Fourplay presents WHOLE took place in a secret location
in Aubervilliers in June 2018.
The Artwork
The collages used as the poster artwork are by Abi Kallushi, who goes by @unapologeticbanana on Instagram. The US-based artist generously donated two digital creations for use on the re-designed Fourplay posters, featuring for the first time our new “sticker” logo created by graphic designer George Sydney.
Photographs of the live event were taken by Alice Brace (and whoever got their hands on the camera while she was on stage).
The Props
The props for this edition were submitted by filmmakers.
We asked for original 15-second clips that could either be taken from a longer piece of work, or made exclusively for the festival.
Rather than have the clips projected during each play (a logistical nightmare by all accounts), the idea was for playwrights to mimic specific actions, recreate the atmosphere or otherwise interpret the films through their scripts.
The clips were not limited by genre or style. They were selected on how well they complemented one another and how interesting we thought they would be as inspiration for the playwrights.
‘Spinaci’ by Venice-based artist Alice Malingri
‘Mediatic Fetishtic’ by Paris-based multimedia artist Stephanie Carranza
‘High Tide (Sausage)’ by Essex-based artist Rebecca Moss
‘Clip 1’ by US-based Austin Gustafson
The Plays
The following plays/wrights were selected,
with the cast listed below each show:
FOREPLAY TO WHOLE
written and directed by Danielle Spontak
Foreplay to Whole is about the simple, yet alluring act of meeting someone and feeling a connection. It plays on romantic fatalism: how we assign significance to such pivotal moments in our lives. Aurelia and Felipe encounter one another for the first time at a party, but the details of their interaction are just as important as to who they are.
Starring
Luka Cvitković
Tyneille Louise
About the writer
Danielle Spontak is a creative adventurer always keen for the next chapter. From an early age, she began travelling the world with her family and continued the thirst for explorations into adulthood, from scuba diving with sharks to paragliding over mountaintops. She graduated from the University of San Diego and went on to be a writer and English teacher in South Korea for two years. Currently, Spontak is in pursuit of a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Kent. When she isn’t writing, Spontak can be found getting lost in art museums, playing the piano, or jogging from Point A to Point Z in search of new ideas and whimsical scenery.
DRAINING THE SWAP
written and directed by James Rawles
Draining a canal brings up old tensions. Can buried treasure bring a broken family back together, or should you let sleeping dogs lie? An all-star cast brings this family drama to life, in a heart-warming tale of love, betrayal, and reconciliation.
About the writer
James Rawles is a young British artist based in Paris. ‘Draining the Swamp’ is his first and last play; after this performance he will be retiring from the theatre to spend more time with his family.
SEX MACHINA
written by Eleanor Dickinson, directed by Bruce Sherfield
R is granted a rare opportunity: to learn the purpose of her existence. But when she discovers what that purpose is, she’s less than happy. But can she trust her feelings when they’ve been programmed that way? Can robots even have feelings?
Starring
Magnus Broome
Eleanor Dickinson
About the writer
Eleanor Dickinson is a comedy genius and poetic soul from the black bleak depths of Cleveland, Ohio (but luckily got out based on her father’s intelligence and hard work and now spends his money and her youth in Paris). Her hobbies include objectifying men, tormenting her friend Laurent, and farting on escalators. Her work includes poems, short plays and incoherent ramblings.
HARBOUR GRACE
written and directed by Taylor Scott – winner of Best Play
They say that chicken soup can heal the soul, but the Parsons’ family prefers seafood chowder. When Rose Parsons’ brother is lost at sea off the coast of Newfoundland, Rose does something more unpredictable than maritime weather – she goes home. Turns out, home is exactly the same as when she left six years ago: a seaside town frozen in a past she believed she had come to terms with. Set in the small kitchen of an even smaller town, Harbour Grace is a story of five chairs, the four people left to fill them, and all the things they could never bring themselves to say.
Starring
Thomas Gilroy
Kaitlyn Kelly
Charlotte Pleasants – winner of Best Actor
Stuart Richardson
About the writer
Taylor Scott is a graduate of the BFA Acting Program at the University of British Columbia, and a relative rookie on the Parisian theatre scene. You may have seen her on the carpet at the most recent edition of Tapis Théâtre,performing Pourquoi?a one-woman show based on her Parisian experiences. Inspired by her family’s Eastern Canadian heritage and her uncle’s lobster chowder, Harbour Grace is the first play she has ever written to completion. The irony of moving to Paris and then writing a Canadian play is not lost on her. Selected UBC credits include: Les Belles Soeurs (Lisette), Edward II (Warwick), The Safe Word (Catnip), and at the 2017 Vancouver Fringe Festival, she debuted the role of Anna in Indigo Child’s production of Her Name was Mary.
The Event
First and foremost, thank you to our hosts Roya, Charlotte, Margaux and Stéphanie – as well as their cats, Jonah and James – who were infinitely patient with the cast, crew and guests throughout the weekend as we transformed their home into a theatre.
And of course thank you to our judges, this year both former recipients of the very awards they were dishing out: Emma Phillips and Fatima Cadet.
We are also hugely grateful for the live performance by Mark Norman Harris during the after-party of Fourplay: the Climax, which eventually morphed into a full-blown rap battle.
Shoutout to Roya who ran an Iranian tea leaf reading poetry corner during the interval, to the delight of many.
And to Chris Newens for not only co-curating the whole shebang, but rustling up get another of his semi-legendary vegan daals for Fourplay and Dinner.
As ever, we would like to share our appreciation for the swift and slick services of our volunteers on the bar, kitchen and cat-watch: Peter Brown, Jac Capra, Christa, Amanda Brace, Bob Brake and Katie Streng – our longest serving volunteer, who has been propping up the bar since the very first edition! And a special mention to Peter Kowalczyk and Lucie Wright who literally lit up the stage, provided the sound equipment and found solutions to problems we hadn’t even thought of yet.
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