Download Half Life - National Theatre of Scotland

NVA and the National Theatre of Scotland
Press Pack
Press contacts
Chamberlain AMPR 020 7240 5220
Ben Chamberlain 07931 723 988
[email protected]
Jill Cotton 07838 144 992
[email protected]
Emma Schad – National Theatre of Scotland
0141 227 9016
07930 308018
[email protected]
Contents
Press release
Background research
Press release
NVA, in a co-production with
the National Theatre of Scotland,
presents
Kilmartin Glen, Argyll
4 – 16 September 2007
Preview: 3 September 2007
Press performance on 4 September 2007
www.halflife.org.uk
Following the hugely acclaimed Storr Project that took place in 2005 on The Isle of Skye, HALF LIFE
is a major new landscape work and the first co-production between renowned innovators NVA and the
National Theatre of Scotland.
NVA has built an international reputation for monumental art installations animating remote rural
settings. For the first time, the interventions will be staged throughout the day and a theatrical
performance will take place at night in one of Europe’s most renowned prehistoric regions. HALF LIFE
offers a physical and emotive experience which reveals the dark but inspiring mindset of Scotland’s
early Neolithic inhabitants. The extraordinarily rich heritage of Mid Argyll has a remarkable story to tell,
through thousands of years of intense marking of living rock formations and the raising and building of
henges and burial complexes. It carries the beginnings of a truly cultural landscape, looking out onto
the much feared Corryvreckan, the third largest whirlpool in the world.
From 4000BC to 500BC, Kilmartin Glen operated as a unique burial and ceremonial complex. The
bodies of the deceased were subjected to protracted and complex manipulation, through generations
of special practices, before being finally laid to rest. It is this fascinating ‘dialogue with the dead’ that
forms the basis for the work.
HALF LIFE starts by day, when audiences are invited to explore a series of atmospheric sites and
installations based around known and rarely seen prehistoric landmarks, over a 150 sq mile area of
stunning Highland landscape. The routes follow interpretations of recently recovered archaeological
field notes, previously unpublished, which give invaluable insight into the area. Like private diaries,
they reveal some of the breakthrough moments in contemporary archaeological thinking, bringing
inspiring thinking out of the academic world to a new audience.
Discoveries include previously unvisited cup and ring marked stones carved 3000 to 4000 years ago
and recently revealed bronze-age hill forts, encircling magnificent chambered burial cairns and
configurations of standing stones. It is the sheer density of ancient monuments that takes the breath
away. With walks and bike routes ranging from 15 minutes’ to 3 hours’ duration, an ideal visit might
last 2 days for those who wish to take in the entire programme. As well as untouched locations, NVA’s
interventions will take on dense forestry plantations, which are manipulated to create intriguing new
entrances and vistas around chosen sites, while new audio compositions enhance the smallest living
sounds and micro acoustics of the natural environment.
In the evening, a powerful outdoor production will be staged in an atmospheric forest location at the
entrance to Kilmartin Glen, centred around a circular sculptural set constructed from hundreds of felled
logs. Seen through the eyes of a renowned archaeologist, in HALF LIFE the realms of the living and
the dead seem to merge, bringing to light the remarkable beliefs that focused the ritual activity in our
earliest societies; beliefs that still echo through the present landscape. The powerful creative team
includes Angus Farquhar and Mark Murphy, renowned for his previous dance choreography with VTOL. A captivating score will be played live by harpist Rhodri Davies and violinist Angharad Davies,
both creating an extended improvised repertoire, through the use of a remarkable range of materials
including bones, slate and stones to draw subtle and unearthly sounds from their instruments. The
script for the evening performance will be written by Thomas Legendre whose recent novel The
Burning has received huge critical and public acclaim.
For further information, please contact:
Ben Chamberlain, on 0207 240 5220 or email [email protected]
Or
Emma Schad on 0141 227 9016 or email [email protected]
NVA, The Storr: Unfolding landscape:
“…It really did feel as if we were looking at something happening in another world, heaven perhaps”
Observer, 7 August 2005
HALF LIFE
Journey into the Neolithic
Kilmartin Glen, Argyll
4 – 16 September 2007
Preview: 3 September 2007
www.halflife.org.uk
Times to be confirmed
Tickets: £20/£12 (concessions)
Available from 6 June 2007.
