Congratulations to all involved in this incredible production.

A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction has been a brilliant touring production model, the first of its kind, where the production tours but the people do not. After stops at The Barbican, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Live Theatre Newcastle and more, the show ends here at York Theatre Royal. Thank you to our co-producers, Headlong and the Barbican, for working with us to make this happen – its been an inspiring, collaborative journey and we are thrilled to have been a part of it. This production coincides with York Environment Week and we can’t think of a more fitting way for us to play our part in continuing the climate crisis debate, and champion our own environmental and sustainability mission.

A Play For The Living in a Time of Extinction is also another YTR community engagement opportunity and we want to thank our brave cyclists who have taken on the challenge of powering the show and our fabulous choir for adding yet another wonderful layer to this story.

We hope you enjoy the show. We hope you find the experience challenging and thought provoking. We want it to stimulate conversation, debate and ultimately actions. Please join us in talking about the important issues raised and why not make a pledge of what more you can do to care for our environment #pledgewithYTR.

This is important. Thank you

It’s no easy feat to stay entertaining and engaging while addressing the topic of death, and especially of death on a mass scale. In writing A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction, Miranda Rose Hall serves up a painfully relevant message in a fiercely enticing package and this was what drew me to the play.

The seeds of this touring production was first born when I came across the play while still an Associate at Headlong; so it’s a rare instance of theatre-serendipity that I’ve the honour of directing the final production of its national tour, made even more meaningful by the fact this is taking place at my home of York. I’ve thought of York audiences from the day I first read this play, and it’s a dream come true to be bringing it to the York Theatre Royal stage.

The production’s strong commitment to sustainability, following guidelines conceptualised by Katie Mitchell, poses unique challenges; ones I believe we’ve turned into new theatre-making opportunities with our brilliant team of Yorkshire based crew, cast, creatives, cyclists and choir.

At first glance our dramaturg protagonist Naomi seems helpless and out of place on stage. She is terrified. But soon we realise it’s not the stage that terrifies her. Gradually she leads us to treasure life in all forms and to grieve its loss. It remains to be seen if her efforts will come to anything but within her cautionary tale we hope our message rings clear. No matter how dire the future seems, it is not an insurmountable inevitably. And far from being frightened by death, we reaffirm that life is worth struggling and fighting for.

Mingyu Lin

Age guidance: 14+

Running time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Written By Miranda Rose Hall

Originally directed by Katie Mitchell

Co-produced by Headlong and the Barbican

Performances

Wed 27 Sep, 19:30 (First Night Fizz)

Thu 28 Sep, 19:30 (Post-Show Discussion)

Fri 29 Sep, 19:30

Sat 30 Sep, 14:30 (Matinee)

Sat 30 Sep, 19:30

Images below are taken by James Drury.

The original production of A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction directed by Katie Mitchell was created at the  Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne as part of the project Sustainable Theatre?, conceived by Katie Mitchell, Jérôme Bel and  Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, with the collaboration of the Competence Centre in Sustainability of the University of Lausanne, co-produced by STAGES – Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green Environmental Shift (NTGent – Théâtre de Liège – National Theatre of Croatia in Zagreb – MC93, Maison de la culture de Seine-Saint-Denis – Trafo House of Contemporary Arts – Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Teatro d’Europa – Lithuanian National Drama Theatre – Teatro Nacional D. Maria II – Maribor Slovene National Theatre – The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Dramaten, Stockholm – National Theater & Concert Hall, Taipei) and co-funded by the European Union. Sustainable Theatre? includes two shows and a workshop touring in the form of scripts recreated locally.

A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction was commissioned and developed by LubDub Theatre Company, Caitlin Nasema Cassidy, and Geoff Kanick, Co-Artistic Directors, Robert Duffley, Dramaturg.

The production was developed, in part, with assistance from the Orchard Project (www.orchardproject.com), Ari Edelson Artistic Director.

On tour:

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, from 10 May 2023

Directed by Nyasha Gudo

Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot, from 16 May 2023

Directed by Nathan Powell

New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, from 19 June 2023

Directed by Ellie Taylor

Theatre Royal Plymouth, from 28 June 2023

Directed by Kay Michael

York Theatre Royal, from 27 September 2023

Directed by Mingyu Lin

Naomi Stephanie Hutchinson

Stephanie is originally from Leeds and based there. She graduated at Salford University studying BA(Hons) Performing Arts. Her theatre credits include Shake The City (Jermyn Street Theatre), Elephant Rock (Badapple Theatre Company), Wind in the Willows (Library Theatre), Mugabeland (Come As You Arts North West) and The Haunted Man (Kindred Theatre). Television credits include Emmerdale, Without Sin and Coronation Street (ITV). 

For 2023 we have replaced single-use plastic cups with re-usable cups – this will significantly reduce waste and provide a sustainable, cost-effective alternative to glass.

