National Theatre Wales Community

The Old Man - WalesLab - Research and Development

The Old Man - A Work in Progress

At the end of this month, Working as part of National Theatre Wales #WalesLab initiative Tin Shed Theatre Co. will begin a research and development project into our newest personal project: The Old Man.

We will be working for two weeks in residency at Barnabas Arts House, Newport, researching our subject and working towards some form of showback/performance. At the moment we feel it will be more like a performance-discussion, as we are still collecting and digesting information, facts, research and certain issues surrounding the making of this work.

The Old Man is a working title, and from a performance point of view we want to explore the use of puppetry, mime, multi-media and the incorporation of some 20 year old home-made VHS cassettes.

The project looks to deal with immediate social and economical issues surrounding the system of treatment for the elderly in modern Britain, with an explorative journey into the human emotins, morals, collective responsibilities and soul questions surrounding this subject matter; such as confronting death, growing older and our responsibility to care as a community.

Already we have met and interviewed elderly people who recieve care at their own homes, but one other aspect we'd like to explore is residential care.

We're looking to collect stories, ask questions, play games, have conversations and make a performance - discussion with you.

On the 6th of June at Barnabas Arts House we will be hosting a Sharing of our work in progress, to which a small audience will be invited and asked for there thoughts on our work in progress. If you would like to come along to this event then please email: tinshedtheatre@gmx.com with the subject matter: THE OLD MAN

We have many questions at this point. Almost all of them are unanswered.

Mucho