by Van Badham
Directed by Helen Eastman
Designed by James Cotterill
Lighting by Neill Brinkworth
Sound Design by Matt Downing
Assistant Direction by Michael Longhurst
Presented by Floodtide
Cast: Kevin Colson. Polly Conway. Declan Harvey. Peter Leafe.
Sasha Mitchell.
Lois Norman. Anna Steel.
3 January - 28 January 2006
Subsequently produced at the Summer Play Festival at Theatre Row, 42nd St., New York, in July 2007.
The world premiere of a specially commissioned new play
“Van Badham is one of the leading voices of [her] generation”. Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman.
“Badham has made modern politics into a visceral, heartfelt experience.” Matt Warman, The Telegraph.
After the success of Fair at the Finborough Theatre (‘An evening that’s as close to bliss as you can get’, Aleks Sierz, The Stage, ‘A very good play for today’, Michael Billington, The Guardian), Finborough Theatre Associate Company Floodtide return with a specially commissioned new play from Australian playwright Van Badham.
Lisa ‘Bonnet’ Nolan, is a cult comic writer. Her work’s a mixture of future sci-fi and alternative lesbian graphic novels. She and her partner Jane have teamed up with a couple, Jerry and Allen, to parent a desperately wanted child through IVF. In her latest comic she’s exploring a dreaded future of embryonic experiments, unstable genetic creations and the human products of ethical dispute. A Christian fundamentalist government has been elected, laboratories have been raided and scientific research has been shut down. The watchful gaze of an authoritarian state patrols everything from explicit literature to sexual behaviour but their puritanical society can’t hide its genetic secrets forever. Meanwhile in Lisa’s kitchen, her son from her previous marriage, has just arrived to visit with his profoundly Christian new girlfriend……
This play was commissioned by Floodtide, with support from the Peggy Ramsay Foundation. Floodtide have worked with geneticists, faith leaders, ethicist and campaign group leaders to explore the complex world of contemporary genetics. The result is a brilliant new play that sweeps from comic book characters to biblical figures in a fast-paced, visual display of theatrical styles. The seven-strong ensemble play over thirty characters in a play that spans 3000 years of religious and scientific history.
Directed by Helen Eastman, whose recent production of The Cure at Troy was twice Time Out Critics’ Choice. “Part of the joy of this production comes from…the physical strength of Helen Eastman’s direction…a bold, vital, politically challenging production of an effortlessly brilliant play.” Time Out on The Cure at Troy. Other credits include Hansel and Gretel (Cork Opera House), Fair and The Monument (Finborough), Wild Raspberries (Glasgow Citizens and Bug Off (Northern Ireland Tour). Helen continues her successful collaboration with James Cotterill, one of the winners of the Linbury Prize for Stage Design 2005.
West End stalwart Kevin Colson returns to the Finborough Theatre for the third time and is joined by newcomer Declan Harvey, who has received huge acclaim for his current performance in Almost Blue (Riverside Studios, Oxford Samuel Beckett Award), Anna Steel (last seen opposite John Leslie in the UK tour of Pride and Prejudice) and Polly Conway play red-head clones and Sasha Mitchell (Map of Desire, World Cup 1966) and Lois Norman (acclaimed for her title performance in Van Badham’s Camarilla) play Bonnet and Jane.
The Press on The Gabriels
“A fiercely intelligent and watchable evening, and a rare meeting of science and theatre.”
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
“A well-worked, thought-provoking piece of theatre...This is an important play and a complex one.”
Alistair Smith, The Stage
“It handles an intriguing subject deftly and with great maturity.”
Alistair Smith, The Stage
“You have to admire the sheer chutzpah of a writer who creates a play that spans 3,000 years of religious and scientific history and features over 30 characters.”
Andrew Wilson, The Independent on Sunday}
“The comic-book sequences have…energy and panache”
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
“The stylised staging of her graphic novel - set in the future in a regime run by Christian fundamentalists - is well done.”
Andrew Wilson, The Independent on Sunday
“The real highlight however, is the imaginative way in which the comic book scenes are staged - using a series of windows at the back of the stage to represent a comic strip. It works wonderfully.”
Alistair Smith, The Stage
“The play - directed by Helen Eastman - gets plenty of laughs”
Andrew Wilson, The Independent on Sunday
“The acting is almost uniformly excellent - especially Kevin Colson as the anti-religious gay science writer.”
Alistair Smith, The Stage
“The acting is impressive, especially Lois Norman as Bonnet, Sasha Mitchell as Jane and Anna Steel (Ginger), who I predict is a star in the making.”
Andrew Wilson, The Independent on Sunday
“The direction as well as the writing is quite superb.”
Alistair Smith, The Stage
“it is a fascinating attempt to consider not just science, but the nature of parenthood and parenting, and the cast play with passion, slipping between present, future and many different characters with aplomb.”
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
