Heart Productions
...theatre with a beat!
Time After Time
Written by Frank Bramwell
This was our debut performance, and because of the nature of the play, we wanted to stage it in a most special performing space. As luck would have it, we found such a venue – a beautiful, atmospheric church newly converted to an Arts Centre!
And so St.John’s Church, Ladywood, Birmingham became our Theatre home for 8 performances in March 2003. A cast of 14 actors, all but one from the Birmingham area, set about to bring the play to life. The ‘non-Brummie’ was John Huston, who came across from Canada to play the role of Shakespeare himself!
So what is Time after Time all about?
“Time After Time” is based upon the idea that one night, the very night before he leaves Stratford to go to live in London, or perhaps the night before he dies, William Shakespeare has a dream. In this dream he encounters many “familiars” – these are people, “characters”, from plays and stories he has not written yet – or else wrote some years before – or from some of the stories which “characters” from his plays will inspire other people to write – or they are characters from plays by William Shakespeare who escape from his imagined universe and sojourn briefly in other people’s imaginary worlds. In this dream world shapes dissolve and restructure themselves as freely as people do and as freely as sound does – nothing is quite what it seems and everything is more than it is.
Despite some teething problems with the new venue, audience and Reviewer reaction was extremely positive, as the British Theatre Guide Reviewer put it:
“A new play by a first-time author performed by a fledgling company in a ground-breaking venue sounds like a recipe for disaster. But not when you put as much organisation and enthusiasm into the venture as Stafford-based Heart Productions - motto: "theatre with a beat! It would all have been an anti-climax if Time After Time had not been as fresh and original as its surroundings.
The real pity was that more people didn't make the effort to see it. Overall Time After Time is a superb, delightful production which is by no means much ado about nothing and should certainly be as you like it. "
Reviews
We both really enjoyed it. . . . . Quality stuff.. JH Birmingham
“Very clever and integrated famous quotes / references well.”
“Overall it was a really enjoyable performance and certainly deserves to be seen by a bigger audience”
“The play is certainly demanding in its multiplicity of characters & setting . . . . and there was a strong sense of real enjoyment of the production from all involved.”
Download a copy of all Review and Feedback Quotes for Time After Time 2003
Performances
The Arc Arts Centre, St.John's, Birmingham: 2 weeks March 2003
THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Director - Marcus Fernando
Assistant Director - Vicki Grainger
Publicity Manager - Katie Hayes
Development Manager - Sue Smith
Promotions - Jeff McDonald
Designer - Gail Prosser
Lighting Design & Slides - Owen Radmore of Rage
Sound Composer - Mark Taylor
Assistant Designer - Rebecca McIntosh
Sound - Dave Cresswell/ Jim Russewll
Set Construction - David Wake
Lighting - Vicki Grainger
Technical Assistant - Myria Panayiotou
THE CAST
William Shakespeare - John Huston
Hugh Jenkins, The Lover, & Others - Stephen Badham
Falstaff, Dick the Shepherd, & Others - Matthew Brockington
Chorus, Goth / Sailor / Fairy / Tramp & Others - Beth Cohen
Chorus Leader, Goth / Sailor / Fairy / Tramp, The Dresser & Others - Elinor d’Angelis
Sir Donald Wolfit, Christopher Marlowe - Roman de Fruscan
Will’s Father, Oberon, Robert Greene, The King - Philip de Ville
Jailer, Bottom & Others - Alan James Gray
The Ferryman & Others - Laurence Inman
Boy Actor, Hamlet & Others - Adam Linney
Chorus, Goth / Sailor / Fairy / Tramp, & Others - Kaz Luckins
Will’s Wife Ann, Princess, Ariel & Others - Jen Rigby
Gertrude, Will’s Mother, Queen Elizabeth, Titania & Others - Annie Savage
Ben Jonson, Will’s Brother, Puck & Richard Field - James Webster
Henslowe - Richard Westcott