Since it premiered at The Traverse Theatre in August 2013, ATC's production of The Events written by David Greig and directed by Ramin Gray has picked up a raft of awards, been selected as The Guardian's Best Theatre Production of 2013, has sold out two runs at The Young Vic, has toured nationally and internationally and has been staged in German and Norwegian at Schauspielhaus Vienna and Brageteatret in Drammen. In 2015 it will take another step on this extraordinary journey, as the production premieres in New York at the prestigious New York Theatre Workshop. Neve McIntosh who created the role of Claire returns to the production of the New York run and will be joined by Clifford Samuel who has played The Boy throughout 2014.
The Events is a collaboration between ATC's acclaimed Artistic Director Ramin Gray and celebrated playwright
David Greig. Exploring the impact of a horrific politically motivated crime on a small community, it examines the nature of forgiveness, reconciliation and tolerance and asks how far understanding will stretch in the face of atrocity. The production will continue to feature a different local choir every night performing a soaring soundtrack by Irish composer
John Browne, to explore the themes of terrorism, obsession and the destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable.
Actors Touring Company presents the best international contemporary theatre, using the theatre to tell stories from different perspectives from around the world. The company collaborates with a broad range of UK and international theatre makers, commissioning writers, sourcing the best international scripts and translating them into English for the first time, and reaching audiences through their extensive UK and international touring programme. They are currently working on projects with artists from Belarus, Iran, Russia, Spain Israel, the UK and Ukraine.
Ramin Gray is ATC's Artistic Director. Recently for the company, he has directed the double bill of Illusions and
Sarah Kane's Crave ("profound, beautiful and terrifying." The Herald) and before that The Golden Dragon ("Ramin Gray's superb touring production for ATC" The Daily Telegraph). Before taking the post at ATC, he was International Associate, then Associate Director at the
Royal Court Theatre where he directed many world or British premieres by playwrights including
Simon Stephens' Motortown, Marius von Mayenburg's The Ugly One and The Stone, and
Mark Ravenhill's Over There. He has also directed at the RSC, Out of Joint, The Gate and in many theatres across Europe. Opera credits include the European premiere of Bliss by Brett Dean and
Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice at Hamburg's Staatsoper and Theater an der Wien. Immediately prior to directing The Events, Ramin directed the premiere of the opera The Importance of Being Earnest by Gerald Barry at The Royal Opera House Linbury Studio.
David Greig's recent plays include Midsummer, Dunsinane, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart and the new West End stage musical of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Considered to be one of the UK's leading contemporary playwrights, David's other work includes The Letter of Last Resort, Fragile, Damascus and Miniskirts of Kabul, Brewers Fayre, Outlying Island, The American Pilot and The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union. His adaptations also include The Bacchae; Tintin in Tibet; Caligula and Peter Pan. David has also written extensively for radio.
John Browne's works have been performed at the Royal Opera House (Babette's Feast, Demon Juice),
English National Opera (Early Earth Operas, Midnight's Children),
Southbank Centre (A Nightingale Sang) and Westminster Abbey (Small Selves, Out of Suffering). In the last few years he has been composer-in-residence at FNSNM, Kings College London, created choral arrangements for the band Elbow, composed the score for The Itch of the Golden Nit, a BAFTA award-winning film by Aardman, been an adjudicator for BBC Young Musician of the Year 2012, created a music-theatre piece in Rwanda and run workshops for the British Council in China and India.
