by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Rough Fiction Ensemble in association with The Actors Centre and People at Play – pop-up London Tour
Direction
Featuring live choral singing, percussion and a cast of 14-26 actors Rough Fiction’s Ensemble Laboratory, this ever-changing pop-up production appears at a new venue each week, with different staging and the actors swapping parts every performance.
Set against the backdrop of war, The Love of The Nightingale reveals two Athenian sisters caught in a triangle of desire and revenge in Wertenbaker’s witty and moving version of the ancient Philomela myth questioning the nature of power and what happens when people are silenced. Olivier Award winning playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker is perhaps best know for remarkable play Our Country’s Good.
“If you like your theatre inventive and fun, this one’s for you. Rough Fiction is a new company which stages existing fictional works in contemporary, impromptu performances. In the case of The Love of the Nightingale – a little-known play about the Philomela myth by TimberlakeWertenbaker – that means a different venue each Sunday, and a cast which shuffles parts on a weekly basis in the name of different character interpretations. If that all sounds super-serious, fret not: the show is a hoot. It’s full of songs and sniggers in amidst some genuinely touching moments. This Sunday’s atmospheric venue is St Luke’s Church in Holloway; friend Rough Fiction on Facebook for news of subsequent performances in February”.
March 16 2012
★★★★ ‘Rough Fiction push the boundaries of text and performance. You have the feeling something unusual is going on here from the moment you arrive’ (The Scotsman on Hospitals and Other Buildings That Catch Fire)