SHOWS
SHANDYLAND
by Gareth Farr CURRENTLY ON PAUSE
Greyscale in co-production with Northern Stage, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Oldham Coliseum and York Theatre, in association with Echo Presents and Matthew Schmolle Productions. Originally commissioned by the Old Vic.
TOUR May - July 2020: Northern Stage, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Oldham Coliseum and York Theatre.
Written by Gareth Farr
Directed by Hannah Banister
Dramaturgy by Selma Dimitrijevic
“Pubs are pubs mate, it’s coin as old as time… you don’t need to worry about us.”
From the night she is born on the floor of a working men’s pub, Amy sees it all.
Brought up in the arms of a tough-loving community, Amy is their future – and their only hope. But beyond the laughter, the songs, the bar stool politics and the endless late nights what is it that Amy truly wants? And how far will she go to get it?
Spanning twenty years, Shandyland is a story of life, love, death and drink at the heart of a small, northern, family-run pub, and a shout of frustration from an abandoned working class community.
Supported by Arts Council England. Originally developed as part od the OLD VIC, The Old Vic 12 Scheme.
Image Ed Clark Photography.
joey
by sean burn
New Wolsey Theatre Testing Ground Commission, produced by gobscure in association with Greyscale
Performed in English and BSL
June 2019 - PULSE Festival, ARC Stockton, Queen's Hall Hexham & Northern Stage
1981 and a hard right government makes savage cuts. tories wear hang nelson mandela badges. urban wastelands, poverty increases. tebbit tells the rocketing unemployed to ‘get on their bike’. riots, racist attacks, police fitting up black youth. labour party split. hunger strikes & terrorist attacks. royal wedding. yorkshire ripper caught. aids reaches uk.
overnight playground chants ov spaz change to joey because joey deacon who lived with cerebral palsy appears on blue peter.
friend in same year / no-care home, played stiff little fingers loud, drew anarchist signs on walls, wore dm’s with red laces, fought to do cookery at school & the day after joey became a derogatory term declared they were now called joey, still a breath-taking act ov reclamation playing on my mind still even tho they did a runner that day.
Director: Selma Dimitrijevic
Writer: sean burn
Cast: Faye Alvi and Scott Turnbull
Sound Designer: Matthew Tuckey
Creative BSL Consultant: Brian Duffy
BSL advisor: Maureen McGarrity
Assistant Director: Sarah Gonnet
Associate Producer: Chloe Stott
Photo and Digital Design: picturesbybish.com
Behind the Scenes Videos: Danielle Giddins
"Powerful, moving, insightful and distressing." British Theatre Guide
"Brutal, hard-hitting and deeply thought provoking." NARC Magazine
"joey has the power to leave the audience stirred up, connected, disturbed and joyous. This piece of theatre captures the spectators with superb performances rooted in words that dance, trick, soar, envelope… and break." Disability Arts Online
joey R&D 2 - 2018 joey behind the scenes - 2017
The project is supported by ACE, Northern Stage, Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, Camden Peoples Theatre, Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme, Live Theatre and PULSE.
A Northern Stage and Greyscale co-production
FEB - APRIL 2017
Northern Stage, Sheffield Crucible , CURVE Theatre Leicester and Nuffield Southampton Theatre
Dr Frankenstein Hedda Gabler; this is not a love story
directed by Lorne Campbell directed and adapted by Selma Dimitrijevic
in a new version by Selma Dimitrijevic from the literal translation by Karin and Anna Bamborough
Set and Costume design - Tom Piper
Lighting Design - Lizzie Powell
Composition and Sound Design (Hedda Gabler) - Scott Twynholm
Sound Design (Dr Frankenstein) - Nick John Williams
Stage Manager - Lee Davies
The ensemble: Victoria Elliott, Polly Frame, Ed Gaughan,
Rachel Denning, Donald McBride, Libby Davison and
Scott Turnbull.
