Vanishing Point (Theatre Company)
Encyclopedia
Vanishing Point Theatre company was founded in 1999 by Matthew Lenton. It makes theatre that is modern, visually dazzling and technically stunning. Its themes are often darkly comic and surreal, combining a childish, dreamlike fairy tale feel with adult nightmarish stories.

Vanishing Point's work has toured across the UK and, increasingly, internationally. It has toured to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

 and Macedonia, with work including an adaptation of Maeterlinck's Les Aveugles, a wordless show Invisible Man, Lost Ones, Subway and Little Otik.

It receives funding from the Scottish Arts Council
Scottish Arts Council
The Scottish Arts Council is a Scottish public body that distributes funding from the Scottish Government, and is the leading national organisation for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland...

 (SAC), the Lottery and the Glasgow City Council. It has launched an initiative, Space 11, aiming to encourage collaboration between young arts organisations in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, by providing them with office space and workshops in order to enhance business skills and create more time for making work.

Contact no: 00 44 (0)141 353 1315

History

Formed in 1999 in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 by graduates of the University of Glasgow. Its first production was an adaptation of Les Aveugles (The Blind) by Maurice Maeterlinck, performed in total darkness. The piece was performed at BAC in London in a season entitled Playing in the Dark. The first few works were formative but the company really found its voice in 2004 with Lost Ones, a surreal show concerning a man, a murder on a mountain, the little creatures who are smuggling things out of him years later and a void on the other side of the skirting board. Lost Ones was extremely successful and toured internationally. Since then the company has created the shows Mancub (written by Douglas Maxwell), Subway (a collaboration with a group of musicians from Kosovo) and Little Otik (adapted from the film by Jan Svankmajer). The company has co-produced with The Soho Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, The Citizens Theatre and The National Theatre of Scotland.

Typically the work is characterized by a theatrical yet filmic, extremely visual style and by dark, semi-surreal themes. It is created through a process it calls collective creation led by Matthew Lenton, but always involving a range of performers, designers, sound artists, video artists and musicians.

Severine Wyper
General Manager

Eleanor Scott
Eleanor Scott
Dr Eleanor Scott is a Scottish politician. She is a former Scottish Green Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Highlands and Islands.-Background and career:...


Operations Manager

Sandy Grierson
Performer

Kai Fischer
Kai Fischer
Kai Fischer is a German film actress. She has appeared in 54 films between 1955 and 1999.-Selected filmography:* Derrick - Season 5, Episode 10: "Der Spitzel" * The Serpent's Egg * Escape from East Berlin...


Set and Lighting Designer

Alasdair Macrae
Musical Director/Performer

Artistic Directors

Matthew Lenton founded Vanishing Point Theatre company in 1999 and since then
has directed or co-directed all of the company’s productions. Matthew Lenton is also a freelance director.

Notable Guest Actors

Sandy Grierson is an artistic associate of Vanishing Point and has collaborated with the company on at least three shows, Lost Ones, Subway and Little Otik. In addition to his association with Vanishing Point he is a distinguished theatre actor having worked with companies across the Uk and in Europe.

Productions

  • Blackout
  • A Brief History of Time, based upon Stephen Hawking's book
  • Glimpse
  • Home Hindrance
  • Invisible Man
    Invisible Man
    Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published during his lifetime . It won him the National Book Award in 1953...

  • Last Stand
    Last stand
    Last stand is a loose military term used to describe a body of troops holding a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds. The defensive force usually takes very heavy casualties or is completely destroyed, as happened in "Custer's Last Stand" at the Battle of Little Big HornBryan Perrett...

  • Little Otik
    Little Otik
    Little Otik , also known as Greedy Guts, is a 2000 Czech film by Jan Švankmajer and Eva Švankmajerová. Based on the folktale "Otesánek" by K J Erben, the film is a comedic live action, stop motion-animated feature film set mainly in an apartment building in the Czech Republic.The film uses the...

    , Jan Švankmajer
    Jan Švankmajer
    Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.- Life and career :Jan...

    's cult Czech
    Czech Republic
    The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

     film is being transformed into a large scale stage adaptation, in partnership with National Theatre of Scotland
    National Theatre of Scotland
    The National Theatre of Scotland is a theatre company established in February 2006. The company performs in a wide range of venues including theatres, halls and found spaces across Scotland....

    , touring this spring 2008.
  • Lost Ones
  • Mancub, adapted from The Flight of the Cassowary by John LeVert
  • The Sightless
  • Stars Beneath The Sea, based upon Trevor Norton's book
  • Subway, a dystopian science fiction thriller
  • Interiors
  • The Beggar's Opera
    The Beggar's Opera
    The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...


Subway (2007)

A co-production with The Tron Theatre Glasgow, commissioned by The Lyric Hammersmith and supported by NTS Workshop. A major international collaboration between Vanishing Point and an extraordinary seven-piece band from Kosovo.

‘Some people represent authority without ever possessing any of their own’

(Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

)

The future. Patrick Dugan, or Scruggs to his friends, returns to his home city. He is here to have a proper adult conversation with his father, but finds himself in a world he no longer recognises. Things have changed: the neighbourhood, the people, even Porters Bar. The rich are taking over, the locals retreating into the shadows. But worst of all, Scrugg’s dad has gone missing and shacked up in the notorious ghetto Platinum Point. As tensions rise in the city and the wheels of underground revolution begin to turn, Scruggs begins a dark, comical, musical adventure to reconcile himself with his father.

