March to June 2011 | Introducing Colleen Murphy

BEATING HEART CADAVER

by Colleen Murphy

Sundays and Mondays, 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 April 2011

The UK premiere

Part of 'Introducing Colleen Murphy', a mini-season within a season as part of “In Their Place” – a three month season of work by women playwrights

Leona and Danny's young daughter, Amelia, perishes in a car crash. Paralysed in a car accident, Danny is spurned by his wife's harsh accusations as she clings helplessly to a balloon believed to contain the daughter's last breath. Enter Lola, a pathological grief councillor. Turbulent and daring, Murphy's writing ventures through dark emotional territory unearthing humour and forgiveness as Leona and Danny fight their way back to each other, and to life. Beating Heart Cadaver was shortlisted for Canada’s most prestigious literary award, the Governor General's Award for English Language Drama.

The three Sunday/Monday slots in the season are entirely devoted to introducing the UK to the work of one writer – multi-award-winning Canadian playwright, and our latest Playwright-in-Residence, Colleen Murphy – with a European premiere, a UK premiere and a world premiere of her work. This mini-season within a season marks Colleen’s UK debut.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Playwright Colleen Murphy was born in Quebec and grew up in Northern Ontario. Her plays include The December Man (L’homme de décembre), won the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, the CAA/Carol Bolt Award for Drama and the 2006 Enbridge playRites Award. The play premiered in February 2007 at Alberta Theatre Projects as part of their Festival of New Canadian Plays. It has also been seen at The Citadel, Edmonton, and at The Canadian Stage Company, Toronto, and translated into French and German; Beating Heart Cadaver (nominated for a 1999 Governor General’s Literary Award); The Piper, Down in Adoration Falling and All Other Destinations are Cancelled. In 2008, Murphy was shortlisted for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. She is currently working on Deliver Me (National Arts Centre), Armstrong's War (Banff Centre) and The Birthday Boy (Shaw Festival). She has twice won awards in the CBC Literary Competition. Colleen’s distinct, award-winning films have played in festivals around the world and include Out in the Cold, Girl with Dog, War Holes, Desire, Shoemaker, The Feeler and Putty Worm. Two of her plays have been seen as staged readings at the Finborough Theatre – The December Man (L’homme de décembre) in the first Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights in 2009, and Beating Heart Cadaver in 2010’s Vibrant – An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Director Anna Morrissey has predominantly worked as a movement director and choreographer in theatre, opera and circus. Her credits include My Dad's A Birdman (Young Vic), Dunsinane, Antony and Cleopatra, The Drunks, The Grain Store, The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, I’ll Be the Devil, Cordelia Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Comedy of Errors (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Bus Stop (New Vic Theatre), Rusalka (Finnish National Opera - Restaging), Hansel and Gretel (Opera North), Parklife (No Fit State Circus - Stockton Park Residency), Hangover Square (Finborough Theatre), 101 Dalmatians (Northampton Theatre Royal), The Giant (Royal Shakespeare Company and Hampstead Theatre), Dr Faustus (Resolution! At The Place) Restoration (Headlong Theatre), Mother Courage (English Touring Theatre), A Warwickshire Testimony, As You Like It, Macbeth (Bridge House Theatre), Timon of Athens (Royal Shakespeare Company and Cardboard Citizens), Taming of the Shrew (Creation Theatre Company), Richard III (Cambridge Arts Theatre), Hamlet (Clifford’s Tower, York), The Arab-Israeli Cookbook (Tricycle Theatre), Human Rites (Southwark Playhouse), Julius Caesar (Menier Chocolate Factory) and Tamburlaine the Great (Rose Theatre). Assistant Direction includes Caledonia (National Theatre of Scotland), The Barber of Seville, Manon Lescaut (Opera Holland Park), The Tempest (Bridge House Theatre, Warwick). As a director/devisor, Memories Cabaret (LiT Circus, Lisbon), Masque Arias (Royal Shakespeare Company, New Work Concert and Stratford River Festival), Fear and Wonder Project (Royal Shakespeare Company).

ABOUT THE ACTORS

Richard Atwill’s extensive credits include Captain Oates’ Left Sock and I Witness (The Finborough Theatre), The Roman Bath (Arcola and National Theatre of Bulgaria), Beyond The Pale (Southwark Playhouse), Coalition (Theatre 503), God In Ruins, Macbeth and The Big Lie (Royal Shakespeare Company), and Swing, Invisible Storms (Cock Tavern).

Tim Beckmann’s credits include The Philadelphia Story (The Old Vic), The Nature of Things (The Place), Laughing Wild (English Theatre of Frankfurt), Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Reduced Shakespeare Company at the Criterion Theatre). Film and TV credits include Hanna, Foster, Swinging with the Finkels, The Insiders, Ocean of Fear.

Jennifer Lee Jellicorse’s credits include Zadie's Shoes (Finborough Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Bath), Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival), Man and Boy (West End and National Tour), and many credits for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4, including Dream Astronomy, As Big As Life, Little Women and Tender Is The Night.

Maggie McCourt’s credits include After All These Years (Finborough Theatre), Evening Primrose (Sadler's Wells Theatre), Wild Wild Women (Orange Tree Theatre), The Trojan War Will Not Take Place, The Fawn and Lady in Waiting (National Theatre), The Glass Menagerie and Gigi (Theatre Royal Bath), Listen To The Wind (Oxford Playhouse and West End), A Day By The Sea (West End), Tiger At The Gates (West End), A Doll’s House (Lyric Hammersmith)

Mary Roscoe's credits include Aunt Dan and Lemon (Royal Court Theatre), Blithe Spirit (Queens Theatre, Hornchurch), Mother Courage (Shared Experience), Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Scottish Opera), Hunting Scenes in Lower Bavaria (Gate Theatre) and A Voyage Round My Father (Oxford Playhouse).

THE PRESS ON BEATING HEART CADAVER

"Beautifully moving. Wondrously humorous. In an extraordinary examination of the sudden and tragic death of a child, Murphy has managed to express the inexpressible." Jury Citation, Governor General's Award for English Language Drama

"Beautifully crafted… So staggeringly painful to watch that few will be able to bear it. Anyone who has lost a child would be torn apart the unvarnished emotions, while parents who do not already play host to 'what if' demons in their heads won't be able to avoid doing so in the future….As difficult as her play is to watch, Murphy has written a powerful, wrenching call to love while you can." Variety

"As the laughs gradually die away, giving in to pain and recognition, there is a wonderful parallel between Leona's and Danny's eventual acceptance of Amelia's death and our own dawning realization that Beating Heart Cadaver is serious stuff." The Globe and Mail

" Colleen Murphy tackles the subject with grace and toughness in her uncompromising new play….the play avoids sentimentality by exploring grief through dark humour.” Now Magazine