Research & Education
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| John Harvey and Gerry Mulgrew directing community production 'Best of All Worlds' in 1982 | |
Recent work
We believe that there is always something to learn. The company’s work has always involved, in addition to rehearsal and performance, collaboration, experiment, research and exchange. Over the years the company has participated in many development projects with, for example, the Peter Brook Company, with Northern Stage Newcastle and the Maly Theatre of St. Petersburg, with the Badajoz Festival, with Jose Sanchis Sinisterra in Madrid, with the Federation of Scottish Theatre and the Festival d’Automne in Paris, and with The Parapanda Company in Tanzania.
Over the past few years we have sought ways to consolidate this aspect of the work. One result has been a pilot six week research and development project, which has become the model for our own Company Theatre School.
In this six week development workshop, funded by the Scottish Arts Council,
we were able to investigate different projects for future/ current presentation
and, at the same time, invest in a creative and long term way of working
with a wide group of collaborators. The projects included experimenting
and improvising with the writer Ian Stephen on his draft script for THE
SEVEN HUNTERS, a poetic rendition of the Flannan Isles mystery, which was
later produced by the Highland Festival in association with Communicado
and directed by Gerry Mulgrew. An early version of ZLATA’S DIARY was
also worked on, which resulted last year in a full production by Communicado.
In addition we looked at the dramatisation of an Inuit creation myth, a
long poem in Gaelic by Aonghas MacNeacaill called THE GREAT SNOW BATTLE,
and a documentary book about the Irish hunger strikes of 1980. The final
project was a workshop on an experimental play by the French playwright
Michel Vinaver.
Last year the company started a long term exchange project in East Africa
under the auspices of the Ford Foundation. The latest development in this
has been the production of Mfalme Juha by Farouk Topan, in collaboration
with the Parapanda Company of Dar Es Salaam. We are planning a more ambitious
co-production for 2006, which we plan to perform both in Scotland and East
Africa