Last Night in Europe
Coast to Coast @ Norwich Arts Centre
29th March 2019
'Empires'
Written by Zoe Callow
Director - Rohan Gotobed
Performer - Priya Patel Appleby
'The Half-Naked Civil Servant'
Writer/Director - Tom Rowntree
Co-Director - Louis Williams
Performer - Joe Swift
'Baggage'
Writer - Freya Bennett
Director - Charlie Collins
Performer - Alex Hayes
'48/52'
Writer - Steve Waters
Performer - Michael Bernardin
'Scapegoat'
Writer/Director - Molly Naylor
Performer - Thomas Guttridge
'The Break-Up'
Writer - James McDermott
Director - Charles Douglas
Performer - Liam Purshouse
Last Night in Europe was a unique event that took over the NAC for what was originally marked as 'Brexit Day'.
I commissioned six new monologues from local writers, pairing them with directors and performers. We tried to depict the human impact of Brexit, and question what it means to be British in the 21st Century.
In addition to creating the event, I directed Empires which imagined Brexit through the eyes of Emma Hamilton as she mourned Lord Nelson.
"Can it really be that the world only revolved around us because you were drawing the maps?"
"Priya Patel Appleby is mesmerising as Lady H giving her side of a story known from the perspective of the populist histories that we have always been given. Priya gives us a moving and elegant, eloquent account of just how Nelson’s paramour may have felt about the outcome of Trafalgar.
"The diversity of the six works makes for an enjoyable programme, but what really makes this company stand out is the sheer quality of their productions. They work hard to make convincing and credible drama that suggests levels of experience impossible for such a young team."
— Norwich Eye