Clarke Andrews Tempest Information Sheet

CLARKE

TEMPESTANDREWS

ADMISSION ONLY £7 BOx OffIce: 07803 008523

LUSITANIAN DANCING TROUPE

The Dalwood

ROCKETHUMAN CANNONBALL!

MadameSOSOSTRISFAMOUS CLAIROVOYANT LIBERTY BELL

FEMALE ESCAPOLOGIST

MAGIC LANTERN SHOWWIDOW DIDOVAUDEVILLE FAVORITE

Messrs Benjamin J Borley & Charlie Coldfield present

The cITY gATe puB Lower North Street, exeter, Devon ex4 3RB

19th - 21st March 2014 (19th includes post show discussion) 7.45pm

Clarke Andrews Tempest Information for venues.

SynopsisMarooned in the dressing room of a provincial theatre, washed up silent film star Clarke Andrews prepares his solo rendition of The Tempest in the hour before curtain up. As he begins to lose himself in Shakespeare’s verse, gamely assisted by an open bottle of gin, the events of the play start to collide with his own story. The dressing room dissolves revealing Clarke’s memories, dreams, hopes and fears in the form of silent film and digitally created images.

Using Shakespeare’s text and a combination of live performance, computer generated image and film, Clarke Andrews Tempest has been devised by award winning photographer/film maker Benjamin Borley and actor Charlie Coldfield and features music composed by The Dalwood Rocket

Running time approximately 60 mins without intervalCost £300

Personnel 1 actor and 1 Stage Manager

Technical requirementsAccess to power points for our projector, laptop, amp and lampsThe show utilises a relatively shallow performance space in addition to a screen with rear projected images

PreviewsSee the show at The City Gate, Exeter March 19th - 21st 2014. The show originally premiered at the 2013 Ignite festival at Exeter’s Bikeshed Theatre.

For further information please contact:Charlie [email protected] 008523www.clarkeandrewstempest.co.uk Additional footage from the show can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRQECaJcGiw‎

Audience

Performance space

Screen

Projector

Clarke Andrews dressing room (above)The base image for almost the entire show is completely computer generated. Silent film and other projections appear in the mirror during the show to reflect Clarke’s memories, dreams and fears.

Caliban sequence (right)At times the entire screen is dissolved into a new image as during the main Caliban sequence. This image, also computer generated and animated, represents Caliban.

Clarke Andrews & Friends

Clarke Andrews & Family

The usurping brother

Clarke Andrews silent film sequencesThe filmed sequences for Clarke Andrews Tempest take in a variety of locations including the Babbacombe Cliff Railway (left) and The Devon Institute’s libray, Cathedral Green, Exeter(below). Filming also took place at the White Hart pub, Exeter (previous page) and at Dawlish.

Clarke Andrews silent film sequencesMany local actors donated their time and talents to the making of Clarke Andrews Tempest including Joe Selman Leava, Sarah White and Molly Casey. The beautiful costumes were provided by Exeter Northcott wardrobe and sourced by Beth D’Tisi.

Visit The Babbacombe

Clarke Andrews, who died this week was an actor long set adrift from the public eye but whose early promise and ability to bring a naturalistic grounding to his Shakespearian roles assures him a small but certain place in theatre and film history. Born Andrew Clarke on the 18th of April

1889 in London , Andrews (as he later became known) was the son of wealthy bohemian parents Mary and Cyril Clarke, part of the late Victorian ‘ Bloomsbury set’. His early years were spent with his

West Indian nanny Vera as his parents were often busy supporting their artistic protégés. That changed with the arrival 3 years later of his brother Anthony from whom he was later estranged. A Dulwich education alongside

opportunities to experience the world of performance, including a well remembered trip to see The Lumiere brothers early film presentations led Andrews toward a career as an actor, joining the London Shakespeare Company in 1908 where he began to make a name for himself on the London Stage. A well received production of ‘A midsummers night dream’ in 1910 lead to the opportunity to perform as Lysander in an early silent film version shot in Shoreham, West Sussex in the same year. Sadly the film is now lost as are most of Andrews screen performances.Eventually Andrews made the trip

across the Atlantic , initially to join the cast of Hamlet in New York but with plans to move on to Hollywood . Whilst in New York Andrew met his future wife Liberty Hollander, know to close friends as “Bertie” the daughter of a tobacco millionaire who inevitably disproved of the romance. Nethertheless they were married on April the 19th 1913 with their only daughter Imogen born just 8 months later.

