View Proposal
Production Type: Mainterm
Season: Term Time 10/11
Show Details
Show Name: Taking Sides
Author: Ronald Harwood
Cast Male: 4
Cast Female: 2
Approx Running Time: 1hr 30min
Preferred Week:
Team
Producer: Louisa Casson
Director: Dasha Dubovitskaya
Technical Manager: Bryn Jones
Stage Manager: Alex Engel
Blurbs
Publicity Blurb: A fierce conflict between music and politics, artistic responsibility and base survival instincts, culture and power set in the ruins of postwar Berlin.
Proposal Blurb: Berlin, 1946. Major Steve Arnold, of the American occupation force, is an official involved in "de-nazification" investigations. He was present at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Wilhelm Furtwaengler, as the most inspired and renowned conductor of the Third Reich, is the perfect target for interrogation. All he ever wanted to be involved in was music.
"Taking Sides" is an extremely intense and moving play, with fantastic dialogue and frequent flashes of deliciously dark humour. With the action revolving around Furtwaengler's interrogation process (a real historical event), it addresses issues as relevant and prominent today as they were in 1946, and, indeed, for as long as society has existed. Can an art really be entirely separate to politics? How far away from the real world can you let your creativity take you? Can we ever judge those who had to make difficult decisions in difficult times if we didn't go through the same hell they did? Is music, and art in general, what defines us as human race, or is it an empty word when it comes to struggling for basic survival amidst war, terror and destruction? Ronald Harwood, who may be familiar to some as the author of the screenplay for "The Pianist", brings all of the above together in a truly captivating and thought-provoking script.
The production would provide very exciting opportunities for both actors (all 6 decently-sized roles are enviable in their depth), and techies, set builders and costumers (we would aim to recreate an apocalyptic landscape on Bedlam stage).
Requires Rights: Yes
Rights Available: Yes
Budget
Royalties: £250
Publicity: £225
Tech: £100
Set: £250
Costume: £50
Props: £20
Admin: £12
Contingency: £90.70
Total Budget: £997.70
From EUTC: £850.00
From other sources: £147.70
Time Submitted: Wed 17th Mar '10 at 13:45:20
Approved By: Fran Walker