For further info and to book online visit www.halflife.org.uk
To book by phone call Hub tickets on 0131 473 2056
Tickets will also be available from Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll, from Mid-August 2007.
HALF LIFE is an outdoor event, please wear appropriate clothing in case of rapid weather change (full
walking gear recommended). Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Evening
performance content is not recommended for under 12’s.
For more information on
NVA please visit: www.nva.org.uk
The National Theatre of Scotland please visit: www.nationaltheatrescotland.com
Accommodation
We recommend that you be prepared and book your accommodation now, here are some websites
that may be of help:
www.roomfinderscotland.co.uk
www.visitscotland.com
Artistic Team
Day events
Creative Director: Angus Farquhar
Designers: James Johnson / Simon Costin
Sound Curator: Barry Esson
Sound Composers: Lee Patterson / Toshiya Tsunoda
Book designers: Skratch
Night performance
Creative Director: Angus Farquhar
Co-Director: Mark Murphy
Writer: Thomas Legendre
Designers: James Johnson / Simon Costin
Sound Curator: Barry Esson
Lighting Designer: Phil Supple
Composers: Rhodri Davies /Angharad Davies
About NVA
NVA is an environmental arts charity based in Glasgow. Founded by Angus Farquhar in 1992, the
company has built a powerful reputation through the delivery of temporary and permanent artworks
across Europe. NVA’s mission is to encourage international, pioneering artists to collectively produce
highly complex and ambitious site-specific events, festivals and interventions. The company works
across all media, promoting strong cross-cultural community work within technologically groundbreaking initiatives. Currently employing 5 core staff we employ up to 100 additional staff and
contractors over each project period.
NVA is an acronym of nacionale vitae activa, a Roman term denoting ‘the right to influence public
affairs’ – a core value of the organisation. The vision has always been to transform natural landscapes
and urban settings as a basis to change the way people see their environment. It takes what is ‘there’
as a starting point for uncovering underlying realities about time, politics, geology, history, culture, and
belief. Exploring how places shape, and are shaped by, their inhabitants.
NVA has created some of the UK’s most critically acclaimed contemporary art works and
performances, including presentations in gorges, on mountainsides, and other extraordinary and
remote locations
Projects:
NVA develops long term capital projects, such as the multiple award winning Hidden
Gardens sanctuary in Glasgow.
Productions:
NVA produce medium sized repertoire projects, like Pain and The Gimmick, that can
be restaged and taken to different venues.
Artworks:
NVA create one-off artworks and events that have long development periods with
rapid growth and contraction around the production, such as ‘The Path’ and ‘The
Storr: Unfolding landscape’.
Events:
NVA curate urban visual art festivals which open up cityscapes to the public. Light
Festivals such as Radiance Glasgow 05 and GLOW NewcastleGateshead 06,
illuminate iconic buildings and showcase some of the best visual art light works by a
wide variety of artists both national and international.
At the heart of this work is a commitment to continue good environmental practice in minimising
impact and pollution to such an extent, that the company has redesigned the lighting technologies it
uses, to significantly reduce power emissions and the reliance on fossil fuels in sensitive locations.
NVA’s works are mostly ‘experienced’ dynamically at night and are often the culmination of extensive
engagement with and the participation of the communities in which they take place.
With HALF LIFE NVA continue their environmental remit to improve and support the areas they are
invited to work in and work with local community activists and organisations to support future local
aspirations. As Mid-Argyll has very little cultural provision, NVA are raising additional funds to leave
the beautiful form of the stage set as a permanent sculptural artwork, alongside 3 of the major forest
interventions, for local people to use to stage their own activities and visit in the future. This creates a
strong legacy and direct benefit beyond the more temporary nature of other aspects of the work.
