Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh 31 July to 25 August
Directed by Ramin Gray, Music composed by John Browne
Screams reverberate through corridors. A forest echoes with the sound of gunfire. Innocent blood is shed and lives ripped apart. As the wounds on a community are left gaping, a young choir leader begins her quest to heal and to understand.
Acclaimed director Ramin Gray teams up with celebrated playwright David Greig with a bold new work that explores the impact of a horrific politically motivated crime on a small community and delves into the nature of forgiveness, reconciliation and understanding.
The Events asks how far forgiveness will stretch in the face of atrocity. Featuring local choirs and a soaring soundtrack by Irish composer John Browne, what unfolds is a tale of tragedy, obsession and our destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable.
Ramin Gray and David Greig last worked together on the critically praised RSC production of Gray’s play The American Pilot. Gray’s previous work for ATC to be seen at the Traverse was the double bill of Illusions and Sarah Kane’s Crave (“profound, beautiful and terrifying.” The Herald) and before that The Golden Dragon (‘Ramin Gray’s superb touring production for ATC’ The Daily Telegraph).
David Greig’s recent plays include Midsummer, Dunsinane, and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart and the new West End stage musical of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Ramin Gray is ATC’s Artistic Director. Previously he was International Associate, then Associate Director at the Royal Court Theatre where he directed many world or British premieres by playwrights including Simon Stephens’ Motortown, Marius von Mayenburg’s The Ugly One and The Stone, and Mark Ravenhill’s Over There. He has also directed at the RSC, Out of Joint, The Gate and in many theatres across Europe. Opera credits include the European premiere of Bliss by Brett Dean and Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice at Hamburg’s Staatsoper and Theatre an der Wien.
Immediately prior to directing The Events, Ramin directed the premiere of the opera The Importance of Being Earnest by Gerald Barry at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden’s Linbury Studio.
John Browne’s works have been performed at the Royal Opera House (Babette’s Feast, Demon Juice), English National Opera (Early Earth Operas, Midnight’s Children), Southbank Centre (A Nightingale Sang) and Westminster Abbey (Small Selves, Out of Suffering). In the last few years he has been composer-in-residence at FNSNM, Kings College London, created choral arrangements for the band Elbow, composed the score for The Itch of the Golden Nit, a BAFTA award-winning film by Aardman, been an adjudicator for BBC Young Musician of the Year 2012, created a music theatre piece in Rwanda and run workshops for the British Council in China and India.
Actors Touring Company presents the best international contemporary theatre, using the theatre to tell stories from different perspectives from around the world. The company collaborates with abroad range of UK and international theatre makers, commissioning writers, sourcing the best international scripts and translating them into English for the first time, and reaching audiences through their extensive UK and international touring programme. They are currently working on projects with artists from Belarus, Iran, Israel, Russia, Spain, the UK and Ukraine.
Following the Traverse run, The Events will tour nationwide and will run at The Young Vic in London in the autumn. The production will also appear in Vienna and Norway later in the year.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
