2002
APA presents
3 Dark Tales
A Theatre O production
Melbourne – Merlyn Theatre
February 11 to 20, 2002
Box Office 03 9685 5111
Adelaide Fringe Festival
Adelaide – Scott Theatre
February 22 to March 9, 2002
Bass 131 246 www.bass.sa.net.au
or FringeTIX www.adelaidefringe.com.au
The Company
Director Joseph Alford
Designer Isla Shaw
Choreographer Eva Vilamitjana
Lighting design Sarah Coxon
Stories by Joseph Alford, Jon Rand, Carolina Valdes
Lucien MacDougall and Sarah Coxon
“O,o interj. An exclamation expressing surprise, admiration, pain, longing, joy etc…”
Formed by Joseph Alford in 1997, Theatre O is a collective of actors, writers, musicians, designers and artists from England, Scotland, Spain and Australia. They have toured in both the UK and internationally. This is their first visit to Australia.
All of the actors have trained at the celebrated Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and bring the distinctive signatures of his physical theatre techniques to performance work of their own devising.
3 Dark Tales premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000 and won the coveted Total Theatre festival award. From there the company took the show for highly successful seasons in New York and the Barbican Theatre in London. In 2001 Theatre O also received the Stage Acting Excellence Ensemble Award on their return to Edinburgh.
3 Dark Tales weaves three lives into one. Each of the characters works in the same office and has yearnings for something better and beyond . In Dream on Mr Tibble, our anti-hero is a downtrodden office worker with a monstrous wife – but the tables are about to be turned. The predicament in The Unfortunate Predicament of Amelia Sas is that her entire life is controlled by overbearing parents. The third story, Frank’s Wardrobe, is about the office boss, trapped and trying to cope with the fact that his family has left him.
Each is struggling against the things that grind us down and wear us out on a daily basis, striving to find a way to break free, by whatever means.
Ferociously funny and touchingly tragic, 3 Dark Tales reveals the humanity in all of us with its happy, and not-so-happy, ever after.
The Performers
Joseph Alford (England)
Joseph is founder and artistic director of Theatre O (formerly Generally Better Productions). He trained with Jacques Lecoq in Paris. He has performed extensively with Scapegoat Theatre Company, Rotozazza in France and in association with Jonathan Kent at the Almeida Theatre. He is also co-founder of the group Tohu Bohu which performs in conjunction with Theatre O.
Sarah Coxon (Australia)
Sarah read English and History at the University of Western Australia before training for two years with Jacques Lecoq in Paris, including at the Laboratoire d’Etudes de Mouvement (LEM). Her theatre design credits include Two Faced and Lone Star at the Bridewell Theatre. Sarah is also a founding member of Stampede Theatre Company.
Lucien MacDougall (Scotland)
Lucien trained with Jacques Lecoq in Paris and at the Guildford School of Acting. He has performed extensively in England and France, and played in Bond with theatre O at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival. He is co-artistic director of Stampede Theatre.
Carolina Valdes (Spain)
Carolina studied at the Collegi de Teatre de Barcelona and with Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She has also studied dance with both Pilar Dominguez and Jose de la Vega in Spain. She has performed throughout England with Company Paradiso and this is her fourth collaboration with Theatre O.
What the reviews say about Theatre O :
“3 Dark Tales packs more visual inventiveness, hilarity and energy into ninety minutes than seems humanly possible. Manoeuvring between a wardrobe and two clothes-racks, the cast summon three interlinked but idiosyncratically detailed slices of unfulfilled life… “ (Time Out)
“Mime – the spectrally convincing Buster Keaton kind – is an important element of 3 Dark Tales which also borrow heavily from dance, music, farce and more traditional dramatic forms to create a scattershot mixture…
Even though the emotional core is bleak, the four-strong cast still manage to squeeze a lot of slapstick humour out of the raw material. The tales may be of fear and death, but the mood is grotesquely celebratory…while the heart of the piece is basically pointing out that modern life is rubbish, Theatre O can take the source material and alchemise it into something beautiful.” (Sunday Herald)
“Five big stars for 3 Dark Tales…this company uses dance, music and text like no-one else, to create a unique theatrical experience that leaves a lasting impression.. not a syllable or inch of movement is wasted and every second of the ninety minute show counts.” (The List)
“Staged by a young, ridiculously agile company it reminds you why some people have a devout faith in theatre which relies on images rather than words….A sensory treat from start to finish.’ (The Daily Telegraph)
Program notes, February 2002. Commissioned by APA.