Assistant Director - Victoria Copeland
RTYDS placement - Rebekah Bowsher
Assisted Performances:
HEDDA GABLER
Captioner - Phillip Armstrong
Audio Describer -Michael Davies
BSL interpreter - Faye Alvi
DR FRANKENSTEIN
Captioned - Phillip Armstrong
Audio Describer - Louise Ainsley
BSL interpreter - Caroline Ryan
Both productions generously supported by Arts Council England.
Hedda Gabler, is Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece, possibly the greatest stage role ever written for an actress. This funny, shocking and powerful play opens up the desperation and absurdity of trying to live as a thing that you are not.
This psychologically disturbing new version of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, tells a truly great story of power and powerlessness, of fear and revenge, of the creative possibility and the terrible destructive power of the human animal.
Photo credits: DR FRANKENSTEIN (production) Pamela Raith, (rehearsal photo) Mark Savage, HEDDA GABLER Topher McGrillis
Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone
by Selma Dimitrijevic
Gods Are Fallen has been touring UK and internationally from 2012-2016
Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone is an investigation into what happens when we discover that our parents are flawed human beings, and that at some point, sooner than we think, they are suddenly going to disappear from our lives.
Intimate and funny, this play presents a lifetime of conversations, condensed into one hour.
CREATIVE TEAM:
Director & Writer - Selma Dimitrijevic
Designer - Oliver Townsend
Associate Director - Maria Crocker
Photo: Idil Sukan / Draw HQ (2012)
Chris Bishop (2016)
Published by Samuel French
CAST 2012-2015
Mother - Sean Campion
Daughter - Scott Turnbull
CAST 2016
Mother - Joe Caffrey
Daughter - Max Runham
“ very pure form of theatre” **** THE STAGE
“ gently devastating ” **** TIME OUT
“ searching, intelligent work ” **** THE TIMES
" It feels less like a traditional theatrical suspension of disbelief and more as if some kind of transference is taking place.” **** . THE GUARDIAN
“ so spare that it seems to make space for strange happenings” **** THE SCOTSMAN
“ quiet little punch in the face of a play ” HUFFINGTON POST
“ A simple, complicated idea perfectly executed ” POSTCARDS FROM GODS
The Gamblers
by Nikolai Gogol in a new version by Selma Dimitrijevic with Mikhail Durnenkov
co-produced by Greyscale and Dundee Rep in association with Northern Stage and Stellar Quines
October - November 2014
What a deceitful country this is.
Director: Selma Dimitrijevic
Text: new version by Selma Dimitrijevic with Mikhail Durnenkov
Design: Oliver Townsend
Lighting Design: Sergey Jakovsky
Choreography: Gavin Coward
Composer: Scott Twynholm
Wardrobe Supervisor: Gayle Playford
CAST:
AMANDA HADINGUE, CRYSTAL CLARKE, EMILIE PATRY, HANNAH McPAKE, EMILY WINTER & ZOE LAMBERT
In the world of The Gamblers there is no mercy.
This new all-female version is a story of women who gamble, hustle, cheat, drink, swear, sing and dance.
And never apologise for it.
“cautionary metaphor for our times” **** THE INDEPENDANT
“artfully cruel production” **** THE STAGE
“a piece of gender-bending subversion that double-bluffs its way onto the stage with barely a trick missed” **** THE HERALD
“very little on stage being what it is supposed to be” **** EXEUNT
“Just when we think you have it all worked out, we realise the jokers are pulling the wool over our very eyes. “ **** PUBLIC REVIEWS
Tenet
by Sandy Grierson and Lorne Campbell
directed by Lorne Campbell
co-produced by Gate Theatre and Greyscale
May 2012 @ Gate theatre
A True Story About the Revolutionary Politics of Telling the Truth About Truth as Edited by Someone Who is Not Julian Assange in Any Literal Sense
Director: Lorne Campbell
Cast: Lucy Ellinson and Jon Foster
Text: Sandy Grierson and Lorne Campbell
Design: Garance Marneur
Lighting Design: Kevin Treacy
Creative Collaborator: Chloe Lamford
In it's first version the show was called Rethoric, and it played as part of Greyscale's Theatre Brothel at the Almeida Theatre in 2011.
Directed by Lorne Campbell and designed by Cloe Lamford.
