Discounts for education groups, workshops and Q&As available at all venues on the 2010 UK tour – please contact alice@fueltheatre.com to enquire.
Kursk Background
In 2000, a Russian submarine, the Kursk, suffered a huge explosion that ripped the bow apart and sent the vessel to the seabed. Inspired by this tragic event, Sound&Fury and award winning playwright, Bryony Lavery, explore the unique experience of the submariner deep below the Arctic seas, alone, contained, controlled and yet with Armageddon at their fingertips.
Subsumed in the submarine space, the audience are silent observers to the events as they unfold, complicit to the world of secrecy and codes, witnesses to the last minutes of the Kursk.
Using a highly novel and engaging stage design that embraces both the epic and the personal, the audience are put at the heart of the submariners’ dramatic journeys, inviting us to share in their anguish, fears, hopes and predicaments.
With unique sound design that creates the sonic equivalent of a virtual submarine, Kursk is an authentic and emotionally rich voyage into the icy depths of the Barents Sea and the dark recesses of the imagination. At once a poetic trip through the hidden world of the submariner and an exploration of human survival that leaves the viewer both thrilled and haunted.
In April 2005 two of Sound&Fury’s creative directors Mark Espiner and Dan Jones won an innovative award from the Arvon foundation, and joined forces with award-winning writer Bryony Lavery. Using the creative point of departure of the story of the story of the Kursk, the shared skills of theatrical storytelling, writing, performance, visual art and sound design coalesced to create a stunning performance piece where the audience are placed at the centre of the work and set design and the performance unfold around it. A new theatrical language was developed, where the writing was led by Bryony Lavery and the aesthetic was directed by Sound&Fury.
Sound&Fury conducted in-depth research for Kursk and worked closely with the Royal Navy and Ministry of Defence. They were security cleared to visit two nuclear hunter killer submarines in Plymouth. The Royal Navy were so impressed with their work that they awarded the company with honorary Dolph
ins, the decoration awarded to serving submariners.