www.nva.org.uk
Past NVA projects
Glow NewcastleGateshead’s Festival of Light, NewcastleGateshead 2006
Radiance Glasgow Festival of Light 05, Glasgow 2005
The Storr: Unfolding Landscape The Old Man of Storr, Trotternish, Skye 2005
The Hidden Gardens Tramway, East Pollokshields, launched 2003
Fall From Light Burns And A’That Festival, Ayr 2002
Glasgow Lighting Initiatives Long term lighting projects, Glasgow 2001 - 2003
The Gimmick The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh 2000
The Path Glen Lyon, Perthshire 2000
Grand Central Grand Central Hotel, Central Station, Glasgow 1999
Expo ’98 National Day for Britain, Lisbon, Portugal 1998
The Secret Sign Finnich Glen, Drymen 1998
Virtual World Orchestra Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow 1997
Pain Touring Theatre Production 1996 - 1999
Stormy Waters Meadowside Granary, Glasgow 1995
The Silent Twins The Old Partick Police Station, Glasgow 1994
Soundworks The Arches, Glasgow 1994
Sabotage Touring Theatre Production 1993 - 1994
The Soul Machine Dowanhill Church, Glasgow 1991
The Second Coming St Rollox Locomotive Works, Glasgow 1990
Beltane Fire Festival Carlton Hill, Edinburgh 1988 – present
NVA Awards
The Storr: Unfolding Landscape:
Scottish Enterprise Dynamic Place Awards 2005 - Team of the Year Award, Connections Category
Commendation
UK Lighting Design Awards 2006 – Entertainment Lighting Award
2006 Scottish Thistle Awards - Events and Festivals Award, VisitScotland
Highland Tourism Awards 2005 - Highly Commended for Innovation
Hidden Gardens:
The Surf Award (Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum)
The Civic Trust Award
The Dynamic Place Award
Scottish Design Awards (Grand Prix)
BALI Award (Biffa Award for Investment in Environment)
Angus Farquhar:
Creative Scotland Award (The Path/The Storr)
The Scotsman Theatre Director of the Year (The Path)
About NTS
Since its launch in February 2006, the National Theatre of Scotland has been involved in creating
more than 30 productions in over 60 different locations. With no building of its own, the Company
takes theatre all over Scotland and beyond, working with existing and new venues and companies to
create and tour theatre of the highest quality. It takes place in the great buildings of Scotland, but also
in site-specific locations, airports and tower blocks, community halls and drill halls, ferries and forests.
In Spring / Summer 2007, along with Tutti Frutti, National Theatre of Scotland has presented UK tours
of two dramatically different pieces of theatre, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, written and directed
by Anthony Neilson and Aalst (a co-production with Victoria and Tramway) conceived, directed and
designed by Pol Heyvaert. The site-specific Black Watch has toured all over Scotland and Futurology
(a co-production with Glasgow’s Suspect Culture) toured conference centres from Aberdeen to
Brighton.
The National Theatre of Scotland Learn department creates events all over Scotland. To mark the
2007 Highland Year of Culture, Elgin Macbeth appears in Elgin Cathedral during the Summer. 2007
will also see the world premiere of Venus as a Boy, an NTS Workshop co-production with Burnt
Goods, based on Luke Sutherland’s extraordinary novel.
Scottish theatre has always been for the people, led by great performances, great stories or great
playwrights. The National Theatre of Scotland exists to build a new generation of theatre-goers as well
as reinvigorating the existing ones; to create theatre on a national and international scale that is
contemporary, confident and forward-thinking; to bring together brilliant artists, designers, composers,
choreographers and playwrights; and to exceed expectations of what and where theatre can be.
For more information visit www.nationaltheatrescorland.com
NTS Awards
Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2005-2006: Best Ensemble, Best Technical Presentation and
Best Theatre Production for ROAM, Best Children’s Show and Best Design for HOME: East Lothian
and Best Music for HOME: Shetland
Edinburgh Festivals 2006: A Herald Angel for REALISM, A Herald Angel, a Fringe First, a Best
Theatre Writing Award from The List, The Friends of the Fringe Award and a Stage Award for Best
Ensemble for BLACK WATCH.
BLACK WATCH also won The Best Director Award at The Critics Circle Awards and The South Bank
Show Theatre Award.
THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS won the TMA Award for Best Children’s Show
ROAM won two Arts and Business Awards.
The National Theatre of Scotland has been nominated for 9 Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland for
2006 – 2007.
The Artistic Team
Angus Farquhar is Creative Director of NVA and has produced the most complex live events and
installations staged in remote settings in the UK. A core member of cult industrial music outfit Test
Department in the 1980’s, he re-initiated Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire Festival in 1988 which is now
attended by up to 10,000 people a year. Winner of a Creative Scotland award in 2004.
