Rehearsals have begun for a new production of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest which is to take place at Great Yarmouth Hippodrome this May. Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Artistic Director William Galinsky will direct the production as part of the 2016 programme for the festival, one of the biggest arts festivals in the UK. The Victorian purpose-built circus building is to provide a unique platform for Galinsky’s original staging of the production which runs 9 – 21 May 2016.
The historic Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, Britain’s only surviving total Circus Building, was built in 1903 by the legendary Circus showman George Gilbert. Throughout the century the intimate arena has played host to an incredible variety of entertainment, from water spectacles, stage variety shows and cinema to wartime use as a military practice shooting range.
William Galinsky, in collaboration with some of British theatre’s most original talents: renowned designer Laura Hopkins (Frantic Assembly’s Othello, Blackwatch), lighting designer Mike Brookes (The Persians, ILLIAD) and composer Nick Powell (Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies, The Nether, X) has created a site-specific production which will immerse audiences in the action, completely flooding the lower ground of the building and seeing the cast moving around the space using custom built underwater stage entrances and invisible walk ways. Galinsky is also working alongside contemporary circus company Lost in Translation and Sifu Adie Gray, a Wing Chun Kung Fu master and student of Ip Man’s son, the master who taught Bruce Lee.
The cast for the production includes: Ravi Aujla (Alonso); Adam Burton (Sebastian); Freddy Carter (Ferdinand); Tony Guilfoyle (Prospero); Colin Hurley (Stefano); Pía Laborde Noguez (Miranda); Jane Leaney (Jane Leaney); John McCarthy (Trinculo); Graeme McKnight (Caliban) Christopher Saul (Gonzalo) and Oliver Senton (Antonio).
William Galinsky is the Artistic Director of Norfolk & Norwich Festival. He has created five festivals which have included ground-breaking large-scale commissions including Robert Wilson’s Walking, the Circa/I Fagiolini collaboration How Like an Angel, the world premiere of Wolf’s Child created by WildWorks in association with the National Trust. He has broken major international companies in the UK including the premiere of New York’s Nature Theatre of Oklahoma. Before joining the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Galinksy was Artistic Director and Chief Executive at Cork Midsummer Festival from 2006 – 2010 where he transformed the festival into one of Ireland’s most dynamic. At Cork he presented and produced a number of Irish premieres including: Spencer Tunick Ireland, The Show Must go On, and co-produced Midsummer with the Traverse Theatre Scotland and F*ck My Life with LIFT, Campo and Belfast International Festival. He has also produced a number of big scale outdoor and participatory projects including Diarmuid Gavin’s Gold Medal winning ‘Cork Sky Garden’ for the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show (now a permanent attraction in Cork’s remodelled Fitzgerald Park).
Laura Hopkins has twice won the TMA Award for Best Design. Her theatre credits include: Opening Skinners Box (Improbable Theatre); Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion (National Theatre Wales); Sinatra (London Palladium); Ghost Train, Too Clever by Half (Royal Exchange), Twelfth Night (Everyman Theatre); Pass (The Royal Court); The Seagull (Headlong Theatre), Othello (Frantic Assembly); Troilus and Cressida (RSC); A Delicate Balance (Almeida), Blackwatch and Peter Pan (National Theatre of Scotland); Time and the Conways (National Theatre); Clair de Luz, Blood and If We Shadows (Insomniac Productions). Her opera credits include: The Death of Klinghoffer, costume (ENO, The Met); Alcina (Festival d'Aix en Provence); A Christmas Carol (Houston Grand Opera); Cosi fan Tutte (English National Opera); Falstaff (Opera North / ENO).
Mike Brooks co-founded the performance collective Pearson/Brookes with theatre-maker and academic Mike Pearson. His theatre work includes The Persians (National Theatre Wales); Coriolan/us (RSC and National Theatre Wales) and ILIAD (National Theatre Wales).
Nick Powell’s theatre credits include: Lord of the Flies (UK Tour); Peter Pan, All My Sons, Lord of The Flies, The Crucible (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies (RSC/West End/Broadway – sound design); The Nether (Royal Court/West End); The King’s Speech (Chichester Festival Theatre); Dunsinane (National Theatre of Scotland/RSC/UK & US Tours); The Mistress Contract, The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas, Talk Show, Narrative, Get Santa! (co-creator), The Vertical Hour, The Priory, Relocated (Royal Court); Othello (National Theatre); A Life of Galileo, Richard III, The Drunks, God in Ruins (RSC); ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore (Cheek By Jowl); 27, The Wheel, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (National Theatre of Scotland) and X (Royal Court).
Ravi Aujla’s theatre credits include: The Three Lions (Pleasance Theatre); The Westbridge (Royal Court); As You Like It (ETT /Rose Theatre); Commercial Road (Hackney Empire), Free Outgoing (Royal Court Theatre), Anthony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Tempest (all RSC); Midnight’s Children (RSC/ NY Productions); The Colour of Justice (National Theatre/Tricycle Theatre); Wicked Yaar! (National Theatre). His television includes: Eastenders; Silent Witness; Casualty; Spit Game; Family Affairs; Peak Practice; The Bill; Eldorado.