Subway is a journey through a landscape a few years from now, a show about small acts of rebellion and where they lead.

Little Otik (2008)

A Vanishing Point and National Theatre of Scotland
National Theatre of Scotland
The National Theatre of Scotland is a theatre company established in February 2006. The company performs in a wide range of venues including theatres, halls and found spaces across Scotland....

 co-production,
in association with the Citizens Theatre. A couple, desperate but unable to start a family, develop an intense relationship with a tree stump carved to look like a baby. Believing it to be real, gradually their obsession brings the stump of wood to life. As the fixation grows, so does the ‘baby’ along with its monstrous appetite. Not content with baby food, it eats the family cat and then the postman. Things get stranger when the social worker arrives to see what’s going on. Taken from the wonderfully twisted imagination of cult Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer, Little Otik combines dark humour, surreal horror and an unnerving but tender family story.

Interiors (2009)

A co-production with Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, Mercadante Teatro Stabile di Napoli and Traverse Theatre in association with Lyric Hammersmith and Tron Theatre. Interiors was developed with the support of the National Theatre Studio. Behind a window, in a cosy room, a group of friends gather for a meal. The lamps are on, everyone is happy. Talk begins and stories unfold around the table, stories about the living and the dead, about missing necklaces and what happens when people get hungry. Secrets emerge. Lies are exposed. Outside someone is watching. This production is inspired by Nobel Prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck’s astonishing play, Interior. Utterly hypnotic, deeply mysterious and powerfully intense, Interiors is about sounds, silence, the path of fate and the darkness outside the window.

The Beggar's Opera (2009)

A co-production with Royal Lyceum Theatre
Royal Lyceum Theatre
The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658 seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by architect C. J. Phipps at a cost of UK£17,000 on behalf...

, Edinburgh and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. In association with Tramway. A man who loves money, might as well be contented with one guinea, as I with one woman. The future’s here. It’s a brave new world, but wherever there’s a world there’s an underworld: muggers, smugglers, prostitutes, thieves. Nobody plays by the rules, least of all MacHeath – bandit, hedonist, superhero to some, villain to others. In a world of imitators and wannabes, he’s the genuine article. But where he goes, trouble is sure to follow. MacHeath has married Polly Peachum. But he fancies Lucy Lockit. Lucy Lockit fancies MacHeath, but Polly doesn’t want to share. Mr Peachum wants MacHeath’s head, so does Mr Lockit. And the law. With so many enemies, it’s hard to tell who your friends are. John Gay’s 18th century play, The Beggar’s Opera has been reconfigured in to our not too distant future: A dark, seedy, absurd, visually rich and cruelly comic co-production from Vanishing Poibt, The Royal Lyceum and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, in association with Tramway. Featuring brand new live music from Alasdair Macrae and A Band Called Quinn
A Band Called Quinn
A Band Called Quinn are an electronic indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. Founder members Bal Cooke and Louise Quinn met whilst working for a performance art company in Glasgow. Other long term members are Robert Henderson and Steven Westwater...

, cutting edge production design and a large cast of leading performers.

Awards

  • Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS)
Lost Ones, 2004, Best Technical Presentation, Best Design
Mancub, 2005, Best Children's Show
Subway, 2007, Best Music
Interiors, 2009, Best Ensemble
Interiors, 2009, Matthew Lenton, Best Director
Interiors, 2009, Best Production
  • Scotsman Fringe First Awards
Subway, 2007
  • Total Theatre Awards
Subway, 2007, Best Original Work by a Collective/Ensemble

Space 11

Since September 2004 Vanishing Point has been running a Shared Resources Project with support from Scottish Arts Council Lottery and Glasgow City Council.

The purpose of the project is to maximise the amount of time we all spend doing what is really important: making adventurous, ambitious new theatre for a new generation of audiences. The project has so far been immensely successful and we hope it will continue long into the future.

The first four companies to benefit from this initiative were ek Performance (Pamela Carter), Fire Exit Limited (David Leddy), Random Accomplice (led by Julie Brown and Johnny McKnight) and Vox Motus (led by Jamie Harrison and Candice Edmunds). We have since worked with Stammer Productions (led by Colette Sadler), Never Did Nothing (led by Nick Underwood), Company Chordelia (led by Kally Lloyd-Jones), Glas(s) Performance (led by Tashi Gore and Jess Thorpe) and SeenUnSeen (led by Neil Doherty).

This project provides these companies with comprehensive office resources, and a creative environment in which experience, advice and information can be shared by all companies involved. Since December 2006 a consultancy program has been initiated and incorporated into the scheme with Di Robson from DREAM. This allows companies to focus on specific areas of need and benefit from the expertise of an individual advisor.

See also

  • Edinburgh Festival Fringe
  • National Theatre of Scotland
    National Theatre of Scotland
    The National Theatre of Scotland is a theatre company established in February 2006. The company performs in a wide range of venues including theatres, halls and found spaces across Scotland....

    , partnership
  • Scottish Arts Council
    Scottish Arts Council
    The Scottish Arts Council is a Scottish public body that distributes funding from the Scottish Government, and is the leading national organisation for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland...

    , sponsor
  • List of Total Theatre Award winners
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