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SFL in The West End

In 2016 SFL’s Theatre Projects Department continued to grow with a busy summer of shows, projects and productions

In July SFL provided a theatre package deal for Hartshorn – Hooks production of “Rotterdam” by award nominated playwright Jon Brittain at Trafalgar Studios, Directed by Donnacadh O’Briain.

“Smartly observed and very funny… warm and emotionally intelligent”

★★★★ Evening Standard

“Brittain’s play is another reminder – warm, witty and wise – of the stupidity of thinking that there are only two genders”

★★★★ Time Out

For Rotterdam, SFL provided Sound Design from in house Composer and Sound Designer, Keegan Curran; full set build solution, recreating Ellan Parry’s incredible and ingenious design from plans to installation; as well as providing supporting rigging for the LX department and full sound hires; putting in a small but intricate D&B rig including E3’s.

Rotterdam had a very successful run at Trafalgar Studios with 4 & 5 * reviews across the board, and will hopefully have a future life, as it is a production dealing with real life current issues and our response to them.

 

SFL in Edinburgh

 This year our in house sound designer, Keegan Curran also headed to the Edinburgh fringe festival two support two shows as both Sound Designer and AV Designer.

“Infinity Pool” by Award winning playwright Bea Roberts (writer of “Then Come The Night Jars”) directed by Nik Partridge.

Infinity Pool is a play with no actors, a modern retelling of Madam Bovary, but set in a trading estate in Plymouth. As an experiment of whether you could have a play with no actors and also what it would like to recreate the experience of reading a book, thus the show is told almost entirely through sound design, creating soundscapes through the music tastes of our lead, Emma Barnicott, and through the sounds of her everyday life whether that be chatting around the photocopier or that walk to her safe place in the warehouse whilst listening to Beyonce.

The Show had 19 SOLD OUT SHOWS at a 90 seat theatre which means it played to around 2000 people over the course of the festival! Considering the average Fringe audience is reputed to be 6 people, that’s really an achievement and it also got nominated for a total theatre award

 

The versatile set switches from flat, to office, to nightclub with the aid of moved chairs and props. The square shelving and printed walls, featuring images of the titular city, suggest the generic anonymity of a backpacker’s flat, reminding us that Alice’s seven year stay in Rotterdam was only meant to be temporary. Combined with Keegans pop soundtrack this emphasises the state of flux everyone in the play is in, with Adrian’s transitioning process and Alice’s attempts to adjust. Josh (Ed Eales-White) comments on this when he refers to Rotterdam’s status as a port city, with everyone either arriving or leaving, but never staying. British theatre.com