Who Do We Think We Are? (eBook)

On Being Visible

‘You made age beautiful and something to value and celebrate. This play is of huge value and relevance to people of all ages.’

Bruce Nixon, writer, on
Who Do We Think We Are?
National Theatre Studio, 2013.

A number of well-known older British actors including Ian McKellan, Harriet Walters and Julie Walters, to name but a few, have spoken out in recent years, deploring the dearth of opportunities for older actors. What a waste of their long years of experience and craftsmanship, and how out of synch with the increasing demographic shift in our population.

With people now living longer and leading more active lives, the need is surely even greater for older people to be represented on stage, and not just as people with mental or physical health issues, but as fully paid up members of the human race, with the desires and dreams, frustrations and joys that characterise the lives of people of all ages.

This was the dream behind the founding of Visible, a new company of older actors and theatre professionals, on a mission to create exciting, contemporary work that features older people with lives as complex and interesting as any other group of people across the age spectrum – older people who refuse to be invisible.

Biographies of the Visible Ensemble

Sue Lefton – Director

Born in London, Sue originally trained as a dancer, first at The Royal Ballet School and then at the Ballet Rambert, where she was taught by Ninette De Valois and Marie Rambert respectively. She went on to train as an actress at The Central School of Speech and Drama and L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. As a theatre director her many credits include: A Dolls House (Sue Lefton Productions, Time Out Drama award nomination), Blood Wedding, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, A Winters Tale and twelve other productions for Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Lady from the Sea (Bridewell Theatre), A Mad World My Masters (The Globe), Welcome to Ramallah (Arcola Theatre, with Adah Kay), and most recently a production of Peter Handke’s The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other (The Guildhall School of Music and Drama). As well as being a theatre director, Sue is widely recognised as one of the UK’s foremost movement directors, working on major stages both at home: The Royal National Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, Glyndebourne, and fifteen years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and abroad including: the Vienna State Opera, Opera Comique, Paris, The Metropolitan Opera, New York. Film credits as a movement director include: Elizabeth with Kate Blanchett, Pride and Prejudice with Gwyneth Paltrow and The Libertine with Johnny Depp. Sue is co-artistic director with Sonja Linden of Visible Theatre Ensemble.

Norma Cohen – Actor

Liverpool-born and Laban movement/dance trained, Norma worked with radical/experimental theatre companies based at Ovalhouse in the 70s/80s. As writer/performer, she founded Ship of Fools, touring Oy Vey, Fung Shway and Sympathetic Magic (King’s Head), Does it Come with Ketchup? (Rosemary Branch). Theatre includes: Hazel in DUSK (Catherine Willmore, Epping Forest), Pushkin’s The Queen of Spades (Max Hoehn, Arcola), Rozenmacher’s Requiem for a Friday Night (Daniel Goldman, Venezuelan Embassy), POP (Trilby James, Tristan Bates), 9.21 to Shrub Hill (New Diorama), Willy Russell’s One for the Road (Century), John Burrows’ The Last Cabaret (Albany Empire) & Son of a Gun (ICA/Sidewalk), Ken Campbell’s School for Clowns (Liverpool Everyman), A Nuclear Cabaret (Cunning Stunts, Tricycle), Rose Tremain’s Yoga Class (Monstrous Regiment), Shane Connaughton’s Sir is Winning (Pirate Jenny), Peter Flannery’s The Last Resort (John Caird), The Exception and the Rule (John Dove). Upcoming: film: The Fitzroy (Andrew Harmer, Dresden Pictures), Marriage (Katerina Curtis, Inventome Films); upcoming theatre: writer/performer: On the Brink (Rosemary Branch, 2015).

Jasmina Daniel – Actor

Anglo-Iranian Jasmina trained at LAMDA and worked extensively in theatre, television and film for 15 years, prior to working overseas as an actor, as a University lecturer in Taiwan and Grenada and as a Scuba diving instructor in Australia, Germany, Kenya and Martinique. In 1980, Jasmina was on the RGS Expedition to Pitcairn, later joining Operation Raleigh in Australia and Guyana. Now back in the UK, her recent theatre work includes The Last of the Duchess (Richard Eyre, Hampstead), The House of Bernarda Alba (Bijan Sheibani, Almeida), Pera Palas (Arcola) and many productions for the German company Interkultur. Also included are The Chair Women (Riverside Studios), As Time Goes By (Fiddler’s Elbow), Crocodile Seeking Refuge (Ice and Fire), Hard Places (Colchester and India) and a reading of Scorched (Braham Murray, Old Vic). Next January Jasmina will be in fellow Visible Norma’s play On the Brink in London.

