November 2011 to January 2012 | Winter Season
The English Premiere/English Language Premiere
The English premiere and English Language premiere of a new play by Scotland's most successful Scots Gaelic writers, Iain Finlay Macleod.
**** Four Stars WhatsOnStage
**** Four Stars Exeunt Magazine
The boundaries of existence have been mapped, all languages have been accounted for and the library is embarking on a new project to capture every possible story. A, a librarian, is lonely and B, his therapist, struggles to care. Until A brings B a book that details every moment of his life to date and B suggests some redrafting.
A chilling insight into the dizzying power of fiction inspired by the works of Jorge Luis Borges, the master of magical realism.
Atman was first performed in Scots Gaelic by Tosg Theatre Company on a Highlands tour and now receives its English language world premiere, following a reading as part of Vibrant – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights in 2010.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT IAIN FINLAY MACLEOD
Playwright Iain Finlay MacLeod made his English debut at the Finborough Theatre in 2009 with I Was A Beautiful Day in a production which has recently transferred to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow. He is one of Scotland's most prolific contemporary Scots Gaelic writers, having written many works for theatre, radio, film and television. Writing in both English and his native Scots Gaelic, Iain has also directed numerous documentaries on Celtic folklore and arts, and was series director of the BAFTA-winning show TACSI, which won Best Arts Series in the Scottish BAFTA's and Best Entertainment Programme at the Celtic Film and Television Festival. Television includes Machair which won a Writers' Guild Award for Best Foreign Language Serial Drama. His work for theatre includes Somersaults (National Theatre of Scotland and the Traverse Theatre), St Kilda (Gaelic Arts Agency), Broke, Homers, Alexander Salamander and Road from the Isles (Traverse Theatre), Salvage (Tosg Theatre Company) and Cliff Dancing (National Gaelic Youth Theatre). His work for BBC Radio 4 includes The Watergaw, The Gold Digger and an adaptation of Angela Carter's The Kitchen Child. Other radio includes Frozen and an adaptation of The Pearlfisher for BBC Radio Scotland. His film work includes The Inaccessible Pinnacle (Young Films). He is also the author of several novels.
THE PRESS ON IAIN FINLAY MACLEOD'S I WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY
**** Four Stars Whatsonstage.com and RemoteGoat.com
"Strangely compelling...There isn't long to catch this play, and it would be a shame to miss it. I Was a Beautiful Day is a kind of lyrical Scots version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Michael Spring, Theatreworld
"Impeccably played by all concerned and wonderfully evocative of the Scottish islands and their place in history....This is a wonderfully lyrical evocation of what it is to belong, and is at once both moving and uplifting." Michael Spring, Theatreworld
“Macleod's love for the Gaelic language, its oral tradition and Lewis itself is clearly evident throughout the text.” Matt Boothman, British Theatre Guide
“Writer Iain Finlay Macleod has created a wonderful evocation of a man with real connections to history and to the land. This play is funny, exciting and uplifting. Catch it if you can.” Michael Spring, Theatreworld
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR JACQUI HONESS-MARTIN
Director Jacqui Honess-Martin is Artistic Director of InSite Performance for whom she is currently developing the UK premiere of Larisa and The Merchants by Alexander Ostrovsky in a new version by Samuel Adamson. Her directing credits include: SMITH, performed in the Enlightenment Gallery at the British Museum; Antigone, performed in the disused Walworth Council Chambers; and Auricular: Live Audio Drama at Theatre 503. She has assisted in the West End and at the Royal Court Theatre. Jacqui took part in the 2011 National Theatre Studio’s Directors’ Course. As a playwright, Jacqui wrote Tell Out My Soul which was part of Summer Play Festival at the Public Theater, New York, in 2008. Jacqui is Literary Associate at Cambridge based Menagerie Theatre Company and was also Assistant Producer at Cheek by Jowl from 2004–2008.
THE PRESS ON DIRECTOR JACQUI HONESS-MARTIN
"SMITH is a good yarn, and the promise shines through, particularly in the exploration of our personal connection to history. There is a cracking young cast, too, who swap roles to excellent effect...it is also a potent reminder that human stories lurk behind the inert artefacts preserved in glass cases." Lyn Gardner, The Guardian on SMITH
"Clever, imaginative stuff...SMITH breathes new life into the treasures of the British Museum. Folk sitting on the floor of the Enlightenment Gallery, listening to the earliest stories of mankind: the very essence of theatre, surely, and of this great temple of knowledge." WhatsOnStage
"For an altogether more inspiriting kind of experience, you should hasten to the British Museum...SMITH could hardly do more to inspire you to pay a return visit to the museum's collections by day." Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph, on SMITH
"What impressive, echoing resonance this setting lends to the drama...A triumph on every level" The Evening Standard on Antigone
ABOUT THE CAST
Lucy Griffiths' Theatre includes Arcadia (Duke of York's Theatre). Television includes, Awakening, The Little House, Lewis, Collision and U Be Dead (all ITV) and Marian in two series' of Robin Hood (BBC).
Matthew Spencer has trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes This Happy Breed (The Peter Hall Company at the Theatre Royal Bath), War Horse (National Theatre at the New London Theatre) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Chichester Festival Theatre, National Tour, Toronto and West End), Tartuffe (Watermill Theatre, Newbury) and Bent (Trafalgar Studios).
