13 October 2009
University pays tribute to prominent British playwright
The University of Sheffield´s School of English Theatre Workshop will pay tribute to the contemporary playwright Howard Barker next week (21-24 October 2009) by staging four performances of his play The Castle as part of an international festival dedicated to his work.
The `21 for 21 Festival´ will celebrate 21 years of work by the Wrestling School, a theatre company set up in 1988 to produce Howard Barker´s work. On 21 October 2009, actors in four continents and 18 countries will be staging readings, full performances and devised works that honour Barker´s playwriting, directing, poetry and painting. Productions will begin early in the day in the summer of Perth, Western Australia, and end at night in the winter of Burnaby, Western Canada. In Britain, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) are amongst those performing.
Howard Barker has been described by The Times as `England's greatest living dramatist´ and by playwright Sarah Kane as `the Shakespeare of our age´. His texts overflow with rich language, challenging ideas, history, beauty, violence and imaginative comedy. Long considered the enfant terrible of contemporary British theatre and the subject of heated debate, whether loved or hated, his plays are impossible to ignore.
The Castle is a huge and epic tragedy, first staged by the RSC in 1985, and one of the most resonant plays of that decade. Loosely set in the England of the Middle Ages, a Knight returns from the Crusades with a brilliant Arab architect as his prisoner. Appalled by what he finds, he sets out to re-impose his will, trampling the society created by the women during his absence, and constructing an ever-expanding Castle designed to repel, but also to create future enemies.
Though driven by a compelling narrative, the play is dominated by its extraordinary verbal language and some remarkable theatrical images. Rather than any straightforward resolution or moral message, it offers uncertainty, which Barker calls `the pleasure of not knowing´, and a multiplicity of possible interpretations. Like most of his work, The Castle is as much about the complexity and ferocity of sexual desire as it is about politics.
The Sheffield production of The Castle will be directed by Dr Steve Nicholson, Director of Theatre in the School of English, and the cast will include current and former students, as well as semi-professional actors. Dr Nicholson has worked on and directed a number of Barker´s plays previously, and was invited to be an academic advisor to the festival committee co-ordinating the celebration.
The production is part of a project funded by the University of Sheffield as a Knowledge Transfer scheme, which has seen Wrestling School actors contributing to workshops and rehearsals here in Sheffield, and Dr Nicholson working with the Wrestling School.
Dr Nicholson said: "It is a privilege for the Theatre Workshop at Sheffield and all those involved in the project to have had this opportunity to measure ourselves against such a rich and demanding text, and to benefit from the expertise of working with outstanding classical actors."
Notes for Editors: The production will run from 21-24 October 2009 at the University´s Drama Studio on Glossop Road. Tickets are priced £6/£5 (concessions) and are available from the Production Manager, Rob Hemus, on 0114 22 28455 or r.d.hemus@sheffield.ac.uk
School of English Theatre Workshop
For further information please contact: Lauren Anderson, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2221046 or email l.h.anderson@sheffield.ac.uk
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