A new international production from the team behind the multi-award winning Interiors.

“We are interested in how action, rather than words, tells stories. Our work is visual, evocative and impressionistic.” Vanishing Point

A companion piece to the multi-award winning Interiors, Saturday Night builds on director Matthew Lenton’s growing body of international theatre work. The piece will premiere in Portugal in September 2011 with performances in the UK in October.

The origins of Saturday Night lie in a development period in Porto as part of the Odesseia project earlier this year with an international cast including a number of the actors Lenton worked with last year during the École des Maîtres – a series of international workshops Lenton led in Udine, Naples, Brussels, Lisbon and Reims during Autumn 2010. Over the summer the cast will come together with Lenton in Scotland to refine the piece. Saturday Night will have its Premiere at Teatro Nacional São João, Porto on 15 September 2011 with the UK Premiere at Tramway on 8 October. For full performance schedule see Notes for Editors.

Vanishing Point’s productions begin with a curiosity – a particular idea or a story to be explored. They create dream worlds with echoes of our own existence, our own conflicts and battles, and pose questions, but provide no easy answers. Saturday Night explores the environments we create for ourselves and call home, the dreams we build together, the secrets we keep from each other, and the creeping force of nature which lies just beyond the window. As with Interiors, words are stripped away with the visual imagery driving the drama forward.

“One of the main inspirations for Saturday Night comes from the photographs of Gregory Crewdson, “ says Lenton. “When we look at a photograph, we read deeply into a single image, imagining the story the photograph tells. We bring our imagination to bear upon it. Who are the protagonists? What are they doing there? Is the relationship between them friendly or dangerous? There is a mystery, which we have to solve. We are really active ‘voyeurs’, reading meaning into the intricate details and clues the image provides.”

Winner of four prestigious CATS Awards in 2009, including Best Production, Interiors was the first manifestation of Lenton’s particular interpretation of international theatre: one that does not simply consist in making work to tour overseas, but puts international collaboration at the very heart of the

creative process. For this innovative piece he brought together artists from different countries and cultures, and out of an intensive process of improvisation emerged a production that transcended national boundaries. Recognising that the greatest barrier to multi-national collaboration in Europe is language in Interiors Lenton created the 21st century equivalent of a silent movie with focus on action not text. In Saturday Night he takes the approach forward with a cast drawn from three contrasting nations – Belgium, Portugal and Scotland. For full cast and company information see Notes for Editors. In 2012 Vanishing Point will take this international creative process further forward in a new piece inspired by Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. The work will be staged at a number of leading European festivals and venues.

Saturday Night is co-produced by Vanishing Point (Glasgow), Teatro Nacional São João (Porto), Centro Cultural Vila Flor – Teatro Oficina (Guimarães), São Luiz Teatro Municipal (Lisbon) and Tramway (Glasgow) in association with Compagnia Teatrale Europea

26 & 27 October 2011 at 20:00, Eden Court, Inverness, UK, www.eden-court.co.uk

Source: New Century PR