大象传媒

Listen to an interview with the director Alan C Wilson:

Stimpson has earned critical acclaim for his varied and complex writing style which has been featured in a range of pieces on both stage and screen.

He is also known for being the youngest writer on The Archers, penning more than 100 episodes and injecting his inquisitive style which is evident throughout One Nineteen.

The production centres around the East coast of England and is loosely based on the events of the 1953 floods, brought into the modern day in order to explore and critique the human fascination with objectifying disaster.

Claire Farrington (Mother)

One Nineteen was chosen to feature as part of the Pulse Festival on recommendation from Felixstowe based theatre producer Liz Burton, who had been impressed with its local connections and passionate reflection on green issues.

The New Wolsey Studio in Ipswich, with its wooden beams and small stage, formed an ideal hosting point for the production with its minimalist set and fast moving narrative, performed by a cast of five whose lives become increasingly intertwined.

From the opening scenes the audience are made aware that addressing the media's relationship with disaster and how this impinges on disaster victims is key to the production, as the mother (played by Claire Farrington) addresses the waiting media about the loss of her three children in the flood.

Quickly other 'victims' come to the fore with their own stories to tell, all clambering for media attention.

The play has several narratives running throughout, the mother looking for her children, the over zealous journalist seeking the story, the self-promoting government minister, the opportunist musician who can't resist the chance to release the ultimate charity single and of course the political activist.

Director Alan C Wilson stepped into the role of the activist at short notice due to the sad loss of an actor due to ill health.

The activist was a narrator, giving the production a grounding which at points could have been lost due to the fast pace and crossing of narratives.

This character presents us with the facts about what we are doing to the planet, staging his own protest which doesn't entirely go to plan, but highlights the struggle often experienced by those trying to campaign for awareness of environmental issues.

As the piece unfolds we learn more about each of our central characters' lives and the love-hate relationships that they have with the media, as the mother battles to find her children, who have become victims of intense media and governmental branding.

While the narrative is quite fast based you have time to form a real relationship with these characters and the extremely intelligent writing allows any questions you have about their motivations to be answered very quickly.

Claire Farrington (Mother)

While the mother is both ridiculed and revered by the media and the sympathetic public, queuing to offer condolences to the disaster victims, her ultimate profit from disaster, alongside the questions placed on her own character suggest startling relations to the case of Shannon Matthews which drew so much media attention.

Net Curtains, the theatre company behind One Nineteen, are continuing to work on the production though if you didn't know it was a work-in-development, you wouldn't feel in any way short changed.

The promise of a hard hitting political and environmentally conscious production was fully delivered and the audience was left with a few interesting questions to ponder on.

Following the Pulse performance One Nineteen has been invited to the Climate Forum 2008 in Camden.

The Pulse box office is on 01473 295900 and you can check out what's on by visiting the website.