PRESS RELEASE: THEATRE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Strawberry Vale Productions presents Simple8’s
The Living Unknown Soldier
Based on Le Soldat Inconnu Vivant by Jean-Yves le Naour
London’s Premiere Sustainable Theatre Production
On the 90th anniversary of the end of First World War, ‘brave young company’ (Evening Standard) Simple8 present their second production: The Living Unknown Soldier. It follows their 2006 critically acclaimed sell-out success Les Enfants Du
Paradis (Arcola).
France, 1918. The Great War has ended. Thousands are missing.
Relatives are desperately seeking their loved ones as men return from
the front. A soldier is found wandering a station platform. With no
knowledge of his identity, or the country he has been defending, he is
diagnosed with amnesia and committed to an asylum. Saved from
death but exiled from life he faces a no-man’s land once more.
As news spreads across the country, families flock to him in search of
the fathers, brothers, husbands and sons who may never come home.
This one man becomes a symbol for a generation ripped apart by war
- a living unknown soldier.
Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome back Simple8 and Strawberry Vale Productions after the total success of Les Enfants du Paradis, the sell-out Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky and our first West End transfer, Mojo Mickybo by Owen McCafferty.”
The Living Unknown Soldier is based on Le Soldat Inconnu Vivant by Jean-Yves Le Naour. It explores the fine line between memory and imagination and serves as a timely reminder of the fallout from war. Created using Le Naour’s book, the original source material and the company’s own imagination the result is a war story, a ghost
story, an absurd comedy and a chilling tragedy where the ensemble will rise from a no-man’s land of mud to imagine and remember the life of the living unknown soldier.
Summer 2007 saw the launch of Arcola Energy – a bold and unique venture to make Arcola the world’s first ‘carbon neutral’ theatre. To launch Phase II, Arcola Theatre is joining forces with us to try to create London’s premiere ecologically sustainable theatre production. It links directly to the Sustainable Theatre Initiative “Greening London Theatre”, launched in October by London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Our ambition is to set a precedent and promote ecological and ethical standards in the industry.
PRESS NIGHT 15 FEBRUARY 2008.