Grayscale’s Gods are fallen and all safely gone opens in The Studio at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre on Friday 12 June – Saturday 13 June 2015.
Borrowing its title from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, this highly celebrated work from one of the UK’s foremost contemporary theatre companies explores a moment of realisation universal to all; a child’s eventual recognition of their parents as a fellow human being.
The show, performed by an all-male cast, presents a lifetime of conversations all condensed into an hour of subtle and intimate performance, observed live by a real life mother and daughter from theatre’s local community.
The performance plays out the story of a 30-something daughter visiting her ageing mother, and depicts the most simple of conversations from baths, to tea, boyfriends and the weather. Using repetition with subtle developments and changes, the piece produces a dynamic analysis of a lifetime of interactions between the two, gently pulling apart an ever-evolving relationship with a distinctly inevitable end.
Director Selma Dimitrijevic said, ‘When Almeida offered us a bit of time and money to develop a new project I knew I wanted to do our own version of Gods. I also knew that Scott and Sean, would be perfect for it, and the fact that they weren’t the “right” gender didn’t make any difference. Making of the show turned out to be the defining point for the company. It was at the same time the easiest and the most difficult thing we did as a team. We stripped it down to basics, two actors, two guests and the audience; so there is nowhere to hide. Every time we do it, we basically say: “here, this is who we are, this is what we feel”, and our fantastic audiences seem to be ready to do the same.’
Selma Dimitrijevic is artistic director of Greyscale. As a director and writer she has worked with venues and companies both nationally and internationally, including Northern Stage, The Gate, The Bush, Almeida, Dundee Rep, Tron and Camden Peoples Theatre. Recent works include The Gamblers (Greyscale/Dundee Rep), Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone (Greyscale) and Dead To Me (Gary Kitching and Co.) Her plays have been performed in UK, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine and Canada. She is currently working on a new production War Is Boring/War Is Fun, which will tour later this year.
Greyscale is a Newcastle based international theatre company formed by a group of established directors, writers, actors, and designers interested in exploring the fringes and gaps of the theatrical process. The company strive to make carefully structured, powerfully live, political and anarchic theatre for a modern audience. In addition to Selma Dimitrijevic, company members include founder member Lorne Campbell, who is now the artistic director of Northern Stage, designers Oliver Townsend, Garance Marneur and Jon Bausor, writer David Ireland, and performers Sandy Grierson and Jimmy Akingbola.
The Studio, The Royal Exchange Theatre
St Ann’s Square, Manchester
Friday 12 – Saturday 13 June 2015
