Media Release March 2012 Belvoir and Force Majeure present Food By STEVE RODGERS Directors KATE CHAMPION & STEVE RODGERS Set & Costume Designer ANNA TREGLOAN Lighting Designer MARTIN LANGTHORNE Composer & Sound Designer EKREM MULAYIM Assistant to the Directors DANIELLE MICICH With FAYSSAL BAZZI KATE BOX EMMA JACKSON BELVOIR ST THEATRE | DOWNSTAIRS 26 APRIL – 20 MAY From the mind of theatrical marvel Steve Rodgers, Food is a story about obsession, sex and how we nourish ourselves. ‘Food, as the title suggests, is a play about food and cooking, but it’s also very much about sex, and how our relationship with both can define us, and occupy so much of our breathing time,’ Rodgers explains. ‘Food and sex are beautiful things – both necessary for our survival but potentially dangerous to our hearts… At their best – experienced with love they are the definition of communion.’ Rodgers will co-direct Food with acclaimed choreographer Kate Champion (Never Did Me Any Harm, The Age I’m In), Artistic Director of Force Majeure. This will be the first time Champion has directed a piece which has started its life as a script. Together Rogers and Champion will craft communion between the audience and the characters as they come together around the dining table. Force Majeure strives to break down boundaries between different art forms. Their productions’ are based around a collective of multi-disciplined artists including dancers, actors, writers, filmmakers and composers. The result is challenging and relevant work, combining striking imagery with theatricality to make immediate impact. Food will use elements and imagery from theatre and movement to complete an immersive experience in the intimate Downstairs Theatre. Elma (Kate Box) and Nancy (Emma Jackson) are sisters. Nancy left their remote, truck stop home many years ago; Elma stayed. Nancy chose chaos, freedom and sex; Elma stayed behind and cooked. Now Nancy has returned and their lives are disrupted by the arrival of Hakan Leventoglu (Fayssal Bazzi) ‘Hassan, son of Handsom’, a restless Turkish traveller. A play called Food would not be complete without the real thing. At each performance selected members of the audience will be served soup from Love Supreme, bread from Bourke Street Bakery and wine from Cellarmasters. For media information contact publicist Elly Michelle Clough [email protected] | + 61 (0)2 8396 6242 | 0407 163 921 Media Release March 2012 NOTES FOR EDITORS SEASON INFORMATION Dates 26 April to 20 May 2012 Previews Thursday 26 & Friday 27 April 2012 Opening night Saturday 28 April 2012 Times Tuesday 7pm | Wednesday to Friday 8.15pm | Saturday 2.15pm & 8.15pm | Sunday 5.15pm Tickets Full $42 | Seniors (excluding Fri/Sat evenings) $36 | Concession $32 Venue Belvoir St Theatre | 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills Bookings 02 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au BELVOIR INFORMATION The name of our company is Belvoir, not the Belvoir, Belvoir Theatre or Belvoir Theatre Company. Belvoir St Theatre is our venue. BIOGRAPHIES STEVE RODGERS Writer & Co-Director Steve’s play Ray’s Tempest was shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and nominated in the Best New Australian Work category of the Sydney Theatre Awards, following productions at both Belvoir and Melbourne Theatre Company. Steve’s second work Savage River played at the Griffin Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and the Tasmanian Theatre Company, and was also nominated for Best New Australian Work at the Sydney Theatre Awards. As well as writing for television, Steve has worked as an actor in film, theatre and television for the last 20 years. KATE CHAMPION Co-Director Kate has worked as director, choreographer, dancer, teacher and rehearsal director for various companies including Australian Dance Theatre, Belvoir, Legs on the Wall, Dance North, English National Opera, Opera Australia and the UK’s DV8 Physical Theatre. She has also created, performed and toured two critically acclaimed solo shows, Face Value and About Face. As Artistic Director of Force Majeure, Kate has directed Never Did Me Any Harm, Same, Same But Different, Tenebrae – Part 1 and 2, Already Elsewhere, The Age I’m In, Not In a Million Years and the film series The Sense of It. Kate has been awarded Helpmann, Green Room and Australian Dance Awards, as well as the Robert Helpmann Scholarship for Choreographic Excellence. FAYSSAL BAZZI Hakan Fayssal last appeared at Belvoir in Woyzeck (B Sharp/Arts Radar). Other recent theatre credits include I Only Came To Use The Phone (Darlinghurst Theatre); The Pigeons and Lord of the Flies (Griffin Theatre); Don Juan in Soho (New Theatre); Redemption and This Blasted Earth: A Christmas Musical, Poster Girl, KIJE and Sprout (Old Fitzroy Theatre); All the Blood and all the Water (Riverside Theatre); Cross Sections (Sydney Opera House) and To the Green Fields Beyond (Seymour Centre). His TV and film credits include Tough Nuts, Crownies, The Strip, East West 101, Double the Fist, Stupid Stupid Man, All Saints, Emulsion and Cedar Boys. KATE BOX Elma Kate’s most recent production for Belvoir was The Business. Other theatre credits include 7 Blowjobs (B Sharp); Knives in Hens (Malthouse Theatre); The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Doubt (Sydney Theatre Company); Tender (Griffin Theatre Company); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bell Shakespeare); A Clockwork Forest, 4:48 Psychosis (Brink); I’ve Got the Shakes (Darlingurst Theatre); Attempts on Her Life and Triple Threat (State Theatre Company of South Australia). Kate’s television credits include Rake, Offspring, My Place, Tripping Over, All Saints and Small Claims. Kate has also appeared in the feature films Random 8, Oranges and Sunshine and The Black Balloon. Kate has been a proud member of Actors Equity since 2003. EMMA JACKSON Nancy Emma’s career has spanned theatre, film and TV since her graduation from NIDA. She was last seen on stage at Belvoir in Fool For Love (B Sharp/Savage Productions). Other credits include Nothing Personal and Let the Sunshine (Ensemble Theatre); Dead Man's Cellphone (Melbourne Theatre Company); and Stoning Mary (Griffin Theatre). Emma won the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship in 2006 and relocated to New York to train with the SITI Co and intern with The Wooster Group. In the US, Emma appeared in The Bird, Reader, Windows and Bed (One Year Lease Theatre Company, New York); and C4 The Chekhov Project (Prospect Theatre, New York). She also performed in Reasonable Doubt (Theatre Tours International) in London and at the Edinburgh Festival. For media information contact publicist Elly Michelle Clough [email protected] | + 61 (0)2 8396 6242 | 0407 163 921 .