Barry Esson is a director of Arika, who produce internationally renowned experimental music festivals
and site specific events, including Instal, Kill Your Timid Notion, Music Lovers’ Field Companion and
Resonant Spaces. They work with both established and up and coming artists to develop audiences
and experiences for experimental, underground and avant garde music, film and art. He will be
working to engage sound artists, musicians and audiences with the hidden sounds of the Argyll
landscape.
Thomas Legendre was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine, USA. He received his undergraduate
degree in English and Economics and a Master's degree in Literature before gaining his MFA degree
in Creative Writing. He lived in Arizona for nine years before moving to Edinburgh in the summer of
2001, where he still lives with his wife, Allyson Stack, and their two children. His novel, THE
BURNING, was published by Little, Brown in 2006.
James Johnson has worked with the best in the industry, from Norman Foster, Jasper Morrison, and
Lighting Design Partnership International, to Santiago Calatrava in Paris and Sekisui Design Centre,
Japan. Industrial designer, James will be principal designer for the Argyll project 2007 and will create
the large-scale set constructed of 10,000 logs which promises to astonish the audience.
Simon Costin is an internationally respected set designer renowned for the conceptually ambitious
nature of his editorial and catwalk designs. He has collaborated extensively with Alexander McQueen,
and Givenchy ready to wear and haute couture shows. His expertise will be revealed through bespoke
interpretations and animations.
Phil Supple is a multi-disciplinary lighting designer, specialising in outdoor site specific projects.
Recent work includes STICKY for Improbable Theatre, BEFORE THE WOLF for UZ events and
NORTHUMBERLAND LIGHTS, an on-going series of spectacular urban and rural landscape
installations for Northumberland Strategic Partnership. www.lightrefreshment.co.uk
Mark Murphy is an award-winning director, writer, filmmaker and movement specialist. Equally at
home both indoor and out, he has worked with The Northern Stage Ensemble, the Royal Shakespeare
Company, Boilerhouse, Legs On The Wall and has made large-scale shows for the Manchester and
Melbourne Commonwealth Games as well as writing and touring his own plays.
The Musicians
Lee Patterson is a sound artist with a growing reputation within the international arena. In Summer
2006, drawing upon his field recording practice, he produced the radio show, Audio Sketchbook, for
Resonance FM, London.
Rhodri Davies is an improviser, harpist and composer whose music spans live electronics, noise,
abstract sound and field recordings. He tours regularly across Europe, North America and Japan.
Toshiya Tsunoda is a sound artist and founding member of the WrK group of installation and
conceptual artists. His work, which has been published world-wide, was included in Intransitive’s
“VARIIOUS” 2CD compilation in 1999. "Solid Vibration" is his latest and first release on Infringitive, a
new collaborative label from Intransitive (USA) and Fringes (Italy). He lives in Tokyo.
Angharad Davies is an experimental violinist. She has contributed on the soundtracks to Samantha
Rebello's Films Surface of residual Matter, Whitechapel Gallery ( 2006 ) and the Leeds film festival
Cymbal as well as performing a live improvisation violin piece for the Buruk collective.
Guide to Neolithic Period in Scottish history
Situated in Argyll, Kilmartin Glen is the richest Prehistoric landscape in Scotland. Kilmartin Glen is set
in a rugged and glacially scoured backdrop with beautiful low lying hills and a strongly corrugated
upland landscape full of lochs and hollows. Located north of Lochgilphead and south of Oban, the
Glen is famous for its rich historical legacy. To the west the naturally protected harbour at Crinan looks
out to the Isles of Jura and Scarba. Running between them is the Corryvreckan, the third largest
whirlpool in the world. Another unique natural feature is the Moine Mhor (the great moss) a raised
moss complex out of which rises, like a lone sentinel, the hillfort of Dunadd, famous as an early trading
and political centre. It was the key hilltop location for the inauguration of the first kings of Dalriada, the
proto-Scottish kingdom which ran from Antrim across the water and gradually stretched eastward to
hold jurisdiction over much of the country from the 7th to the 9th Century. Mid-Argyll can rightly claim
its position as the "Cradle of the Nation" but not without numerous further invasions, tribal, religious
and territorial struggles through the ensuing years.
