Back Down Digital Programme

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company in association with the Roundhouse presents

Click here to see the trailer

“Never been camping before.

None of us have, but how hard can it be?�

Digital Programme #BackDownUK

About

ABOUT BIRMINGHAM REPERTORY THEATRE

Birmingham Repertory Theatre is one of Britain’s leading producing theatre companies. Founded in 1913 by Sir Barry Jackson, Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company rapidly became one of the most famous and exciting theatre companies in the country launching the careers of an array of many great British actors including Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Edith Evans, Paul Scofield, Derek Jacobi, Elizabeth Spriggs, Albert Finney and many more. In 2013 the company celebrated its centenary.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre (The REP) is a local theatre with an international reach, acting as a cultural hub in the centre of Birmingham with the mission to create a vibrant programme of performance work that enriches the lives of the wide range of communities we serve and inspires artists to make their best work with us.

As well as presenting over 60 productions on its three stages every year, the theatre tours its productions nationally and internationally, showcasing theatre made in Birmingham.

The commissioning and production of new work lies at the core of The REP’s programme and over the last 15 years the company has produced more than 130 new plays. The theatre’s outreach programme is the best of any

cultural organisation in the city and engages over 25,000 young people every year. The REP is also committed to nurturing new talent through its youth theatre groups and training for up and coming writers, directors and artists.

Many of The REP’s productions go on to have lives beyond Birmingham transferring to the West End and touring nationally and internationally. The REP’s long-running production of The Snowman has become a must-see fixture in London’s West End calendar, playing to packed houses at the Peacock Theatre every Christmas for the last 17 years.

The Snowman also tours regularly across the UK and to theatres in Holland, Korea, Japan and Finland. Other transfers and recent tours include Twelve Angry Men, Harvey, The King’s Speech, Kate Tempest’s Hopelessly Devoted, Rachel Delahay’s Circles and Steve Camden’s Back Down.

Artistic Director Roxana Silbert Executive Director Stuart Rogers Box Office: 0121 236 4455 Administration: 0121 245 2000 birmingham-rep.co.uk

ABOUT ROUNDHOUSE

The Roundhouse is a major multi-arts venue that platforms, celebrates and showcases an exciting programme of theatre, spoken word, circus and live music. The Roundhouse aims to allow artists to develop work in new ways and offer audiences extraordinary journeys.

The Roundhouse is more than just a venue and each year we help 3,000 11-25 yearolds to realise their creative potential through opportunities in music, media, circus, spoken word and performing arts. They work with industry professionals to develop their skills in a dedicated creative centre – the Paul Hamlyn Roundhouse Studios.

Polarbear’s Back Down will be performed as part of The Last Word – our festival of Spoken Word, Storytelling and live performance that runs from 16 – 31 May. www.roundhouse.org.uk

About

BIRMINGHAM REPERTORY THEATRE’S FOUNDER AND HIS LEGACY In 1935, Sir Barry Jackson founded a trust to run Birmingham Repertory Theatre (effectively donating it to the city) and, following his death in 1961, the Sir Barry Jackson Trust became a theatre charity. In 1986, the Trust’s income was dramatically increased, when the about-to-beabolished West Midlands Metropolitan County Council donated a large sum for the promotion of touring theatre in the region. Since then, the Trust has donated well over half a million pounds to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s community tours to schools and other venues in Birmingham and beyond. In addition, the county fund has given well over £300,000 to other touring companies in the region, including Big Brum, Banner Theatre, The Shysters and Theatre Absolute.

The Trust supports educational work in theatre through a bequest from the Hornton Foundation, and continues to look after the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company’s archive, relying on donations and legacies to support its work. In 2003, the Trust published a new history of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, to complement earlier books by T C Kemp and J C Trewin.

Clare Cochrane’s The Birmingham Rep: A City’s Theatre 1962–2002 tells the dramatic story of the company’s 1971 move from Station Street into its new Broad Street home, the development of its studio theatre as a venue dedicated to the production of new plays, and its continued commitment to present world standard classical and contemporary drama to a demanding and increasingly diverse audience on its main stage.

