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PRESS SECTION
16.7.03: SECOND PRESS RELEASE FOR THE PRINCIPLE OF MOTION
The Principle of Motion publicity image. Credit Janet Baker and Ed Shinton (click image to see it full size)
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Press Release Number 2: July 2003.
Activated Image presents
The Principle of Motion
Fringe First nominees present the life story of an automaton
"***** A reminder that real theatre isn't dead" Metro on The Straight Man (2002)
"A polish that is rare out here on the Fringe" Observer on Latin! (2002)
"Expect to hear much more of this company" Three Weeks on Amy Evans' Strike (2001)
"One of the most pleasurable aspects of the annual mayhem that is the Edinburgh Fringe is watching the emergence of a truly outstanding young theatre company. 2002 saw the deserved rise to prominence of Activated Image under artistic director Adam Barnard" Evening Standard
Acclaimed theatre company Activated Image are delighted to present their sixth Edinburgh Fringe production - a frenetic tale of automata and artificial intelligence, genius inventions and invented genius.
Vienna, 1770. Wolfgang von Kempelen is about to change the course of history. He unveils his latest creation before Empress Maria Theresa. A wooden box. Behind the box, a wooden man in Turkish robes. On top of the box a chessboard. Kempelen winds his contraption and an assembly of cogs, wheels and levers judders to life. The Turk is born.
250 years later, one man's dream becomes another man's obsession. It's 1939, and brilliant young mathematician Alan Turing is recruited to the intelligence centre at Bletchley Park to help break the German Enigma code. While there, he stumbles upon an even greater mystery. Blueprints for a chess-playing automaton that seemed to possess the ability to think for itself. Was the first intelligent machine lost to history? Or were there strings attached?
Inspired by the bestselling book and BBC Radio Four series The Mechanical Turk (by Telegraph and Economist writer Tom Standage), this playful, physically-charged ensemble performance blends the extraordinary life and legacy of a chess-playing automaton with the prescience - and pain - of one of Britain's finest minds.
Activated Image's previous productions include the revival of Stephen Fry's Latin! which played Edinburgh's Gilded Balloon, transferring to the New End Theatre, London, and, earlier this year, the King's Head Theatre, London. The company has produced two acclaimed new dramas at the Fringe, 2002's The Straight Man which transfers to the King's Head next year, and the Fringe First-nominated Amy Evans' Strike ("One of the gems of 2001" The List).
For more information: 07850 217 399 or info@activated.co.uk - Images: www.activated.co.uk/press
EDINBURGH FRINGE LISTINGS
Activated Image: The Principle of Motion.
Conceived and directed by Adam Barnard. Design: Vicki Fifield. Sound and music: Peter Michaels. Cast: Beatrice Curnew, John Hickey, Simon Masterton, Rachel Rose Reid, John Sheerman, Rachel Sternberg. Devised by the company.
Smirnoff Underbelly ÔIron Belly'. July 31 to August 24 (not 12) @ 4.10pm (ends 5.35pm).
Tickets £7.50 - £9.50 (previews Jul 31, Aug 1: £4). Box Office: 0870 745 3083 World premiere.
Smirnoff is Underbelly's sponsor and not the sponsor of any of the shows.
Press Release Number 1: June 2003 Download press release number 1 as a Word Doc
Activated Image presents
The Principle of Motion
"A truly outstanding young theatre company" Evening Standard
"***** A reminder that real theatre isn't dead" Metro
"Expect to hear much more of this company" Three Weeks
It baffled everyone it met. All over Europe, the same question. Can a machine really think?
It's 1770 and Wolfgang von Kempelen is about to change the course of history. At the court of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria-Hungary, the young inventor wheels out a box, behind which sits a wooden man dressed in Turkish robes. On top of the box, a chessboard.
A challenger steps forward. He inspects the box. No hidden wires, no hidden player. Nothing more than meets the eye. Kempelen winds up his strange creation, and an assembly of cogs, wheels and levers judders to life. The Turk - as the automaton is dubbed - proceeds to claim his first of many victims on the battlefield of the human mind.
Inspired by the bestselling book and BBC Radio Four series The Mechanical Turk (by Telegraph and Economist writer Tom Standage), Fringe First nominees Activated Image bring an extraordinary true story to the stage. This vivid, physically-charged ensemble performance charts the Turk's colourful journey across Europe - the legendary men and women whose lives it touched, the loneliness and isolation it forced on its creator, and the mind-shattering new thinking about the relationship between man and machine it left in its wake.
Activated Image's previous productions include the revival of Stephen Fry's Latin! which played Edinburgh's Gilded Balloon, transferring to the New End Theatre and, earlier this year, the King's Head Theatre. The company has produced two acclaimed new dramas at the Fringe, 2002's The Straight Man which transfers to the King's Head next year, and the Fringe First-nominated Amy Evans' Strike ("One of the gems of 2001" The List).
For more information: 07850 217 399 or info@activated.co.uk ... Images as available on this page.