Andrews was soon attracting attention from American filmmakers based in New York and made the groundbreaking ‘ City Street ’ with his friend Jimmy Cotterall, who later became more famous as a spiritualist to the rich and famous. But then the outbreak of the first world war presented Andrews with a dilemma. Caught between duty and the desire to move on to Hollywood, Andrews eventually chose to return to England to enlist much to the pleasure of his brother Anthony who was quoted at the time to say he could not bear the shame of it if…Andrews… did not return to do his duty.So on the 1st of May 1915 Clarke, along

with Liberty and Imogen departed from New York ’s pier 54 on the ill fated RMS Lusitania. On the 7th of May following a German U boat attack the Lusitania was sunk. Andrews of course survived along with the infant Imogen but Liberty ’s was one of the 1195 lives lost that day.In truth it was a shock from which

Andrews would never recover and so began a long descent into grief stricken alcoholism. By the end of the year family and friends persuaded Andrews to pass the guardianship of Imogen to Anthony and his wife Sylvia following an incident at a Soho public house in which Andrews had seemingly abandoned his daughter on the street. The army though, happily accepted Andrews but couldn’t keep hold of him. He arrived in France early 1916 and promptly disappeared, not surfacing again till a journalist met him by chance in Marrakesh in 1919. Andrews spent the early part of the 1920’s floating through European and North African bohemian society under a series of assumed names. Several attempts to stage filmed adaptations of classic works stalled due to Andrews tendency to lose any money invested in gambling dens. He did perform on film at this time in experimental collaborations

Obituary

CLIFF RAILWAY Amazing views! Fully automated!www.babbacombecliffrailway.co.uk

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with many of the period’s leading lights, although actual footage of these collaborations has been lost or destroyed since. Returning to England in 1924, led immediately to his arrest on the charge of desertion and Andrews was sentenced to a surprisingly lenient 5 years at His Majesty’s Pleasure, possibly in the light of the extenuating circumstances of his mental well being at the time of desertion. During this period Andrews made repeated attempts to contact his estranged daughter, all of which went unanswered. Following his release in January 1930 Andrews set to work preparing his last known public performance in a solo rendition of The Tempest. The short tour was poorly received with audiences complaining that Andrews repeatedly fluffed his lines and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. It was believed by some that the tour was merely a last ditch attempt to regain contact

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Dramatis Personae

Clarke Andrews ...................... Charlie Coldfield

Liberty Andrews ........................... Sarah White

Imogen Andrews ............................Molly Casey

And Joseph Selman Leava as Anthony Clarke

Also featuring

James Cotter

Finn Morley-Welch

Jac Bevan

Chris Glew

Jenny Start

Hannah Brooks

Holly Kibble

Laura Doherty

Sarah Hoopell

Stuart Lyddon

Dean Elliot

Thomas Gilbert

Laura Shoebottom

Elizabeth Back

Clarke Andrews Programme_Andy.indd 3-4 29/05/2013 15:51

CLARKE

TEMPESTANDREWS

ADMISSION ONLY £7 BOX OFFICE: 07803 008523

LUSITANIAN DANCING TROUPE

The Dalwood

ROCKETHUMAN CANNONBALL!

MadameSOSOSTRISFAMOUS CLAIROVOYANT LIBERTY BELL

FEMALE ESCAPOLOGIST

MAGIC LANTERN SHOWWIDOW DIDOVAUDEVILLE FAVORITE

Messrs Benjamin J Borley & Charlie Coldfield present

THE CITY GATE PUBLower North Street, Exeter, Devon EX4 3RB

19th - 21st March 2014(19th includes post show discussion) 7.45pm

I long to hear the story of your life, which must take the ear strangely

“Clever, beautiful and rather sad. The visuals are beautifully filmed” Anna Marks, Wildfire.

Marooned in the dressing room of a provincial theatre in the hour before curtain up, washed up silent fi lm star Clarke Andrews prepares his solo rendition of The Tempest in the hope that it will somehow reunite him with his estranged daughter Imogen. As he begins to lose himself in Shakespeare’s verse, gamely assisted by an open bottle of gin, the events of the play start to collide with his own story. The dressing room dissolves revealing Clarke’s memories, dreams, hopes and fears in the form of silent fi lm and digitally created images.

Using Shakespeare’s text and a combination of live performance, computer generated image and fi lm, Clarke Andrews Tempest has been devised by award winning photographer/fi lm maker Benjamin Borley and actor Charlie Coldfi eld and features music composed by The Dalwood Rocket.

www.clarkeandrewstempest.co.uk