BWW Stage Mag Tennessee Williams THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY - Playmate Theatre Malmö Stage Mag

THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY
by Tennessee Williams
 
 presented by Playmate Theatre Malmö, Sweden 
at black box theatre Bastionen in Malmö
www.playmatetheatremalmo.co
 
 
Written by
Tennessee Williams
Directed by
Lars Junggreen
Choreography by
Mariana Araoz
 
Starring
 
 

 

Andreas Lyon as Felice
Vanessa Poole as Clare

PHYSICAL THEATRE ENSEMBLE:
Stefan Ridell
Nathalie Drakemyr
Evdokia kelessidi
Eva Söderquist

  

 
 

BOOK tickets for Sweden here: (13 - 17 November 2024)
https://www.kulturcentralen.nu/evenemang/the-two-character-play
Black box theatre Bastionen, Norra Vallgatan 28 Malmö
 

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* THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY in Malmö is a professional performance jointly presented by Playmate Theatre Malmö, in collaboration with HIT International Theatre Arts and cross-border platform Move the North.
Presented by special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
 

A NORDIC PREMIERE
Playmate Theatre Malmö presents the English-language Nordic premiere of this incredible, rarely performed Tennessee Williams play.

Along with Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams is the foremost playwright of 20th-century American drama, famous of course for his iconic cult melodramas on screen and off - The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and more…

THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY is the one Tennessee Williams stage play you have not seen.
"I think it is my most beautiful play since Streetcar, the very heart of my life"…
/ Tennessee Williams

Cast

Vanessa Poole
Clare
Andreas Lyon
Felice

Creative Team

Lars Junggreen

Director

Mariana Araoz

Director of Choreography & Movemement

Alexandra Christensen

Assisting/Consulting Director

Nicoline Gandrup Thyrsted

Dramaturg

Meet the Company

Vanessa Poole

Clare
https://www.vanessapoole.com/ Vanessa Poole is a British character & stage actress who has made Malmö her home for over 20 years, trained for the theatre in Sweden, Denmark and the UK including master classes on voice, movement, drama and speech with Patsy Rodenburg, Judy Kuhn, Declan Donnellan, Barbara Houseman and more. Vanessa played Max’s mother in the TV series “Max’s Movie” for Swedish television and has won acclaim for her performances in English-language theatre in Denmark as, among others, Virginia in The Clean House (2020), Stevie in The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (2019), Venus in Venus in Fur (2017). Audiences in Malmö remember Vanessa as the comedienne Lesley in Talking Heads for Playmate, lead Edith in the drama Sunday in Sodom (2022) directed by Matthew Short, the laughing patient in HAP in Malmö and at the English Theatre of Hamburg (2021), directed by Paul Glaser, which sold out at prestigious Teatret ved Sorte Hest in Copenhagen (2024). Vanessa played the sister in HIT production VODKA TALKS (2023) directed by Lars Junggreen, in Malmö and at Teatret ved Sorte Hest, Copenhagen.

Andreas Lyon

Felice
https://www.andreaslyon.com/ Andreas Lyon is an American-Danish character and strong method actor as well as international Chubbuck technique acting coach, who has re-located to Copenhagen after living and working for 10 years as an actor in LA. Recent work on Danish TV includes Sommerdahl (TV 2 Play 2023), Helt Ny (DR Ultra 2023) Elvira( Viaplay 2022); Grønland - 300 år ( Danmarks Radio 2021-22); Kastanjemanden (Netflix 2021 ); Klovn 8 (TV 2 play: 2021); Frederik IX: episode 3 (Danmarks Radio 2020) ; Julemandens Datter 2 playing Bedemand (2020). Theatre : OLD TIMES by Harold Pinter (HIT-House of International Theatre 2020) and Don’t Mention the War at Teatret ved Sorte Hest, Copenhagen.

Lars Junggreen

Director
With an impressive acting career spanning more than 40 years in Danish film and TV as well as on the Danish stage, Lars Junggreen is a well-known name in Denmark. He has worked as a theatre director and taught drama continuously since 1974, at all three National Danish drama schools in Århus, Odense and Copenhagen, most recently in a 5-year position as associate professor at the Danish National School of Performing Arts DDSKS. ​A graduate of Århus Teater National Theatre School, Lars went on to play leading roles as an actor, including Hamlet at the age of 27, as well as the lead in Cabaret, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, La Cage aux Folles, A Christmas Carol, Gray, Night Creatures (Noreen), Three Penny Opera, Waiting for Godot, The Wild Duck, King Lear, Total Eclipse and more. For significant periods Lars has been artistic director of Aarhus Theater, board member for both Aarhus Theater and Theater Plan B, a member of the National Danish Performing Arts Committee and resident dramaturgist at Ålborg Teater and Århus Teater, working at theatres such as Det Danske Teater, Svalegangen, Alle Scenen (Betty Nansen Teatret), Cafe Teatret, Banden (Odense ) , Filuren, Mungo Park Kolding and more. As a theatre director, Lars has more than 35 theatrical productions in Denmark under his belt, including "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens ,"Blackbird", "Besættelse”, "Elling" , "Grounded" "Et Juleeventyr" " The Rocky Horror Picture Show" "Narnia" , Shakespeares samlede værker" "Gæld uden ansigt" and directing for Det Kolde Bord in 2017. (Photo credit: Kasper Hellesøe)