Cast: Sandy Grierson and Scott Turnbull.
Produced by Greyscale.
It’s a moment of change.
It’s a moment for people to meet in darkened rooms and whisper dangerous ideas.
Meet Evariste: he is a brilliant mathematician and a very angry young man.
Meet Julian: he makes people very cross, he’s here to help. If Evariste can keep it together and Julian can keep out of the way then the two of them might be able to explain everything from polynomial equations (easy) to how to change the world (a bit harder) before someone dies at dawn.
TENET brings together two of Europe’s most notorious radicals – the 19th Century mathematician Evariste Galois and the 21st Century’s very own Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange – in a witty, surprising show about about thinking outside the box, radical politics, maths, tea and biscuits.
“Designer Garance Marneur's elegant scarlet classroom includes a doll's-house-sized version of the set – so miraculous it made the audience gasp.” THE GUARDIAN
“mischievous with its complexities, gentle with its key points and direct in its call for reform. ” TIME OUT
“by turns friendly, quirky, puzzling, infuriating” THE TELEGRAPH
“full to the brim with ideas, and difficult ideas at that” CATHERINE LOVE
“beneath the delighted and knowing mischief-making is an urgency: we must change the world before it's too late. “ THE GUARDIAN
A Beginning, A Middle and An End
by Sylvia Dow
directed by Selma Dimitrijevic
produced by Greyscale in association with Stellar Quines
September 2012
Funny, beautiful, human and wise this is Sylvia Dow’s first play. Sylvia is not a young writer. Sylvia is 73.
Director: Selma Dimitrijevic
Designer: Oliver Townsend
Animator/Illustrator: Ana Marques
Lighting Design: Mark Howland
Composer: Scott Twynholm
Cast: Andrew Gourlay, Jon Foster and Emilie Patry
Stage Manager: Fana Cioban
Assistant Director: John May
Production funded by Creative Scotland
A beginning, a middle and an end, that’s how things go, provided you start in the right place.
For Evelyn and Ade time passes; sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes all at once, but always away from what was and relentlessly towards what will be.
Their little family of two, of four, of three, of one, not necessarily in that order, travels together towards a new beginning, or an old ending.
Or both. Only time will tell.
“a spareness and sense of fluid theatricality from which many a youngster could learn..” THE GUARDIAN
“a raw vitality, far from world weary, at peace with existence ” EXEUNT
“by turns friendly, quirky, puzzling, infuriating” THE TELEGRAPH
“full to the brim with ideas, and difficult ideas at that” CATHERINE LOVE
“an extended meditation on life, death and the love that clutters up the place in between the two. “ THE HERALD
Tonight Sandy Grierson Will Lecture, Dance and Box
by Sandy Grierson and Lorne Campbell
directed by Selma Dimitrijevic and Lorne Campbell
produced by Greyscale
August 2011
The magical and bizarre story of David Ireland’s search for his Great Uncle Arthur Cravan: Artist, Boxer, Lover, Poet, Keeper of Cats and Total Charlatan. A man who was not the things he was, claimed to be things he was not, and was the things he claimed not to be.
Tonight Sandy Grierson WIll Lecture Dance And Box
This is the 3rd version of 'Tonight _________ _________ Will Lecture Dance and Box'
In 2009, as part of the Greyscale's first ever tour the show was called 'Tonight David Ireland Will Lecture Dance and Box'. It was directed by Selma Dimitrijevic, performed by David Ireland and it played Oran Mor, Theatre Royal Bath, Nortern Stage and Latitude.
In 2010, it became 'Tonight Sean Campion Will Lecture, Dance and Box', it was performed by Sean Campion, directed by Lorne Campbell, and as part of Greyscale's Theatre Brothel it played, Northern Stage and Almeida Theatre.
In 2011, one of the writers, Sandy Grierson performed the show as part of the British Council Showcase 2011, directed by Lorne Campbell.
Garance Marneur was a creative collaborator on all three versions.
