SEAGULLS
Volcano Theatre Company
Overview
Volcano is an artist-led organisation that explores ideas and social relations through performance and participation. Viewing its audiences as active participants in making meaning; and embracing the immediacy, surprise and risk at the heart of the live experience, the company's work is highly responsive to social and political context. With a perpetual sense of unfinished business, Volcano is committed to making, dismantling and remaking - bringing fresh sense to its material in the present, with an eye on everything it has been through. Based in Swansea, the company occupies a disused industrial city centre building where it creates original work and hosts visiting arts.
Volcano’s Seagulls is a deconstructive adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, pared down to five characters. With the audience seated onstage, the performance takes a hybrid form which brings the ambition of site-specific work into a purpose-made pop-up theatre that is itself part of the action; and which can be adapted to different settings including theatre and former industrial, retail or leisure spaces.
In the press
“What [Chekhov] would have made of it is anyone’s guess. I hope he would have found its sheer theatrical audacity and visual beauty a joy to watch.”
Buzz Magazine (on Seagulls)"What we need is new theatre, what we need is new forms” declares Konstantin. It is a need that Seagulls supplies in full.” Theatre in Wales (on Seagulls)
Production details
Writer
Anton ChekhovDirector
Paul DaviesChoreographer
Catherine BennettDesigner
Camilla ClarkeNumber of people on stage
5Number of people in touring company
7/8Freight
Excess baggagen.b. If unable to be sourced locally, a pond liner and gauze will need to be freighted. Anticipated that sourcing locally in most locations will be possible.
Touring Availability
From October 2017-December 2019Scale of venue
Unconventional SpaceMinimum performance space
16m W x 12m D x 3m HText-based
Medium (some text with a strong visual/physical element)Also contains:
Aerial/Trapeze, Interactivity, Nudity
In Edinburgh
Venue
The Leith VolcanoProduction dates
8-26 AUGUST (not 14, 21 AUGUST)Production times
1800-1920Duration
80 MINSAudience capacity
50
Contact
Address
27-29 High Street
Swansea
Wales
SA1 1LGEmail
kay@volcanotheatre.co.ukContact for touring
Kay Denyer
Contact at showcase
Paul Davies
Claudine Conway
claud@volcanotheatre.co.uk
+44 (0) 7918 140 124
Wraparound
Post-show talks / Q&A's are offered free.
The following are offered by arrangement:
- Workshops, Masterclasses or residencies for performers or students: Devising/Adapting Chekhov Contemporary Performance Techniques
- Workshops for Children and Young People: Creative Contemporary Movement with choreographer Catherine Bennett
- Lectures and presentations: Performance Practice and Urban SpaceDirector Paul Davies talks about Volcano's experience of acting as a Creative Hub within its home city.