EDINBURGH FRINGE LISTINGS Activated Image: The Principle of Motion. Conceived and directed by Adam Barnard. Devised by the company. Smirnoff Underbelly 'Iron Belly'. July 31 to August 24 (not 12) @ 4.10pm (ends 5.35pm). Tickets £7.50 - £9.50 (previews Jul 31, Aug 1: £4). Box Office: 0870 745 3083
Smirnoff is Underbelly's sponsor and not the sponsor of any of the shows
click to view press release and photos:
Latin Press Release (pdf - 90 KB)
Photos show MARK FARRELLY as young Latin master Dominic Clarke and DAVID BENSON as Senior Master Herbert Brookshaw. CREDIT FOR ALL PHOTOS IS JANET BAKER.
Latin Photos (colour JPEGs):
Dominic Clarke
on Swing (poster image) - 370 KB
Performance shot 1 (face to face) - 700 KB
Performance shot 2 (dancing with rose) - 650 KB
(if these images fail to appear, or to save them to disk, try right-clicking
(pc) or click-and-holding (mac) on the links and choosing 'save target as' or
'download link to disk')
Official
Press Release (plain text version) - Latin! at the King's Head
April 2003
KWPR PRESS RELEASE
Pluto Productions and Activated Image present
STEPHEN FRY's
LATIN!
or,Tobacco and Boys
directed by ADAM BARNARD
with DAVID BENSON and MARK FARRELLY
KING 'S HEAD THEATRE 115 Upper Street,Islington,London,N1 BOX OFFICE 020 7226 1916
Tuesday 15 April -Sunday 4 May 2003
18 performances only
Tuesday -Saturday 9.30pm (ends 10.30pm)Sun mat 5.30pm
£12.50 /£10.00 concessions call box office for information on special offers.
PRESS NIGHT:THURSDAY 17 APRIL AT 9.30PM
'An assured revival of a very funny,if flagrantly disturbing play... as provocative today as it was 22 years ago ' Dominic Cavendish The Daily Telegraph
'Boys who rub me up the wrong way come to a sticky end!' Stephen Fry
In Chartham Park Preparatory School dark secrets lurk behind the facade of boiled cabbage and cricket whites. Dominic Clarke, an ambitious young Latin master, has designs on both the headmastership and a boy called Cartwright. Cantakerous senior master Herbert Brookshaw has suspicions - and his own way of getting to the bottom of things. Will it all end in amo,amas,a mess?
Stephen Fry's only stageplay is as colourful,outrageous and tooth-gnashingly brilliant as you would expect. This highly acclaimed revival delighted packed houses at the Edinburgh Fringe and Hampstead's New End Theatre last year. Fry wrote his first version of Latin! aged 22, as a Cambridge undergraduate. At the 1980 Edinburgh Festival it won him a coveted Fringe First and led to his long standing collaboration with Hugh Laurie. Activated Image's sharp and stylish revival presents the play for a new generation and asks: what do Chartham Park's values of 'religion,sex and public school life' mean to us now??
The cast features DAVID BENSON as Herbert Brookshaw.Benson is best known for his acclaimed one-man shows about Kenneth Williams (the Fringe First-winning Think No Evil of Us) and Frankie Howerd (To Be Frank) and Mourning Glory, a sardonic examination of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. He played Noel Coward in the BBC sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart. MARK FARRELLY (who originated the role of Dominic in Edinburgh) played both lead roles in A Tale of Two Cities at the 2001 Fringe,the Camden People's Theatre and the Theatre de Nesle, Paris. He also appeared in Body and Soul, the inaugural production of the John Caird Company, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, and took the lead role in Activated Image's The Straight Man at the Fringe 2002. Mark currently appears in Ibsen's An Enemy of the People at the Union Theatre.
Director ADAM BARNARD's previous work includes the Fringe First award-nominated Amy Evans' Strike ('one of the gems of 2001' - The List) and The Straight Man (5 stars 'directed with a precision that leaves the competition floundering...a reminder that real theatre isn't dead' - Metro), also at Edinburgh 2002. Adam is devising a new show The Principle of Motion, the life story of an 18th century automaton, to be premiered at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
For further information please contact KEVIN WILSON or MARK WHITE at KWPR on 020 7721 7621
'Adam Barnard's slick production is one of the sharpest and best acted hours of theatre I have sat through this year. Mark Farrelly has the audience hanging on his every acerbic word' Fiona Mountford Evening Standard
CRITICS' CHOICE 'Cringingly well-observed with a biting line in sarcasm' The Independent
**** 'Outrageously good stuff' The Daily Mail
'These actors are a pleasure to watch;their characterisation is complete and compelling,their every movement contributing to the play. Not only that,but when the big comic moments come, they hit their notes perfectly' The Observer
Kevin Wilson Public
Relations
Studio 310 · The Chandlery · 50 Westminster Bridge Road ·
London SE1 7QY
Telephone: 020 7721 7621 · Fax: 020 7721 7640 · e-mail: KWshout@aol.com
· www.kwpr.co.uk
links:
www.activated.co.uk | Company Profiles | Latin! | www.thinknoevil.com