Adam Burton’s theatre work includes: The Hairy Ape (Old Vic); Everyman (National Theatre); Titus Andronicus (Theory of Everything); All My Sons (Watermill Theatre); The Orphan of Zhao, Boris Godunov, A Life of Galileo, American Trade, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, The Drunks, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (all RSC); The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic); You Can’t Take it With You (Royal Exchange); The Drowned Man, The Masque of the Red Death, Faust (Punchdrunk)
Freddy Carter’s recent theatre credits include War of the Roses (Rose Theatre). His film credits include Heretiks.
Tony Guilfoyle’s theatre credits include: Playing Cards: 200 Motels (Royal Festival Hall); One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Leicester Curve); The Dragons Trilogy (Barbican/World Tour); The Living Unknown Soldier (Arcola); Woyzeck (The Gate/St Anne’s Warehouse NYC); San Diego (Royal Lyceum/Edinburgh International Festival); The Geometry Of Miracles (National Theatre/World Tour); The Iceman Cometh (Almeida); Shopping And Fucking (Royal Court/West End/World Tour); The Queen And I (Out of Joint/Theatre of Comedy); Outskirts (RSC/Donmar). His television work includes: The Crown; The Musketeers; Merlin; Fanny Hill; The Virgin Queen; Rome; Bleak House; Best Man; The Murder Of Stephen Lawrence; Father Ted.
Colin Hurley’s theatre credits include: Farinelli and the King, Henry VIII, Romeo and Juliet, In Extremis, Much Ado About Nothing (all Shakespeare’s Globe); Twelfth Night & Richard III (New York, West End & Shakespeare’s Globe); Anne Boleyn (UK Tour & Shakespeare’s Globe); One Snowy Night (UK Tour); 50/50 (The Factory & Hampstead Theatre); Equus (Theatre Royal Bath & UK Tour); I Am Shakespeare (Chichester Festival Theatre & UK Tour); Measure for Measure (US Tour); The Woman in Black (West End); A Month in the Country (RSC); Hamlet, Camino Real (both RSC); Remember This, Mary Stuart, Richard III, King Lear, Wild Oats & The Good Person of Sezchaun (all National Theatre). His televeision work includes: Flowers; Peak Practice; Eastenders (BBC).
Pía Laborde Noguez’s theatre credits include: In the Beginning was the End (Somerset House); 5 days in March, Current Location (UK and Spain Tour); Boat (Theatre N16).
Jane Leaney’s theatre includes: Medea (National Theatre); The Drowned Man (Punchdrunk); The Double (Ustinov Studios); The Damnation of Faust (English National Opera); Arabian Nights (RSC); Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (National Theatre); War Horse (National Theatre/New London Theatre); The Masque of the Red Death (Punchdrunk); The Revengers Tragedy (National Theatre); Faust (Punchdrunk). Her film work includes: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them; Jungle Book: Origins; Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass; World War Z.
John McCarthy’s theatre includes: K.: The IOWA Project, Hollander, The Threat of Humour, Latch (Hammergrin); Closed Circuit, The Snow Queen,(Grati Theatre); Beats 'n' Pieces (Meridian); Ultra Sonic Sound Studio (Cork Opera House); Richard III (UCC Dramat).
Graeme McKnight’s theatre credits include: Our Country’s Good, Comedy Of Errors (both National Theatre), Silent Planet (Finborough Theatre). His television work includes include Mr. Selfridge and Outlaws.
Christopher Saul’s theatre credits include: To Kill A Mockingbird (The Barbican / Regent`s Park Open Air Theatre), Hamlet (The Globe), King Lear, The Canterbury Tales, Julius Caesar, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Servant To Two Masters, Richard II, Henry IV parts I & II, Comedy of Errors, The Thebans, Columbus, Breaking The Silence, Merry Wives of Windsor, Man Is Man, Richard III, Hamlet, Henry V (All for RSC); Oedipus (National Theatre); An Inspector Calls (National Tour); When The World Was Green, More Grimm Tales, As I Lay Dying, Twelfth Night, Waiting For Godot (Young Vic); Night Songs (Royal Court). His television work includes: One Foot In The Grave, Poirot and Doctor Who.
Oliver Senton’s theatre includes: All's Well that Ends Well (Stratford/West End); Coriolanus (RSC Stratford/World Tour); The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night (Theatre Royal, Bury St.Edmunds) Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales); Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (Apollo) 59 Minutes to Save Christmas (Barbican); The Lady’s Not For Burning (Chichester); The Count of Monte Cristo (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Scarecrow and his Servant (Southwark Playhouse); Ripper (Union Theatre); Sodom (Drill Hall); Sympathetic Magic (Finborough); Decor without Production (Royal Court). His TV work includes: White Heat; EastEnders; Casualty; Hollyoaks.
The Norfolk & Norwich Festival programme, which spans performance, theatre, music, visual arts, literature and events for children, includes world premieres, unique concerts and one-off events, including a number of free outdoor events across the festival. For the full festival programme, please visit www.nnfestival.org.uk.