Mariana Araoz

Director of Choreography & Movemement
Argentinian-born Mariana Araoz specialises in mask and puppetry, object theatre, performance and drama and has done so as performer and pedagogue as well as director and writer for over 30 years. She divides her time between Sweden and Paris, France. In Paris Mariana runs her French theater company and theatre space affiliated to Collectif Masque: La Maison de l'équilibre, based on mask and puppet technique built on a gender-balance/gender fluid perspective and pro-ecology vision and world view. In Sweden Mariana is Artistic Director of Theatre In-Balance (https://www.facebook.com/TheatreInBalanceSweden) and has published a book on her ©In-Balance Method, which she teaches at some of the world’s leading theatre schools, including Teaterhögskolan Malmö, Paris National Conservatory, Ecole du Jeu Paris, Saint Olaf College in Minneapolis, Columbia University in New York, Boris Shchukin’s Institut in Moscow, Hong Kong Theatre Academy, Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Mariana has directed more than forty productions in Sweden, France and the United States, including plays by Shakespeare, Moliere, Brecht, Sophocles, Chekhov, Genet, Duras, Strindberg. Her work has been performed at prestigious venues such as Guthrie LAB in Minneapolis, National Art Center of Chicago, Avignon Theatre Festival. Directing in Sweden includes: The Threepenny Opera (Teater Halland), Antigone, The Maids, The Seagull, Dissection of a Snowfall, Katrin X (2021) , Lady Macbeth (2022), Fores(t)empest (2023) and as Director of Choreography & Movement for AMADEUS - all at Skillinge Teater (2024)

Alexandra Christensen

Assisting/Consulting Director
Alexandra Christensen in 2012 started with a dream of becoming an actress, then quickly moved on to leaving the spotlight to explore multiple roles on, off and around the stage. Alexandra has in recent years found her perfect role as stage director, with a flair for the scenic picture, the poetic story and the balance between comedy and tragedy. Alexandra has a strong need to tell an honest story of humanity as both good and bad. She has worked on assisted direction at theatres such as Teater Grob (now Blaagårds teater), Folketeatret and Det Kongelige Teater. And she has since 2016 directed her own productions. The result is a close bond to her two theatrical partners in "crime” and the creation of Teater Mikado.Teater Mikado was founded in 2018, its audience-prize winning performance “Til sidste fjer” has been touring Denmark since then and still lives on today. Other Mikado performances are “Du finder mig nederst i bunken” from 2021 and “Tævehjerte” from 2023.

Nicoline Gandrup Thyrsted

Dramaturg
Nicoline Gandrup Thyrsted (1993, Horsens) lives and works in Copenhagen, is a freelance dramaturg, actor, and performance artist. She holds a master’s degree in Dramaturgy from Aarhus University (2021). She works in devising processes, especially immersive ones, where one collectively generates ideas and material. When acting she likes to analyse everything from complex and psychological characters to a role that is more of a facilitator, a bodily piece of installation art or something in between, such as dance or physical theatre forms. Her work includes projects such as HEDDA (2021), an Aarhus based performance project that examined the immersive & side specific possibilities of Henrik Ibsens Hedda Gabler, Are we PISD? ,a devising project and performance at the University of Aarhus (2017), the development of educational material for use in public schools & gymnasiums for Theatre Mikado’s play Til sidste fjer (Until the last feather), and working as an actress in the museum Den Gamle By in Aarhus from 2016-2020, plus performances inThe Tempest, Love is colder than dead, and the movie Hvidstengruppen II.

Multimedia

(Photo credit Smallfield Photo.)
(Photo credit Smallfield Photo.) (snapshot from on stage)
(snapshot from on stage) (Photo credit Smallfield Photo.)
(Photo credit Smallfield Photo.) (Photo credit Smallfield Photo.)
(Photo credit Smallfield Photo.)

Multimedia

From the rehearsal room. Interview with the actress playing Clare

NORDIC PREMIERE - November 2024 in Malmö, Sweden- performances are in English.

On stage – an exciting, tour de force performance by strong character actors Andreas Lyon (US/Cph) and Vanessa Poole (UK/Malmö), accompanied by a choreographic movement ensemble of four.
_____________________
THE PLOT

The play begins with a brother and sister backstage. The curtain about to open on their latest play. They are actors, Felice and Clare.
Reality and fantasy are interwoven with terrifying power as the two face a (perhaps imaginary) audience expecting a performance of The Two-Character Play.
It is an illusion within an illusion, created from isolation, panic, and fear. Two fragile, tempestuous siblings flinging words, embraces and insults, try desperately to limp through to the end of their day.

So what is this “TWO CHARACTER PLAY” Felice and Clare are eternally committed to performing? Why does the play never have an ending neither Felice can write nor Clare can act? Where has everybody gone? Their theatre company and crew have vanished.

The “actors” we observe in the “play within a play” dip in and out of performance, improvising parts not memorised or not yet written. It becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate the actors from the characters and reality from illusion.

It seems they are playing characters – also named 'Felice' and his sister 'Clare'! Traumatised by the violent loss of their parents when they were children, they are still living in their family home. But isolated from the outside world. In the dark. Or is their home the theatre itself?
Why can’t they get beyond the front door? What are they afraid of?

No matter how hard they delude themselves, Felice and Clare cannot escape from the reality of their deteriorating state. They are in a performance we are watching slowly implode.

As brother and sister, they are interminably entwined. This is a twisted love that spins equally quickly from tyranny and claustrophobia, to laughter, banter and tenderness. What Tennessee Williams called the very "confining nature of human existence", portrayed in this, possibly his most tender and personal play of all.

Thus the audience themselves are confronted with the darker truths of what it is to be human. Don’t miss this joyous, exciting, dramatic performance combining text and body.

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