First likely to have been inhabited by small bands of hunter/gatherers and fishermen in 7000BC, the
area really came into its own with a new band of settlers from 4000BC onwards who, from the
Neolithic Period to the early Bronze-Age Period, brought an unprecedented level of abstract stone
carving and building to the area. Contained within an area which is not much over 6 miles long is a
huge diversity of rock art, standing stones, stone circles, carved rocks and ancient tombs and duns
(hillforts). It also has what is believed to be the only 'Linear Cemetery' in the country – a series of
chambered cairns (burial mounds) laid out in a straight line at the bottom of the Glen. One of these is
believed to be over 6000 years old, older than the Pyramids.
A walk behind Kilmartin brings these monuments together and sets them in context. They are not just
important in their own right. They are important as part of the wider landscape which reveals many
monuments further afield and the diversity of landscape forms: one of the last raised peat bogs in
Scotland, farmland hard-won, remnant park: and of a highland estate, estuary flats and the mountains
of the island of Jura in the distance. This landscape, from both a cultural and natural perspective is
breath-taking.
Yet there is more to understand even than the features picked out form the vantage point above
Kilmartin. There are struggles in the landscape which, though not immediately visible to the eye, have
inhabited the land from the earliest times and continue to do so; different perceptions of what the
landscape means and what it is for, questions of how it should be used and by whom. These are
knitted into history. Evidence is present for its use as a sacred space, shared space, route-way and
symbol of power and the some of the earliest hierarchies out of which modern society was formed.
The concentration of monumental tombs, wooden and stone henges, standing stones and the
proliferation of 'cup and ring marked' rocks is unparalleled in the UK and can be termed a complex
'Ritual Landscape'. Why there is such a concentration of these ancient monuments in one small area
of the Highlands remains unknown to this day, but the work of Kilmartin House Museum and
contemporary archaeological process as well as this NVA/National Theatre of Scotland project is
doing much to bring forth new ways of thinking.
There is no question that this must have been an area of enormous importance to these earliest of
farmers, hunters and gatherers. To this day the atmosphere throughout the area is rich in memories. It
is hard to miss the importance of Kilmartin Glen as a prehistoric landscape which sustained over 2000
years of continual special practices and burial activity.
Education Project
NTS Learn
Over a 13 week period, 100 3rd year pupils from Lochgilphead High School will work with a team of
lead artists from the National Theatre of Scotland. The artists, who have a variety of creative skills and
backgrounds, will explore the idea of “Journey” in the physical, emotional and spiritual sense, linking
the work taking place in Lochgilphead High School with the site-specific co-production between NVA
and National Theatre of Scotland, HALF LIFE.
What journeys do we all make in our lives? Why do we make these journeys? Do we make them
alone? And do we ever reach our intended destination?
A team of artists, including drama and design specialists, will work in residency in the school two days
weekly over a 13 week period. During this time they will empower the pupils to explore ways of
answering these questions in a creative way, working towards an ambitious, one-off, site-specific
event within Lochgilphead High School gardens in the week beginning Monday 10th September.
The work created will be a variety of live performance, video imagery, art installation, music
composition, but most importantly will be created and owned by the pupils.
Other initiatives
Alongside this NTS Learn project local primary schools will create a project, organised through Argyll
& Bute Council’s Cultural Co-ordinator with the support of NVA and the Scottish Arts Council. This
project will involve the children undertaking their own journey to local sites of cultural and
environmental significance accompanied by artists. The material gathered will become part of a
special exhibition of the children’s work.
HALF LIFE is made possible by support and help from the following:
Scottish Executive
Scottish Arts Council
Argyll & Bute Council
HIE: Highlands Islands Enterprise (Argyll)
Highland 2007
The Dunard Fund
Esmée Fairbairn
Heritage Lottery Fund
Arts & Business
Hugh Fraser Foundation
The Gulbenkian Foundation
Event Scotland
Forestry Commission
AGWA – Argyll Green Woodworkers Association
MacLeod’s Construction
Midge Tech
West Coast Motors
Reforesting Scotland
Coille Haulage
Kilmartin House Museum
Dalriada Arts & Culture
Historic Scotland
Dalriada Project