National Theatre Wales draws on Aberystwyth University expertise

Mike Brookes (left), Creative Research Fellow and Mike Pearson, Emeritus Professor of Performance Studies at the at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies will open the 2018 National Theatre Wales season with Storm.1: Nothing Remains The Same.

Mike Brookes (left), Creative Research Fellow and Mike Pearson, Emeritus Professor of Performance Studies at the at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies will open the 2018 National Theatre Wales season with Storm.1: Nothing Remains The Same.

05 December 2017

Internationally renowned National Theatre Wales (NTW) is set to feature works by leading theatre practitioners at Aberystwyth University in its 2018 season.

Described as “experimental, political, diverse and provocative”, NTW’s new season will see works performed all over Wales and online on the theme of People & Places.

For her first full programme of work for NTW, Artistic Director Kully Thairai has turned to three members of staff at Aberystwyth’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies.

Mike Brookes, Creative Research Fellow at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, and Mike Pearson, Emeritus Professor of Performance Studies at the Department will open the new NTW season with two major works.

Storm.1: Nothing Remains The Same, will be staged in Pontrhydfendigaid, Ceredigion in February 2018 and will be followed by Storm 2: Things Come Apart in Cardiff in March 2018.

They will be the first two projects in a six production cycle made by Pearson and Brookes for NTW.

Critically acclaimed for their work on The Persians (2010), Coriolan/us (2012) and Iliad (2015), their latest multimedia works will explore two key themes; truth and testimony.

They will also culminate in 2020 with the creation of a major, new, large-scale production for NTW's 10th anniversary programme.

NTW’s co-production of English, in conjunction with Manchester based Quarantine, will be designed by Aberystwyth University Reader in Scenography, Simon Banham.

Quarantine was co-founded by Banham with directors Richard Gregory and Renny O'Shea in 1998.

English, to be staged in Cardiff in June 2018 as part of Festival of Voice 2018, looks at ideas related to language, migration and identity, how we learn to speak and how we learn to listen.

Banham worked as designer with Pearson and Brookes on the 2010 NTW production of The Persians, which earned him and Brookes the 2010 Theatre management Association 'Best Design award.

Banham was appointed Commissioner for the Weather section of the 2015 Prague Quadrennial International Performance Design Exhibition.

Dr Anwen Jones, Head of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University said: “National Theatre Wales has an enviable reputation internationally for staging challenging large scale productions and we are delighted that colleagues from the Department have been invited to make such significant contributions to its 2018 programme.

“We take great pride in the ability of our staff to conduct cutting edge research that informs student learning and nurtures exciting student insights and experiences. It is inspiring that our staff make immense contributions to the creative industries in Wales and beyond, and offer opportunities to students to engage with their ground-breaking research work.”

National Theatre Wales has been making English-language productions all over Wales, the UK, internationally and online since it was established in 2010.