- February–March 2008
- October 2007
The Swan Theatre Company presents an amateur production of Simon Stephens'
MOTORTOWN
Directed by Robert Icke.
'I wanted to write a play that is dark and contradictory and violent because our culture is dark and contradictory and violent. In that sense, I wanted to write, as honestly as I possibly could, about England’ - Simon Stephens
‘The war was alright. I miss it. It’s just you come back to this.’
Danny returns home. All is not well. A play in eight scenes about the war on terror and the culture that drives it, Motortown has established itself as one of the most controversial, most impressive and most important plays of the millennium.
Following its sellout productions of The Alchemist and Much Ado About Nothing, The Swan Theatre Company returns to the ADC with this explosive new play, premiered to great acclaim last year at the Royal Court.
- October 2006
Lovewit has fled plague-ridden London, leaving his city house in the charge of Face, a confidence trickster. Pretending that they have found the secret of the legendary philosopher's stone, and can transform metal into gold, the disguised Face and Subtle (the 'Alchemist') rapidly improvise trick after trick to filch riches from the pockets of the gullible.
The Swan Theatre Company returns to the ADC, following last term's critically acclaimed sell-out Much Ado About Nothing, with Ben Jonson's greatest comedy, a lightning-paced farce with a dark underbelly. By turns sick, sad, and hilarious and set in door-banging, flea-bitten, mud-covered London, this sparkling new production is guaranteed solid theatrical gold.
'a company worth looking out for in the crowded Cambridge drama world.' Rachel Fentern, localsecrets.com
- October 2006
Imagine a canvas about five foot by four…with a white background…completely white in fact…with fine white diagonal stripes. Serge has bought a painting. White and expensive. Serge thinks it's a masterpiece, Marc thinks it's a joke, Yvan wonders how you can see the stripes.
In Yasmina Reza's prize-winning play, art and friendship are yoked together in a knot of humour, pathos and aggression: a joke becomes a declaration of war, a throwaway comment becomes a personal attack; will a painting become the ruination of a fifteen-year relationship? At once hilarious, touching and disturbing, 'Art' tackles a topical debate while presenting characters and situations that are dangerously real. Are you who you think you are or who your friends think you are? What happens when your friend breaks a tacit agreement? How much would you pay for a white painting?
'You're supposed to be my friend. What kind of a friend are you, Serge, if you don't think your friends are special?'
- May 2006
