Feast -a Young Vic and Royal Court co-production
Published on Thu 13 Sep 2012FEAST
YOUNG VIC THEATRE
25 January – 23 February 2013
Press Night: 1 February
Multi award-winning director Rufus Norris (Cabaret, London Road, Vernon God Little) and five playwrights from across the world mount an epic production exploring the magnificent Yoruba culture. This Young Vic and Royal Court Theatre co-production is brought to life by the dazzling choreography of George Cespedes (Danza Contemporanea de Cuba) and live music.
On their way to a family dinner, three sisters are divided at a crossroads. From Nigeria in the 1700s through Brazil, Cuba and USA to London in 2013, the sisters survive by their spirits – spirits of courage, mischief and incredible resilience.
The journey of Yoruba culture, tradition and religion as it moved through slavery from West Africa to the Americas, is one of the most powerful stories of exploitation, resistance and survival. Rufus Norris and Royal Court Associate Director and Head of the International Department Elyse Dodgson have been working with playwrights from five countries where the Yoruba legacy has had great impact on contemporary life: Yunior Garcia Aguilera (Cuba), Rotimi Babatunde (Nigeria), Marcos Barbosa (Brazil), Tanya Barfield (USA) and Gbolahan Obisesan (UK) to create a theatrical exploration of this diaspora across the Atlantic and back.
Rufus Norris is an associate artist at the Young Vic where he returns to direct for the first time since his Olivier Award-nominated production of DBC Pierre’s Booker Prize-winning novel Vernon God Little. Rufus won the 2004 Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Afore Night Come (Young Vic), then scooped his second Evening Standard Award as well as an Olivier Award nomination and a Critics’ Circle Award for Best Director for Festen (Almeida). Past credits also include Death and the King’s Horseman and London Road for the National Theatre, Dr Dee (ENO), Cabaret (Lyric) and the six-time Tony-nominated Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Broadway).
Gbolahan Obisesan is an award-winning director and playwright who lives in London. His play Mad About The Boy scooped a Fringe First Award in 2011 and had a sold-out run at the Young Vic earlier this year. He was the recipient of the 2009 Jerwood Award at the Young Vic, for which he directed the critically acclaimed Sus by Barrie Keefe. He was also awarded the Bulldog Princep Bursary as Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio 2008-09. As a writer his past credits include Set Me Fair – A May Fling (Pentabus/Latitude); Sweet Mother, Regeneration, A Vision of Pride (Golden Delilah/Theatre503); Deconstructing the Barack, Home (Offstage Theatre, site-specific at St Catherine’s Tower, Leyton) and Hold It Up (National Youth Theatre/Soho).
Tanya Barfield’s past plays include the Pulitzer Prize nominated Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory; Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory), Of Equal Measure (Center Theatre Group), and she wrote the book for the Theatreworks/USA children’s musical, Civil War: The First Black Regiment. Tanya attended the Royal Court International Residency in 2002 and her short play Foul Play was presented as a reading during the Royal Court’s International Playwrights Season in 2004.
Rotimi Babatunde is a poet, playwright and novelist based in Abuja, Nigeria. His story Bombay’s Republic received Africa’s leading literary award, the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing earlier this year. Rotimi has published books of poetry, plays and collaborated on The Voyage, a grand theatrical narrative reviewing Nigeria’s history from pre-colonial to contemporary times. Rotimi attended the Royal Court International Residency in 2004 and his short play An Infidel in the Upper Room was performed as a staged reading at the Royal Court in 2006.
Marcos Barbosa studied civil engineering and later playwriting at the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil. He has written many plays, including Braseiro, os Sinon, Tititi Popopo, Larilara Macunaima Sarava! and Minha Irma. He attended the Royal Court International Residency in 2002. His plays Almost Nothing and At The Table were performed as double bill in the Royal Court’s 2004 International Playwrights Season. He taught playwriting at the Federal University of Bahia and now lives and works in São Paulo.
Yunior GarcÃa Aguilera studied acting at Escuela National de Arte (ENA) and playwriting at Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana. Previous stage plays include: Malos Presagios at Trebolteatro and Crescendo; Baile sin Mascaras at Trebolteatro and Rita Montaner; Todos Los Hombres Son Iguales, Sangre (which won the Virgilio Piñera Prize in 2008) and Cierra la Boca at Alasbuenas; American Woman and Asco at Trebolteatro; Retrato de un Hombre Desnudo at El Caballero. He took part in the Royal Court Theatre’s last Cuban workshop in 2009 and 2010 and participated in the 2011 International Residency for Emerging Playwrights.
Elyse Dodgson is Artistic Producer on Feast. She has been a member of the Royal Court artistic team since 1985 – first, as Director of the Young People’s Theatre and, since 1995, as an Associate Director and Head of the International Department. She was the first director of the International Summer School (now the Royal Court International Residency) which she started in 1989, and has produced the Royal Court Young Writers Festival (1986-91) and the International Season since 1997. Elyse has co-ordinated play development in many parts of the world including Cuba, Nigeria, Uganda, Mexico, Palestine, Russia, Syria, India and Brazil. She has also edited five anthologies of international plays, all published by Nick Hern Books, from Germany, Spain, Mexico and the Arab World. She was the recipient of the 2004 Young Vic Award and, in 2010, received an MBE for her contribution to international theatre and young writers overseas.
Feast is directed by Rufus Norris, with design by Katrina Lindsay, light by Paule Constable, sound by Paul Arditti, video by Lysander Ashton for 59 Productions and choreography by George Cespedes. It is written by Yunior GarcÃa Aguilera, Rotimi Babatunde, Marcos Barbosa, Tanya Barfield and Gbolahan Obisesan.
Feast is part of World Stages London – an unprecedented collaboration between eight London producing venues and 12 UK and international co-producers that celebrates the exhilarating cosmopolitan diversity of London. World Stages London is jointly produced by Battersea Arts Centre, the Bush Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, Royal Court Theatre, Sadler’s Wells, Somerset House, Theatre Royal Stratford East and the Young Vic.