long! and Some Things Run Wild.

Born in New York, Ben has toured extensively across Europe and the UK, fronting Herons! and supporting and playing with the likes of John Cooper Clarke and hermes.

“[So Long!] is one of the most incredibly passionate, satirical, bad ass, politically righteous and tellingly honest albums I’ve ever heard. Its message breaks down barriers and [Ben Kritikos'] voice is unforgettable.”  Wallis Bird

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​Photo: Izzy Gibbin
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IF SO, THEN YES  
​by N. F. Simpson

Directed by Simon Usher

September - October 2010 - Jermyn Street Theatre  


When Mr. Wythenshaw sits down to dictate his autobiography from the comfort of a retirement home for the upper crust, he finds that life has a few more surprises to throw his way.

From the master of the British absurd If So, Then Yes was N. F. Simpson's first new play in 30 years, following major productions at the Royal Court, the Donmar and in the West End and a hugely successful film and television career.

"A new play from N. F. Simpson, first cousin of Beckett and Ionesco and one of the great English playwrights of the last 50 years. Developed through readings and workshops at the Royal Court, this play is nothing less than a 91-year old writer's anatomy of contemporary Britain, and in it he proves that he's missed nothing in the many years when we haven't heard from him. By turns as lyrically deft as Dylan Thomas or as acerbic as Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital, Simpson spares no one, least of all himself, which is perhaps the key to the play's extraordinary inner life." Simon Usher


​"This play is a wonder - funny, beguiling, utterly original, unexpectedly profound." ★★★★ Daily Telegraph 
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PERKIN WARBECK
​by John Ford

A staged reading
Directed by Simon Usher


June 2009 - Institute of English Studies, University of London


At the invitation of Professor Sir Brian Vickers FBA, General Editor of The Complete Works of John Ford, Presence presented a rehearsed reading of John Ford’s play Perkin Warbeck as part of a two-day symposium. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and produced an original-spelling edition of Ford's complete poems, prose and plays. 
 
The aim of the reading was to provide the editors with the opportunity to hear this rarely performed piece and specifically to consider how actors coped with the Fordian verse structure which varies dramatically in form from Shakespearean verse. 

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WARM by Jon Fosse


​Translated by May-Brit Akerholt

Directed by Simon Usher

October - November 2008 - Theatre503    


A house. A pier. An ocean. Two men lingering at the edge of the sea. They wait for the woman they can barely recall but will never forget. As forgotten memories and secret desires once more float to the surface, so too does a love story in all its beautiful and heartbreaking forms. 

A play of tender precision,  stripped down to its emotional essentials by Europe's most prolific and performed living playwright, hailed in his native Norway as the greatest playwright since Henrik Ibsen.


"Simon Usher is an adventurous director ... the haunting text is spare, poetic." ★★★★ Time Out

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UNCLE VANYA
By Anton Chekhov

A staged reading.
Translated by Charlotte Pyke
Directed by Simon Usher

October 2008 - Pushkin House


Presence was invited by London's Russian cultural centre Pushkin House  to present a reading of our specially commissioned new translation by Charlotte Pyke of Chekhov’s masterpiece. Pyke’s translation remains as faithful as possible to the original Russian text. 
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THE WAR IN HEAVEN
by Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard

A staged reading directed by Simon Usher and Chris White

March 2007 - The Rose, Bankside

I died
the day I was born
and became an Angel
on that day


Joseph Chaikin co-wrote The War in Heaven with Sam Shepard when he was recovering from a major stroke and had been left with aphasia. The British premiere took place at Leicester Haymarket and The Royal Court in 1987 with Simon Usher directing Joseph Chaikin in a solo performance. For the presentation at the Rose theatre, Presence reconceived the play as a chorale for 15 actors. The warring voices of Chaikin’s original solo were here embodied and expressed by different people, creating shifts between levels of the self. 

Presence Theatre is a Company Limited by Guarantee 
Registered in England & Wales no. 6315043
Registered Charity no. 1132900  ​
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