The Sir Barry Jackson Trust The Sir Barry Jackson County Fund Trustees: Cllr B. Bowles, R S Burman, L A Chorley, D Clarke, Prof. C Cochrane, D B Edgar, Prof. R. Jackson, I A King, Ms L Morgan, Mrs D Shaw, C R G Winteringham Secretary: S J Gill The Sir Barry Jackson Trust can be contacted by emailing sbjt@btinternet.com.

In Conversation With Director Tessa Walker

Who are the main characters?

It’s a three-hander and the main characters are Zia, Luke and Tommy, they have been friends for most of their lives and we meet them at this particular point in their friendship, as Luke is heading off to University.

How would you describe Back Down as a play?

Ultimately, the play is about friendship and how friendship can or cannot weather change. It is a very particular time in your life; that late-teens period, because you are still a teenager, but you are very much looking at your 20s and the assumption that you are becoming an adult.

It’s an unusual time when you are about to leave home, for both the person who is leaving and the person who is left behind. This play captures that moment just before someone goes and it’s about how a lifelong friendship can navigate that huge change. There’s a real truth in the way that Steven Camden has written these characters and truthfully looks at what a friendship is.

What is your favourite part of the play?

It’s really difficult to think of a favourite part. There are many things that are brilliant and beautiful about the play. The way in which the story is told and how it is structured is very interesting and I love the style of it, but it is very difficult to pick one isolated moment that I like more than others.

Click here to see Tessa’s full video interview

In Conversation With Writer

Steven Camden

How did you find the process of writing your first play?

Writing dialogue is my favourite thing and I was really excited by the idea of a Brummie story, particularly a Brummie boy’s story. The characters sprouted out from another piece I was working on.

I started writing a hypothetical conversation about these characters going somewhere because one of them had just got a car, that’s how it started.

How does it compare to your previous work?

It’s different in the sense that I am handing over the words. Coming from a background of performing myself, or at least writing for myself to speak, it was really liberating to write knowing that I was not going to speak any of the words. It’s been the most exciting thing to date for me.

What is your favourite part of the play?

I love all of it, but I think my favourite part of the play is the genuine love between the three characters and the way it manifests itself, how it is contested and the realisations that they make through the play.

What do you hope audiences will take away from the play?

I hope they go home feeling lucky for the friends they have and thinking about what happens to those friends they’ve lost contact with. I want them to enjoy the charm of these three characters that are equally as brilliant, intelligent, stupid, messy, hopeful and anxious as each other.

Genuine friendship, blood or chosen, is really important.

Click here to see Steven’s full video interview

Waleed Akhtar as Zia Theatre credits include: Velocity (Finborough Theatre); The Kite Runner (Nottingham Playhouse/ Liverpool); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tooting Arts Club); Under 11’s (Soho Theatre); Love Match (Cheltenham Everyman); I Call My Brothers (Arcola); Betrayed (Tron Theatre Company); Black I (Kali); Gladiator Games (Etc, Germany) and Screwface (Tristan Bates).

Television credits include: Edge Of Heaven (Hartswood Films); Doctors (BBC); Law And Order UK (Kudos) and Dustbin Baby (Kindle for BBC1).

Sam Cole as Tommy Sam is a member of First Act Workshops, an actor’s training ground and casting centre.

During his time there Sam has been cast as Kerry in the short film, The Hazing, presented at the NEC for The Skills Show.

Sam has also previously been a member of the Young REP, performing in As You Like It, Heartbreak Beautiful, and as Achilles in I Iphignia In Aulis and as Patroclus in Homer’s Iliad.

Lawrence Walker as Luke Lawrence trained at Rose Bruford College.

His television credits include a regular part in Our Girl as the character Dangleberries (BBC) and as Matt in Casualty (BBC).

His film credits include Generation Z (Matador Pictures).

Sam has also appeared in Doctors and WPC56 (BBC).

Film credits include: Night Bus (El Capitan); Miss You Already (Embargo Films); Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (Kudos Film); Sidney (BFI/Tomboy Films); Sparks And Embers (Cinemagine); Lipstikka (Gal Films & Obelis Productions); Diary Of A Jihadi (Independent Image Ltd); Scratch (Breakthru Films) and Tonight (UK Film Council).

