PRODUCTION IMAGES AND TRAILER RELEASED FOR TRANSPORT THEATRE’S THE EDGE

Transport Theatre presents
THE EDGE
Devised and Directed by Douglas Rintoul
Designed by James Button
Music Composed by Raymond Yiu
Sound by Helen Atkinson
Lighting by Matt Haskins
Projection by Will Duke

Co-produced with New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
14+

PRODUCTION IMAGES AND TRAILER RELEASED FOR TRANSPORT THEATRE’S THE EDGE

INSPIRED BY REAL LIFE NARRATIVES FROM THE SUNDARBANS IN INDIA AND THE SOUTH COAST OF ENGLAND, THE EDGE EXPLORES THE UNIVERSAL ISSUE OF MASS MIGRATION CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

TRAILER AVAILABLE HERE

A brand new trailer and production images have been released for The Edge, the powerful production devised by award-winning company Transport Theatre. Inspired by real life narratives taken from the Sundarbans in India and the south coast of England and developed in collaboration with leading lecturer in coastal oceanography Dr Ivan Haigh, The Edge is a powerful two-hand production exploring the universal and hugely topical issue of mass migration caused by climate change.

Directed by Douglas Rintoul (artistic director of Transport Theatre and recently appointed artistic director of Queens Theatre in Hornchuch), the cast includes Balvinder Sopal (The Harrow Road, Soho Theatre) and Tim Lewis (Warhorse, National Theatre).  Following a three day run at Ipswich New Wolsey Theatre, the co-producers of the production, The Edge continues its UK tour until 14 November.

A woman steps into the English Channel. A man is swept up by a great storm in West Bengal. Two decades later their children meet on a beach by an English town that’s been abandoned to the sea. She’s training to swim the Channel. He’s a climate change refugee.

Douglas Rintoul, Artistic Director of Transport Theatre was awarded the British Council Connections through Culture Award to visit the Sundarbans in West Bengal India where he worked with the Kolkata based theatre company Ranan, drawing real life narratives from an area directly on the frontline of climate change. The company also worked with young adults in Folkestone, developing an audio and visual work exploring narratives from the Kent Coast. Combining this quantative research from two different continents, Rintoul’s production questions what it really means to live on the geographical edge and explores the universal issue of climate change.

Developed in collaboration with leading lecturer in coastal oceanography Dr Ivan Haigh, with music by award-winning composer Raymond Yiu, The Edge fuses text, movement, music and projection to transport its audience between continents, exploring the place where the sea meets the land.

In partnership with Kent Libraries, the tour will include a three day site specific run at Folkestone Library, Grace Hill. The production will be filmed in this creative venue and then released digitally to the public for National Libraries Day on Saturday 6th February 2016.

Douglas Rintoul is Artistic Director of Transport and the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch. He has directed for the Barbican, Hampstead Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Watermill Theatre, Trafalgar Studios, Dundee Rep Theatre, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, National Theatre Studio, Salisbury Playhouse, New Wolsey Theatre, Ice&Fire and Creation and is a long-standing associate director to Complicite and was an assistant and associate director to Deborah Warner. He recently received the Royal National Theatre Foundation Playwright Award for his productionElegy.

Raymond Yiu is the winner of a BASCA British Composer Award, and three times previous nominee. His early work received the advocacy of American composer-pianist-conductor Lukas Foss and he has worked with ensembles and artists including BBC Singers, BBCSO, Chroma, Concorde Ensemble (Ireland), Ensemble 10/10, London Sinfonietta, Lontano, LSO and Andrew Watts. The Original Chinese Conjuror, with libretto by Lee Warren, was commissioned by Aldeburgh Production for the 2006 Aldeburgh Almeida Opera Season. Maomao Yü, a quintet for piano and traditional Chinese instruments was commissioned by LSO for Lang Lang and the Silk String Quartet. The Earth and Every Common Sight, for soprano and piano, won the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize 2010. In April 2013, Teatro Barroco of Vienna mounted a new production of The Original Chinese Conjuror, directed by Bernd Bienert. His most recent workSymphony, commissioned by the BBC will be first performed at the Royal Albert Hall on 25 August this year for the BBC Proms 2015.

Balvinder Sopal graduated from the University of Huddersfield in 2001 with a degree in Theatre Studies with Media and has since worked nationally in theatre, radio, film and television. Her theatre credits include Home Sweet Home (Freedom Studios), The Snow Queen (Trestle Theatre), Tales of the Harrow Road (Soho Theatre) and Counted? (Look Left Look Right).

Tim Lewis most recently performed in The Hudsucker Proxy for Nuffield/Liverpool Theatres. His other theatre credits include War Horse (the National Theatre, New London West End and South Africa tour), Elephantom (National Theatre/West End), The Man of Mode (National Theatre) andRomeo and Juliet (Birmingham Rep/Touring Consortium).

TRANSPORT is an internationally minded arts company based in Folkestone. Positioned on a geographical border, the company’s focus is rooted in the near and far looking towards the channel and beyond.