Three school-mates, three boys on the verge of adulthood, three lads with dreams bigger than the prospects that staying where they are can offer. The army - a career, opportunity, adventure, skills and excitement. Three soldiers off to Afghanistan. Three fighters doing what they have been trained to do. Three men returning to their loved ones, wounded, scarred, dead or alive. The physical and psychological aftershocks of war take their toll on each one of them and each of the loved ones they left behind. For Arthur, Hads and Taff, the journey home is their greatest battle.
Inspired by 30 interviews with returned servicemen, Owen Sheers' Pink Mist tells their story with haunting verse, dynamic staging and starkly honest performances.
When Pink Mist opened at the Bristol Old Vic in 2015, it was hailed by both critics and audience as a visceral, poetic and important piece of theatre. There were immediate calls for it to be seen by a wider audience. Answering these calls, in early 2017 the production will take to the road for a tour of England and Wales.
Owen Sheers has been described as "the war poet of his generation". He is an author, poet and playwright whose first novel, Resistance was translated into eleven languages and adapted into a film. His latest novel, I Saw a Man, was published in June 2015. Owen's writing for theatre includes National Theatre of Wales' site-specific production in Port Talbot, The Passion; The Two Worlds of Charlie F, which won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, and NTW's Mametz. His verse drama Pink Mist was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and won the Hay Festival Poetry Medal and the Wales Book of the Year 2014. He has been Artist in Residence for the Welsh Rugby Union and is currently Professor in Creativity at Swansea University.
John Retallack was the founding director of Company of Angels, producing new work for young audiences. He was formerly Artistic Director of Oxford Stage Company and was the founding director of Actors Touring Company (ATC). John's own plays for theatre are translated into several languages and published by Oberon and Methuen. John is currently Tutor in writing for performance at Ruskin College Oxford.
George Mann is Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic, and Co-Artistic Director of Theatre Ad Infinitum. Highlights include Translunar Paradise (director, writer, co-deviser, and performer) a sell-out at Barbican as part of the London International Mime Festival (LIMF) 2012, which picked up nine awards and toured the globe for three years; Light (director, writer, co-deviser, performer of live vocals) met with critical acclaim, its London premiere sold out at Barbican as part of LIMF 2015. In December 2014, George won the Quercus Trust Award becoming Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic in partnership with National Theatre; he continues his role at Ad Infinitum part time.
Nick Williams is a producer and consultant with 16 years experience in theatre. He specialises in contemporary drama, touring plays extensively in the UK and internationally, and founded
Nick Williams Productions in 2016. Previously Nick was Executive Director of Actors Touring Company, touring international work as far afield as India and Iraq, as well as the US, Europe and around the UK. Hit productions include the premier of
David Greig's acclaimed play The Events, English language premieres for The Golden Dragon by Roland Schimmelpfennig, Illusions by Ivan Viripaev and Martyr by Marius von Mayneburg. Nick has also been General Manager for Paines Plough, Strategy Director for Nutkhut, Senior Theatre Officer at
Arts Council England and in various roles at Hampstead Theatre,
The Royal Court Theatre and the
Royal Shakespeare Company.
Bristol Old Vic is the longest continuously-running theatre in the UK and, following a recent £12.5 million redevelopment project, is now one of the most modern and comfortable. Under Artistic Director
Tom Morris, their mission is to create pioneering twenty-first
Century Theatre in partnership with the people of the city. They are led by artists who see the world with distinctive clarity and whose ability to articulate what they see allows them to understand and engage with the world afresh, whether that be through their 350-strong Young Company, their many outreach and education projects or helping ascendant artists by nurturing the spark or seed of an idea into something fully-formed. They use their funding to support experiment and innovation, to allow access to their programme for people who would not otherwise encounter it or be able to afford it and to keep their extraordinary heritage alive and animated.
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