THE PRESS ON ATMAN
**** Four Stars, Exeunt Magazine
“Atman’s disturbing deconstruction of fiction and reality remains a relentlessly compelling ride...Macleod’s play achieves the benchmark of great fiction by lodging itself immovably in the mind.” Catherine Love, Exeunt Magazine
“This thought provoking, surreal play should not be missed.” Carolin Kopplin, UK Theatre Network
“A funny, intelligent, witty and philosophical play about the true nature of reality.” Carolin Kopplin, UK Theatre Network
“The captivating production—from start to finish—forms an enjoyable part of our reality long after we’ve filed back down to the bar (thoroughly grateful there’s still a bar there at all).” Kat Halstead, The British Theatre Guide
“Iain Finlay Macleod’s intriguing and unsettling two-hander...the play itself takes the form of a short yet engulfing dive into a deep pool of philosophical uncertainty.” Catherine Love, Exeunt
“If this sounds like something out of a Borges short story, you’re not far off. Iain Finlay Macleod’s play – originally written and performed in Scots Gaelic five years ago – makes its English debut fully embracing the capacity of fiction to create and control.” Miranda Fay Thomas, WhatsOnStage
“Language is another essential facet in a play that prods at the relationship between words and their meaning, a process made ever more fascinating by the fact that the production we are seeing is in itself a translation from the Scots Gaelic original.” Catherine Love, Exeunt Magazine
“Create a truly gripping drama of literary intent and dissent. Like any great story, it will remembered long after its telling.” Miranda Fay Thomas, WhatsOnStage
“Running at a taut 50 minutes, Macleod’s play is the dramatic equivalent of a perfectly formed short story: punchy, evocative and meticulously crafted, while managing to wrestle with weighty ideas.” Catherine Love, Exeunt Magazine
"While dizzyingly intellectual, Macleod’s script is pithy enough to be witty as well as wise.” Miranda Fay Thomas, WhatsOnStage
“The dialogue is consistently witty, delivered in a convincing tug of back and forth by actors Lucy Griffiths and Matthew Spencer.” Catherine Love, Exeunt Magazine
“The dialogue is very sharp and witty.” Carolin Kopplin, UK Theatre Network
“Two exemplary actors” Miranda Fay Thomas, WhatsOnStage
“Captivatingly played by Lucy Griffiths and Matthew Spencer” Lucy Thackray, The Public Reviews
“Lucy Griffiths and Matthew Spencer are brilliant as the patient and her psychiatrist.” Carolin Kopplin, UK Theatre Network
“Lucy Griffiths (who you may recognise from BBC’s Robin Hood) and Matthew Spencer excel at breathing life into the intricate intellectual quandaries proposed by the script.” Miranda Fay Thomas, WhatsOnStage
“Griffiths manages the not inconsiderable task of being impossibly beguiling while never distracting us from the play’s cleverness” Miranda Fay Thomas, WhatsOnStage
“Griffiths is captivating with her spritely energy and coy sexuality, while Spencer is the consistent force, spewing with pessimism and grounded in rigidity.” Kat Halstead, The British Theatre Guide
“Griffiths brings a frenetic luminosity to this dangerously self-absorbed character. Perpetually fiddling with her hands and her dress, there is a wildness to her performance; she manages to be both sweetly fragile, manipulative and vain.” Catherine Love, Exeunt Magazine
“The chemistry between Griffiths (very watchable and recognisable apparently from the BBC’s Robin Hood) and Spencer is palpable.” Lucy Thackray, The Public Reviews
“Spencer is also excellent; his impeccable timing gives the piece the sharpness and verve on which the success of the piece depends.” Miranda Fay Thomas, WhatsOnStage
“The dialogue and delivery so sharp and combative that you feel the two actors could manage a compelling phonebook recital.” Lucy Thackray, The Public Reviews
“The excellent direction by Jacqui Honess-Martin” Lucy Thackray, The Public Reviews
“Jacqui Honess-Martin’s production is satisfyingly tense, a quality intensified by Tim Middleton’s atmospheric soundscape and the claustrophobic surroundings of the Finborough” Catherine Love, Exeunt Magazine
“The Finborough is somewhat of a cave of wonders for fringe theatre; you venture through the seductive wine bar, up the windy stairs and into a studio which always looks and feels different to your previous visit...This shapeshifting is supported by the venue’s choice of material – they are committed to producing new, fresh writing and under-performed work from the last couple of centuries. New and fresh was the order of the day on this visit, with Atman receiving its English-language premiere; Iain Finlay Macleod’s neat 50-minute creation was first performed in Scots Gaelic by Tosg Theatre Company on his native Isle of Lewis and featured as a reading at last year’s Finborough ‘Vibrant’ festival.” Lucy Thackray, The Public Reviews
“West London’s hugely respected Finborough Theatre” Michael Spring, Fringe Report
“A trip to the Finborough should be top of your list.” Lucy Thackray, The Public Reviews
TICKETS AND TIMES
Sundays and Mondays, 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21 November 2011
Evenings at 7.30pm.
Performance length: Approximately 1 hour without interval.
Tickets £13, £9 concessions
PLEASE NOTE THAT LATECOMERS CANNOT BE ADMITTED AND TICKETS CANNOT BE EXCHANGED OR REFUNDED.
BOOKING ONLINE IS QUICKEST, CHEAPEST AND EASIEST!
PRODUCTION TEAM
Written by Iain Finlay Macleod
Directed by Jacqui Honess-Martin
Designed by Kate Lane
Lighting by Neill Brinkworth
Sound by Tim Middleton
Presented by Rowan Rutter in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
CAST
LUCY GRIFFITHS
MATTHEW SPENCER