Radio credits include: What The Papers Say (BBC Radio 4).

Cast

Steven Camden Writer

Tessa Walker Director

Steven Camden aka Polabear is one of the most respected spoken word artists in the UK. He came to prominence as part of Apples & Snakes Exposed tour and has since written and performed three feature length theatre pieces; If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); RETURN (Battersea Arts Centre and mac) and Old Me (Roundhouse) on national and international tours. If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me was revived in February 2015 at Battersea Arts Centre.

Tessa is an Associate Director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. She was previously the Literary Director at Paines Plough and a Literary Associate at the National Theatre of Scotland.

His latest interactive storytelling piece for children 8 and above, Mouth Open Story Jump Out (BAC) is currently midway through its second national tour.

He has performed his work from California to Kuala Lumpur, via Glastonbury, Latitude, Camden Crawl and pretty much most summer festivals in Great Britain.

He founded and led the Roundhouse spoken word collective from 2009-13, has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company for whom he co-devised and led the Sound & Fury Project, directing the project finale in the Globe Theatre.

He was co-writer and script mentor on Akram Khan Company’s Olivier award-winning production, DESH, and has served as script mentor and dramaturg on multiple spoken word and theatre shows, including the forthcoming production Turfed for LIFT. He has appeared many times on BBC Radio 1, 3, 4 and 6, and his first full length afternoon play Sleeping Dogs was commissioned and broadcast in 2013 on BBC Radio 4.

His debut young adult novel, Tape was published in January 2014

by HarperCollins to rave reviews and his second novel for them, It’s About Love is published in June 2015.

Her credits include: Circles, A Christmas Carol and The Mother (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); The Gatekeeper (The Manchester Royal Exchange); Dream Pill and Dancing Bears (Clean Break, Soho Theatre) and The Kitchen Sink (Hull Truck).

Devoted, The Legend of Mike Smith, Europa, Wounded, Hip Hope Hero, Cling To Me Like Ivy, Gravity, Looking For Yoghurt, The Just Price Of Flowers and Notes To Future Self.

For Birmingham School of Acting: Duchess Of Malfi, Cloud 9, Hayfever, Dracula and Hedda Gabler.

For Custom Practice: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It. For Pentabus Theatre: White Open Spaces and Strawberry Fields.

Giles Thomas Composer & Sound Designer

Olly Shapley Designer Olly has been designing and making scenery in one form or another since his early teens.

Forthcoming projects include: Outside Mullingar (Theatre Royal Bath).

He studied sculpture and fine art at Coventry University and thereafter came to Birmingham, working in public art and sculpture.

He’s equally at home in technical and design roles and has worked extensively in performance and public arts. He started working at The REP in 2003 and has been designing and building sets there since then. When time permits he works with other companies including Moby Duck Theatre Company, The National Youth Theatre, BBC, Coventry Belgrade Theatre, The Playhouse and Women and Theatre.

Composer & Sound Design credits include: Yen (Manchester Royal Exchange); Pomona (Orange Tree Theatre); Wolf From The Door (Royal Court); Lie With Me (Talawa); The Sound Of Yellow (Young Vic); Prime Time, Mint, Pigeons, Death Tax and The President Has Come To See You (Royal Court); Take A Deep Breath And Breathe and The Street (Oval House Theatre) and Stop Kiss (Leicester Square Theatre).

Simon Bond Lighting Designer Simon is a Lighting Technician at Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Lighting designs for Birmingham Repertory Theatre include: Of Mice And Men, Never Try This At Home, Finger Trigger Bullet Gun, Circles, Come Heavy Sleep, Hopelessly

Sound Design credits include: The Snow Queen (Southampton Nuffield & Northampton Royal & Derngate); A Harlem Dream (Young Vic); Khandan (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/Royal Court); Superior Donuts (Southwark Playhouse); Three Men In A Boat (Original Theatre Company, UK Tour); King John (Union Theatre); It’s About Time (Nabokov Theatre Company, Hampstead Theatre);

Creatives

Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (Royal Court/Gate Theatre/Out of Joint/ Paines Plough/National Theatre) and House Of Agnes (Paines Plough).

