Albatross

Produced by Environmental Theatre Unlimited
Albatross is music theatre.
Albatross is visual theatre
Albatross is physical theatre.
Multiple skills are called upon from the cast including dance, song and aerial performance. Music is played live throughout the performance and integrated into the action of the show. Most of this music is original and was composed for Albatross.
The music, song and physical performance are integrated with atmospheric effects of fire, smoke and lighting, to create dramatic images that tell a story.
Albatross is a show with broad popular appeal, and has been enjoyed equally by adults and younger people.
This large-scale open-air theatre performance was funded by the Arts Council of England
The world premier was performed in Oldham, 26 May 2003
This production is a night time show designed to reach an audience of 3000 people.
Duration: 1 hour

Albatross
Conceived and Directed by Mike Lister
Music Composed by Sean de Burca
Choreography by Ruth Jones
Aerial Choreography by Becky Truman
Pyrotechnic Design by Ben Piper
Lighting Design by Rick Tindal
Design and Construction
Ship – Bryan Tweddle, Rory Francis, Ian Broscomb
Mast Rig – Becky Truman
Skeleton Boat – Ian Broscomb, Bryan Tweddle
Steam Engine – Dave Southall
Sea Serpent – Emma Beech
Costume – Emma Beech
Original Cast
Sean de Burca – Keyboards
Martin Green – Keyboards & Accordion & Percussion
Jock Tyldesley – Violin & Percussion
Ali Wood – Trombone & Accordion & Percussion
Jill Myers – Trumpet & Percussion
Meera Bell Thomson – Voice
Erika Sanderson – Voice & Percussion
Louise Bennett – Voice & Percussion
Anna Barzotti – Voice & Percussion
Kate Evans – Voice & Percussion
Marc Parry – Voice
Andy Quine – Voice
Ian Broscomb – Voice

Historical and Cultural references

Albatross is an epic drama set at the beginning of the 20th Century. It tells the story of heroes caught in the turmoil that ended the “romantic age”. These heroes are Antarctic explorers. Following in the wake of the Ancient Mariner they sail their ship to the land of the penguin, while back home the old world is engulfed by the Great War.
In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail with an expedition to the Antarctic. At the same time war was declared in Europe. Shackleton’s ill fated Trans-Antarctic Expedition had to be aborted when their ship Endurance was stuck in the ice for 10 months and eventually rescued by their own heroic endeavour. “Beyond endurance we conquer” was Shackleton’s family motto. However when they eventually returned home they found themselves on the Western Front in an even greater hell than the one from which they had escaped.
Albatross takes its name from the epic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner published by S T Coleridge in 1834. This poem tells the tale of the ancient mariner. His ship was blown south into the frozen Antarctic Ocean. It was there that he the shot an Albatross. He then suffered purgatory before finding salvation. This symbolic albatross features in our poetic drama.

Technical Staging of Albatross

A flat hard performance space is the ideal with a sloping arena shaped area for the audience.

Albatross requires a performance space 35 m long, 25 m deep.
However the company will adapt the performance to the topography of the space.

The company employ low staging, 1 meter off the ground.
Two stages central within the performance space.
The central stage 7 m long and 2 m deep.
The second stage 5 m long and 3 m deep. This stage is for the musicians and requires power for the keyboards and amplification and microphones.

Lighting and amplification is also required on the central stage and on the ship.

The mast of the ship is 15 m high. It is designed to operate as an aerial rig.
Hanging from the rig are climbing ropes and rope ladders and a flying harness.
The mast is held vertical by an arrangement of cables fixed to the ground at 4 points,
Each fixing point is 14 m from the base of the mast.
The 4 fixing points are at the corners of a 20 m square.

Review - Teeside Evening Gazette, August 1, 2003
Albatross by Environmental Theatre Unlimited
At the Tees Barrage White water Course
Written by Kathryn Armstrong.

You know Stockton Riverside Festival is Back when you find yourself freezing to death and sitting on damp grass. Seasoned festival-goers will know it’s usually worth the effort, certainly it was at last night’s barrage bonanza. The white water course is an excellent “theatre” and the watery setting thoroughly appropriate for a voyage to the Antarctic with three intrepid explorers.
The setting for the adventure is aboard an impressive metallic ship with rigging that these explorers can scamper along with alarming ease.
Their journey is accompanied by a chorus of very versatile women who can turn their skills from imitating a penguin waddle to a deft drum roll within seconds. It’s great to experience such big scale theatre outdoors.
The lighting is dramatic with glowing icebergs threatening our explorers. The Albatross hovers above the mast in a breath taking acrobatic display. There are even glow in the dark skeletons making an appearance alongside the grim reaper on icy seas. Not to mention some wizzes, bangs and snow storms.
It’s something of a spectacular, a performance to grab the imagination, to raise a giggle and to make you think a bit too.
We’re lucky to have it on our doorstep. You won’t have seen anything like it before.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy cliffs
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross,
Through the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.

S. T. Coleridge