Tonight Sean Campion WIll Lecture Dance And Box
“against all the odds, it makes absolutely compelling theatre”
**** THE SCOTSMAN
“hugely entertaining and imaginative ”
“a thoughtful invocation of the simple power of storytelling” THE LIST
“just a really great tale, really, really well told” MATT TRUEMAN
"Campion holds the audience is his palm as he asks for their aid in enacting boxing fights and love scenes. Funny and by turns baffling, it’s a surreal exploration of selfhood." LONDONIST
Tonight David Ireland WIll Lecture Dance And Box
A Prayer
by Selma Dimitrijevic
directed by Lorne Campbell and Selma Dimitrijevic
produced by Greyscale
2010 - 2012
.
Originally Performed by Sandy Grierson.
At Northern Stage and Hull Truck Theatre performed by Scott Turnbull.
At the Almeida and on tour performed by Elspeth Brodie.
Garance Marneur was a creative collaborator on all three versions.
God doesn’t exist. M knows that. Everyone knows that. M lives in a world of reason and science and facts and probability and cause and consequence. He always did.
So why is he suddenly praying?
The original production of A Prayer was first co-commissioned and produced by Oran Mor as part of its A Play, A Pie and A Pint spring season 2010.
The project was further developed at Northern Stage, Newcastle after winning the Title Pending Award, the award for the most innovative, thoughtful and intriguing proposal for a new piece of theatre.
Dimitrijevic is a formidably thoughtful and talented writer; and if it’s possible to shape such a tiny meditative fragment into a worthwhile piece of theatre, then that’s what she has achieved, with this strange theatrical act of prayer.
THE SCOTSMAN, Joyce McMillan
A Prayer, told with charm by Scott Turnbull, touchingly puts its faith in the audience to set aside reason and just believe.
THE GUARDIAN , Lyn Gardner
Selma Dimitrijevic is a rare living playwright who doesn’t make me want to tear my ears off and throw them at the stage. In Sandy Grierson, she has an actor who knows enough about physical theatre not to look like he is beating time between the words. Clocking in at around half an hour, A Prayer satisfies both my secular and spiritual desires, capturing the complexity of a plea to God in an awkward, authentic, symbolic monologue.
THE SKINNY, Gareth Vile
What The Animals Say
by David Ireland
directed by Lorne Campbell
designed by Fly Davies
produced by Greyscale and CPT
October 2012
.
Performed by Huss Garbiya, Chris Ryman.
The original production was also directed by Lorne Campbell at Oran Mor, in Glasgow, staring Robbie Jack and David Walshe.
Two old school friends meet by chance at Stranraer ferry port. Jimmy is a protestant from East Belfast, a penniless actor that nobody has heard of, on his way to the biggest audition of his life. Eddie is a protestant from East Belfast. He is the captain of Celtic FC, and everybody knows who he is. The problem is they all hate him. Neither of them knows it yet, but Mel is waiting to make it all much, much worse.
'By the time Lorne Campbell's production storms to an end, after a breathless 40 minutes or so, the audience are ready to cheer David Walshe and Robbie Jack to the echo, for an outstandingly witty and energised pair of performances.'
THE SCOTSMAN
What Would Judas Do?
by Stewart Lee
directed by Selma Dimitrijevic and Lorne Campbell
produced by Greyscale and CPT
October 2012
.
Performed at Theatre Royal Bath by David Ireland,
at the Almeida and Hull Truck by John Paul Connoly,
and at Northern Stage by Elspeth Brodie.
There were three prodcutions of Greyscale's version of What Would Judas Do? performed between 2010 and 2012, first in a double bill with Tim Crouch's My Arm, and later as part of Greyscale's Theatre Brothel.
"Greyscale raise the bar with the show's first revival: hugely absorbing, thoroughly entertaining and deserving a far more extensive tour than that already planned."
BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE
My Arm
by Tim Crouch
directed by Lorne Campbell
produced by Greyscale and Oran Mor
2010 - 2011
.
Performed by Sandy Grierson
at Theatre Royal Bath and Northern Stage
MY ARM toured in a double bill with WHAT WOULD JUDAS DO?
'what a successful, brilliantly funny event it is'
BATH CHRONICLE