SHOCK N AWE ANNOUNCE NEW PRODUCTION – ‘FALLEN’
2 July 2013: Shock n Awe Performance Company today announced details of its brand new production, ‘Fallen’, which will be opening at Chapter Arts Centre on Wednesday 31st July and running until Saturday 3rd August 2013.
The Cardiff-based company, which has launched a brand new website – www.shocknawe.org.uk – was founded by multi award-winning writer and director Greg Cullen in 2010 and has been furiously creative from the word go.
The talented cast for this darkly comic new play includes Jâms Thomas, Joanna Simpkins, Francois Pandolfo, Ceri Lloyd and Gerald Tyler.
One Friday night an exotic, beautiful man falls from the sky, washing up in the river by a seemingly cursed Welsh farm. When the degenerate farmer and his three adult children discover the corpse the web of guilt and history, which has bound them together, begins to unravel. As they each fall in love with this angelic stranger they wonder where he could have fallen from and why a sinister man in a green Barbour coat is so desperate to find him?
Greg Cullen said: “The story for ‘Fallen’ has been running around inside my head for 17 years since I read about a man who fell from the sky in West London. Something clicked this year, which made me desperate to finish it. The play is set on the Radnor Breconshire border, an area I know well from my work with Theatr Powys and the Mid Powys Youth Theatre.
“‘Fallen’ is outrageously funny at times, dealing with a farmer and his three adult children whose relationships have become skewed by isolation and history. However, it’s also a joyous, anarchic and innocent play, which ultimately is about the power of beauty to transform and redeem humanity.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have secured such a talented cast for ‘Fallen’. I’m also working with some of Cardiff’s greatest dance, film and design talent, so expect a real treat with a rich texture of theatrical entertainment. Our plan is to develop the show for a national tour in 2014”.
Shock n Awe’s previous credits include the groundbreaking production ‘Muscle’, based on extraordinary interviews with apparently ordinary men from Wales. ‘Muscle’ won the Herald Angel Award at Edinburgh in 2011 and toured Wales in 2012.
This was followed by the critically acclaimed ‘Love at First Light’, which premiered at Chapter Arts Centre in May 2012. Throughout this year Shock n Awe has toured Wales creating nine short films with young people who lead challenging lives. The Project, ‘Putting People In Their Place’, will premiere the finished films at the Welsh Assembly in November 2013.
Meanwhile Greg Cullen has been working with new writers from the African Diaspora exploring their history in Wales. The project, ‘Cymru Ddu’, will hopefully be rolled out across the whole of Wales in the coming year.
‘Fallen’ has been made possible thanks to a development grant from the Arts Council of Wales, The National Lottery, the Welsh Assembly Government and Shock n Awe’s own fundraising efforts.
‘Fallen’ is Written and Directed by Greg Cullen; it is Choreographed by Jem Treays; Music is by Jak Poore; the Designer is Jess Scott with Lily Hill assisting and Visuals by John Collingswood of Taikabox.
‘Fallen’ will be showing at Chapter Arts Centre, Canton, Cardiff from Wednesday 31st July to Saturday 3rd August 2013 (8pm) and includes a matinee performance on Friday 2nd August (2.30pm).
Tickets are priced at £12/£10/£8. For details call Chapter Box Office on 029 2030 4400 or go to www.chapter.org