Trevor Allan Davies – Actor

Canadian born, Trevor has worked as an actor, director, writer and musician in the UK and Canada. Since immigrating to Britain in 1976, he has appeared in many fringe, repertory and West End productions, and in film, television and radio. Work includes: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Trevor Nunn, Chichester Festival and Theatre Royal Haymarket), Women Beware Women (Lawrence Boswell, RSC), The Three Sisters (Mike Alfreds, Shared Experience), and KickAss2 (feature film). Most recently he appeared as Fennesz in Game of Thrones. He has taught the Alexander Technique in the UK, Canada and the USA since he completed training in 1991. He and his wife now grow and sell organic seasonal cut flowers in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire through their new company Gillyflower.

Ann Firbank – Actor

Brought up in India until the age of 12, Annie later trained at Old Vic Theatre School and RADA. She has worked extensively in nearly all the major theatres in the UK, most recently in The Crucible (Yael Farber, Old Vic), To Kill A Mockingbird (Max Webster, Manchester Royal Exchange), The Golden Dragon (Ramin Gray, ACT) and in five previous ACT productions directed by Nick Philippou. Other work includes: Three Sisters, An Ideal Husband, Separate Tables, Habitat (Manchester Royal Exchange), Macbeth (John Caird, Almeida), Becket (John Caird, Haymarket). For the RSC: The Hollow Crown, Comedy of Errors, Henry V (directed by Ed Hall), Much Ado About Nothing (Declan Donnellan, Cheek by Jowl), A Handful of Dust (Mike Alfreds, Shared Experience). The Passion (Bill Bryden, National Theatre), Julius Caesar (John Schlesinger, National Theatre), Mary Stuart (Nicki Kay, BAC), High Society (Richard Eyre, Victoria Palace), A Doll’s House (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh). Annie works frequently with Wonderful Beast (director Alys Kihl), a company committed to myths, legends and fairy tales.

Imola Gaspar – Actor

Imola is a Romanian (Transylvanian) born Hungarian actress. After she graduated from the Academy of Drama and Film, she went on to have an extensive film and theatre career. She played at the National Theatre of Romania before moving to Hungary in 1993 to work at the National Theatre of Hungary. She has worked with leading directors such as Romanian Viktor Frunza, Polish Andrzey Wajda and Hungarian Istvan Szabo. Her previous work includes Hamlet (Frunza, National Theatre Romania), Man for All Seasons, Tartuffe, The Wedding (Wajda, National Theatre Hungary), One Hundred Years of Solitude (National Theatre Romania), Blood Wedding (National Theatre Romania), Love and Intrigue. She performed in over 40 film roles in Europe and America Recent work includes one of the lead roles in the American feature film Action Words: Stand of Faith directed by Darwin Brooks. She has won 3 awards for best actor in Hungary, Romania and Portugal. Imola has been in the UK since 2008.

http://www.imolagaspar.com/

Andrew Hawkins – Actor

London-born Andrew Hawkins acted in the British premieres of Red Cross and Chicago by Sam Shepard. He went on to work in repertory at Bristol, Colchester, Ipswich, Edinburgh and Birmingham. Work with the RSC: Baal, The Suicide, Pericles and Nicholas Nickleby at the Aldwych and on Broadway; I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document… by Sonja Linden (Finborough), Time and the Conways (The Old Vic and Toronto), The Clandestine Marriage at the Albery; The Cenci (Lyric Hammersmith); Wedding Story (Soho Theatre); King Lear (Manchester Royal Exchange). In 2010, he performed his own show Naked, Live… and Never Again at the Pleasance, Edinburgh. Film credits include Chariots of Fire, The Object of Beauty and Shadowlands. TV includes Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders and the The Trial of the King Killers. With Agnes Treplin he collaborated in a performance work Flight at the National Gallery (live) and in Out of Our Heads at Shoreditch Town Hall (film).

Paul Humpoletz – Actor

Born in the UK of an Austrian father and Hungarian mother, Paul has worked in many regional theatres throughout the United Kingdom, as well as London and the West End. Previous work includes: Romeo and Juliet (Terry Hands, Theatre Clwd), The Tempest (Silviu Purcarete, Nottingham Playhouse and World Tour), A Doll’s...