Associate Sound Designer on: Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse & tour); Henry V (Michael Grandage Company, West End); 1984 (West End, UK Tour).

Music Producer on: An Appointment With The Wickerman (National Theatre of Scotland).

Screen credits include: Aurelia (Jade Edwards); Ident (Anaya Productions); Cern Hadron Collider Exhibition (Science Museum); Street Spirit (Tom Bailey) and Last Of The Oaks (Luis Baron).

Giles has also assisted with music technology and keyboard programming on many West End musicals including Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Wicked, Singing In The Rain and Matilda. http://giles-t.co.uk/

Anna Morrissey Movement Director

And Gretel (Opera North); 101 Dalmatians (Northampton Theatre Royal); Larissa And The Merchants and On The Record (Arcola Theatre); Molly Sweeney (The Print Room) and Restoration (Headlong).

Opera credits include: The Magic Flute (NI Opera & Nevill Holt); Salome, Macbeth, The Flying Dutchman, Noye’s Fludde and Hansel And Gretel (NI Opera); Elisir D’amore, The Barber Of Seville and Manon Lascout (Opera Holland Park) and Orpheus In The Underworld (Scottish Opera).

Direction credits include: Beating Heart Cadaver (Finborough Theatre); Masque Arias (Royal Shakespeare Company New Work/Stratford River Festival); Ghost Plays (Royal Shakespeare Company, Young People’s Project) and Memories Cabaret (Chapito, Lisbon).

In 2014 Anna was Artist in Residence for the Historic Royal Palaces, creating original dancetheatre pieces that respond to the history and architecture of Hampton Court, Kew Palace, Kensington Palace, Banqueting House and the Tower of London.

Anna trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre credits include: King Charles III, (Wyndhams & Almeida Theatre); The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Boeing Boeing (Crucible Theatre); Circles (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/ Tricycle Theatre); World Of Extreme Happiness (National Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Pericles, Antony And Cleopatra, Marat / Sade, The Grain Store, The Drunks, The Tragedy Of Thomas Hobbes, I’ll Be The Devil and Cordelia Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company); The London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony (Movement Assistant); Dunsinane and Caledonia (National Theatre of Scotland); Bus Stop (New Vic Theatre); My Dad’s A Birdman (Young Vic); The Village Bike (Sheffield Theatre); The Comedy Of Errors (Royal Exchange Theatre); My Generation (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Hansel

Daniel Bailey Assistant Director Daniel Bailey is Resident Assistant Director at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, as part of the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme. He has previously been Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio and Resident Assistant Director at The Finborough Theatre.

Daniel studied Modern Drama at Brunel University before participating in the Young Vic’s young director’s programme and he has since started a theatre company New Heritage Theatre that works with new writers and theatre makers to produce unheard voices and thought provoking work for all audiences.

Theatre directing credits include: Satanic Panic (Drayton Arms Theatre); My Darling Wife (Talawa Theatre Company) and Pre Judgment

Day and Covered (New Heritage Theatre).

Theatre assisting directing credits include: Silent Planet and Rachel (Finborough Theatre); Inherit The Wind (New Vic) and Lonely Londoners, Rules For Living and Hotel O (National Theatre studio workshop) Film director credits include: Malachi (S.E.D); Floating On Clouds (Kingdom Entertainment Group) and Y.O.L.O. Therapy (short).

Polly Jerrold Casting Director Prior to becoming a freelance casting director Polly worked as Casting Associate at the Royal Exchange Theatre for over five years where she worked on a wide range of productions from the world première of Simon Stephens’ Punk Rock, to a production of Bernstein’s Wonderful Town that was performed in association with the Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder.

Previous work with Tessa Walker for Birmingham Repertory Theatre includes: Circles (a co-production with the Tricycle Theatre) and A Christmas Carol.

Polly is currently casting Peter Pan (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and The Ghost Train (Told by an Idiot).

Other recent work includes: Feed the Beast (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/New Wolsey, Ipswich); James And The Giant Peach (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Rumpelstiltskin (Theatre Royal Bath) and Little Shop Of Horrors (Royal Exchange).

Andrew McCarthy Stage Manager (on the book) Ruth Morgan Production Manager

Rehearsals

Production

ommy’s

Blog

I’ve read Lord Of The Rings.

