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SPRING/SUMMER TOUR 2025
THE COUNTESS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY
Directed by Dewi Johnson
The irrepressible Madame du Barry was the last of all Louis XV’s mistresses. The illegitimate daughter of a seamstress and a Catholic priest, she was finally accepted by the French Court in 1769. There she was gifted a clever young page, bought from a slave trader in Chittagong, called Zamor. He believed himself to be the equal of anyone. Having no children of her own Mdm du Barry treated Zamor as her plaything, whilst at the same time giving him a broad education. Both outsiders to the Court theirs was a mutually dependent relationship, until the outbreak of the French Revolution, when Zamor’s newfound political conscience drove him to betray Madame Du Barry to the Committee of Public Safety. She was sent to the guillotine, and Zamor survived to play a part in changing the course of history.
The story of this play takes place in the past, but some of the events and the relationships between the characters are imagined history. The past is used as a prism to look at the present. The tone is zany, delightfully bawdy, and irreverent but has some serious things to say about class, history, race, war, and identity. The language is unequivocally contemporary. The play had a week’s development workshop, with Foppish Theatre supported by the Arts Council in 2021.
A SEAT BY THE WINDOW
Written and directed by Anthony Clark
Lying amongst the wreckage of Malaysian Airways, Flight MH17, shot down over East Ukraine in 2014 with the loss of 298 lives on board, seat 17A has first-hand experience of what happened, and the subsequent inquiry into who was responsible. A compassionate playwright dumbfounded by the scale of tragedy, and an audience member impatient to see those responsible brought to justice, encourage 17A to tell its story. They are both surprised by the seat’s knowledge and its unique ability to shuffle and interpret the dreams of a separatist soldier to prophesy far greater crimes against humanity, and hint at pathways to peace.
The form and tone of this is highly theatrical, tragic-comic drama, captures the terror and the absurdity of events that occur because of the gulf between east and west ways of looking at the world. It solves nothing but shows theatre’s power to heighten consciousness and articulate moral outrage.
This imaginative, thought provoking, entertaining play for eight actors or more, is written in a variety of different styles. It was given a successful rehearsed reading to raise money for Ukrainian refugees at the Three Swans in Frome on Tuesday 22nd November 2022.
THE COUNTESS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY & THE SEAT BY THE WINDOW
PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE 2025
Rehearse: 20th Jan- 1st March
Tech /Dress 3th -8th March
Dress/Previews 11th-15th March
Tour Wk 1 18th-22nd March
Press TBC
Tour Wk 2 25th -29th March
Tour Wk 3 1st-5th April
Tour Wk 4 8th-12th-April
Tour Wk 5 15th-19th April
Tour Wk 6 22nd-26th April
FULL WEEK:
Countess & Revolutionary: Tues (eve), Wed (mat& eve) Sat (eve)
Seat by the Window : Thurs (eve), Fri (eve) Sat (mat)
SPLIT WEEK
EITHER
Countess & Revolutionary: Tues (eve), Wed (mat & eve)
OR
Seat by the Window Thurs (eve), Sat (mat)
Countess & Revolutionary Fri (eve), Sat (mat)
Target Audiences:
Experience seekers
People from as many constituencies as can be encouraged to come!
People interested in looking at the present through the prism of the past.
BAME audiences
Secondary Schools, Further Education Colleges and Universities
Drama Schools and Youth Theatres
New Work Enthusiasts
14+
RUNNING TIME
2.15hrs including interval
COST
£2,000 per performance
or 70% Box Office whichever is the greater.
WRITING FOR THE STAGE (Crowood 2021 )
'Any aspiring writer should definitely consider picking up a copy of this...The strengths of this book lie in its sensible, methodical structure, practical advice and thorough overview of just about every aspects of their project that any aspiring playwright will need to consider, complemented by much allusion to plays and playwrights from every period and genre' Theatre Review
SHE (Wordville 2023)
SHE has been publsished and is available at most good bookshops, and as programme playtext at performances.
‘Clark is a master of writing flawed, chaotic personalities with verve. When you view these short pieces as one entity, what strikes you is how they grow in might’. The Guardian ****
‘Co-directors Sutch and Corner are relatively recent graduates. But they bring an inventiveness to the staging of each play that keeps everything visually interesting and distinctive. Chenise Lynette and Safeena Ladha lift their words high off the page with the versatility and confidence of their performances. Playing seven characters is no mean feat for anyone, but they transform themselves between each play, even while resetting the stage. They make the funny lines sing and the sad ones sting. The Stage
‘Two incredible actors to show us 14 different ways of being a woman, compassionately and humorously’. North West End ****
‘Safeena Ladha and Chenise Lynette give convincing and engaging performances throughout’ The Art Scape ****