Coventry company Theatre Absolute is to embark on 100, a project that takes its root from the 100th anniversary of The Great War.
Beginning in the autumn and produced in partnership with Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, 100 will consist of four major commissions: a full-length play by Steve Waters, a short play for schools and colleges by Richard Walls, an installation by textile artist Julia O'Connell and a short film by Jay Langdell.
Theatre Absolute’s artistic director Chris O’Connell describes the project as a significant cultural event for the West Midlands.
“Europe is currently gripped by uncertainties and tensions; these are uniquely altered tensions to those that rattled Europe’s foundations in 1914.
“The continent faces new crises that have compelled Theatre Absolute to take the approaching anniversary of The Great War as a stimulus to look at the journey Europe has taken in the past 100 years through the Holocaust, the fall of communism, the creation of the Euro, migration and immigration, and so much more.”
Writer Steve Waters adds, “being originally from Coventry, I’m keen to write something that engages with the complex history of the city within the last century—the ebbs and flows of industry and labour, the complexity of the population, the traces of traumatic history.”
Chris Kirby, head of collections and programmes at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, comments, “we’re delighted to be working with Theatre Absolute on these provocative and highly relevant commissions which in part draw upon the fascinating archives in our collections.”
Formed in 1992, Theatre Absolute produces and tours new plays that are “bold, urban, uncompromising and contemporary”.
In 2009 the company established the UK’s only professional shop-front theatre space in a disused fish and chip restaurant in the heart of Coventry city centre.