Zia’s

Blog

Alright, I’ve seen it.

We used to have this tree.

Okay, I’ve seen the second one. Or the third one. The one with the massive elephant things with the horns and the trees are walking and that geezer with the pony tail is taking everybody out with his bow and arrow. I’d be him. I mean, if this was a quest, then Luke’d be Frodo and I’d be the pony tail bad boy watching his back. Zia can be the wizard guy with the big stick and the pyjamas.

I dunno what type, like the proper name or whatever, but it was big.

It kind of is a quest if you think about it. A quest to give Lukey a sick memory to take with him. An adventure to the top of the mountain...

Click here to read more of Tommy’s blog.

It looked like this massive bony hand reaching up to the clouds, its thick wrist buried in the grass down by the fence.

I used to stand, staring up at it, imagining a tree house.

Like dad would ever build me a tree house. You can have a tree house, when you carry the wood up there and build it yourself.

So that’s what I planned.

I drew diagrams and everything. Proper technical schematics. I was gonna have a chair and a window and a rope ladder. Proper MTV Cribs, for squirrels...

Click here to read more of Zia’s blog.

Luke’s

Blog

Some friends, you need to check in with.

A text, or a quick ring, or a post on their wall on the regular, just to keep on a level.

If they don’t hear from you for a while it gets a bit weird. Like the gap between you’s grown too big. There’s too much happened to squeeze into a text and an actual call would take ages and so you just leave it and then the gap gets wider, days, then weeks go by, until a christmas passes, or a birthday with no word, and then, before you know it, you’re passing each other on the Bullring escalators, praying for the mutual blank.

Proper friends though. Family.

They’re set in stone...

Click here to read more of Luke’s blog.

Meet the Characters

PREVIEW

CLUB

SE E GR EAT TH EATR E FI RST FO R JU ST £5 Preview tickets for 14 to 30 year olds

Are you aged between 14 and 30? Do you love theatre? Then The REP’s Preview Club is just for you. Be the first to see amazing performances, for just £5, throughout our spring and summer 2015 season. To join, click here and sign up online or call our box office, The BOX, on 0121 236 4455 and register for free.

Please be aware that when joining online it will take 48 hours for you to be registered as a Preview Club member. Once you’ve joined, you can buy your tickets at the click of a button and we’ll keep you updated throughout the year with exciting news about upcoming shows.

BACK DOWN TOUR DATES AND VENUES 13 March CAP Centre, Smethwick cap-centre.com 0121 565 3273 17 March Solihull Arts Complex solihullartscomplex.co.uk 0121 704 6962 18 - 19 March St Barnabas Church Centre, Erdington stbarnabaserdington.org.uk 0121 306 4820 21 March Selly Park Baptist Church spbc.co.uk 0121 472 2513 23 March The Hive, Worcester thehiveworcester.org 01905 822866 27 - 28 March Perry Common Community Hall wittonlodge.org.uk 0121 382 1930 31 March - 1 April Newhampton Arts Centre newhamptonarts.co.uk 01902 572090 9 April Polish Expats Association at Centrala centrala-space.org.uk 0121 4393050 10 - 11 April FarGo Village, Coventry fargovillage.co.uk 02476 252436 15 - 16 April Upstairs at the Western, Leicester upstairsatthewestern.com 17 April Wem Town Hall wemtownhall.co.uk 01939 238279 28 April Sunderland College sunderlandstages.co.uk 01912 193455 30 April Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds carriageworkstheatre.org.uk 01132 243801 1 May Derby Theatre derbytheatre.co.uk 01332 593939 2 May Artrix, Bromsgrove artrix.co.uk 01527 577330 5 - 9 May Theatre Royal Plymouth theatreroyal.com 01752 267222 16 - 24 May Roundhouse, London roundhouse.org.uk 0300 6789 222 There are also a number of closed performances of Back Down taking place in schools and youth centres across the country, as part of our commitment to provide opportunities for more people to enjoy and experience live theatre.

The production at The REP and the subsequent UK tour are supported by The Sir Barry Jackson Trust and The John Feeney Charitable Trust.

Registered in England 295910 Charity No.223660