After living and working in the city for 20 years, theatre director Chris O’Connell is working on his company’s first contemporary new work about Coventry.
Far From the Sea, written by Coventry-born playwright Steve Waters, is the final commission of Theatre Absolute’s 100 project, created in response to the First World War Centenary.
It comprises of three 30-minute dramas performed by a cast of three actors at The Shop Front Theatre in City Arcade – a former fish and chip shop.
The first piece looks at Coventry though the eyes of a contemporary Polish woman.
Cristina Catalina, the Romanian actress who plays her, says: “This woman has bought into this vision of finding hope in life. She’s extremely perceptive and astute. She has a lovely knowingness.
“As an outsider like my character I knew nothing about Coventry, but was so excited when I came because there was an energy and buzz about the place – so many languages and a down-to-earthness.”
Artistic director Chris adds: “Cristina’s character challenges the Coventry story – the bombing and the Blitz. She says if we talk about suffering there are other cities worse affected. In Warsaw a quarter of the people died in the war. It challenges their perception.”
The emotive second short play takes inspiration from the true story of Coventry’s Matrix Churchill engineering company which began shipping components for Saddam Hussein’s secret weapons programme in 1989.
It centres on the personal story of a company director and his wife, played by Lara J West and Richard Earl.
Coventry-born actress Lara says: “The wife is complicit to a point but she thinks what was it all for? Your son never saw you growing up because you were away and our relationship has broken down.”
Lara recently moved back to live in the city with her husband and 10-year-old daughter.
The third mini-drama is set in 1951 during the real competition to design a new Coventry Cathedral. Richard plays a councillor, Alderman Baxter; while Cristina is an architect with some bold ideas.
Chris says: “It asks how do you create a city? She says surely the people have to be part of the discussion. It’s exciting to make a play about the city in the city. This play is the most direct piece we have ever made. We have lived and worked here for 20 years. It’s a piece about our environment and we’d like to create a conversation about the city.
“Sometimes we are very down on ourselves but, as Cristina says, Coventry is a very varied city with a diverse arts scene.”
Based in Coventry, and founded by Chris and Julia Negus in 1992, Theatre Absolute is an award-winning theatre company celebrating the contemporary and the urban.
The company has taken the anniversary of the beginning of the First World War as a stimulus to look at the journey Europe has taken in the last 100 years – the Holocaust, the fall of communism, the creation of the Euro, migration and immigration.
[*]Far From the Sea premieres at Theatre Absolute, Shop Front Theatre, 38 City Arcade, Coventry on Tuesday and runs until Saturday, June 21 at 7.30pm. There will also be two matinee performances on Thursday and Saturday at 1.30pm. Tickets start at £6. Ring 0845 680 1926.
Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 1:29 am