Creative team

Director Mingyu Lin

Designer Hannah Sibai

LX Designer Craig Kilmartin

Musical Director Madeleine Hudson

Stage Manager Steven Muckersie

Casual Stage Crew Amelia Fordyce

Design Concept conceived by Moi Tran

Original Composer and Sound Design conceived by Paul Clark

Lighting Design touring concept conceived by Bethany Gupwell

Bicycle Power Specialists Colin Tonks and Elliot Townsend for Electric Pedals

Touring Production Manager Kat Ellis

Cyclists

John Cossham
Darren Barrott
Hannah Errington
David Allsopp
Eleanor Cunnington
Mic Errington
Anne Errington
Catherine Edge
Robert Morris
Sarah Klug
Vicky Murray
Emma Dux
Lance Hill
Chris Sykes
Jo Hossell
Donna Davies
Laura Khaddi
Ana Duarte
James Dickson
Peter Burgess
Jack Butler
Karen Vogelsang
Helen Clarke
Richard Hampton

Choir

Alto 1:
Rebecca Magowan
Shirley Reay
Karen Hill
Shino Mogan
Sarah King

Alto 2:
Valerie Ball
Sue Morvan
Kerry Taylor
Steph Bindloss
Sarah Mellard

Bass:
Steve Ashby
Michael Chester
Geoffrey Turner
Gavin Blackstone
Nick Jackson
Andrew Utting

Tenor:
Anders Ekstrand
Carey Simon
Robert Morris

Soprano 1:
Kate Vernon-Rees
Laura Boyd
Sophie Tatman
Vera Van Gool

Soprano 2:
Eleanor Cunnington
Emma Blackstone
Debbie Wilson
Sue Wragg
Bridget Geelan
Briony Rawle
Jen Cliff
Jenna Drury
Sue Walton
Katie Splevins
Jenny Jenkins

Miranda Rose Hall

Writer

Miranda Rose Hall is an American playwright and screenwriter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her plays include A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (finalist for the 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Plot Points in Our Sexual Development (finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award in Drama); The Kind Ones and Menstruation: A Period Piece. She is writing commissioned works for Yale Repertory Theater, Playwrights Horizons Soundstage, and LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater as a Berwin Lee New York London Commissioned Playwright. In 2020, she was honoured with a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. She has written for television on Showtime and ABC, and is a founding member of LubDub Theatre Company.

Mingyu Lin

Director

Ming is a director for stage and screen, she’s a Resident Artist at York Theatre Royal and Reader for Traverse Theatre and the Bruntwood Prize. She was a recipient of Living Pictures’ Directors’ Bursary, Creative Associate at Headlong and founding member of BESEA advocacy group BEATS. Ming trained at RCSSD and is a Royal Court Writers’ Program alumna. For screen, she directs for Hollyoaks and has won finalist awards for Sundance Shorts, Sci-Fi London, Pilot Festival, Enter the Pitch and ITN’s Nativity Factor. For audio, she has directed Out Of The Woods (Tamasha) and Waiting For A Chance To Turn (Futures Theatre), which was a Women’s Podcast Award finalist and Silver Anthem Award Winner. For stage she has directed the Offie-nominated Does My Bomb Look Big In This (Soho Theatre). Select stage directing credits include: Sovereign (York Theatre Royal), Worth (Arcola/Storyhouse Chester), Onigoro Valley (Royal Court Theatre/playread), Overheard (York Theatre Royal/Nottingham Lakeside), Babel (ArtsEd), Lòng Mẹ (Vaults 2020), Silently Hoping (Vaults 2019) and No Bond So Strong (mac Birmingham).

Hannah Sibai

Designer

Hannah is a British/Syrian designer based in Yorkshire. She trained at Wimbledon School of Art and has designed over 80 productions across the UK and Europe, working across various mediums including theatre, film, music videos and installations. Hannah regularly collaborates with directors, writers, choreographers and composers to create design-lead work from the earliest stages of development. Recent credits include Christmas Carol (Shakespeare North), Doncastrian Chalk Circle (CAST and National Theatre Public Acts), Regnant (Xavier de Sousa, HOME).

Moi Tran 

Design Concept

Moi Tran is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and researcher with a background in Fine Art and Design for live performance. Recent designs include: The Tempest: Playing Shakespeare and Henry V (Headlong) at Shakespeare’s Globe; Baghdaddy and Peaky Blinders for Rambert; Rare Earth Mettle and White Pearl at the Royal Court; Chasing Hares for Theatre Uncut at the Young Vic; Corrina Corrina for Headlong/ Liverpool Playhouse; Raya and Deluge at Hampstead; Dear Elizabeth and The Letters Project at the Gate; In the Blood at the Donmar; Chiaroscuro at the Bush; Human Wall for the V&A; Beats’n’Shine for MUDAM; Summer Rolls at the Park Theatre; The Imperfect Pearl for the Corn Exchange, Newbury/St George’s, Bristol/King’s Place/on UK tour; and Falstaff for Opera Berbiguieres, France. Recent art includes: Reshaping the Collectible for TATE Modern UK; a solo exhibition Civic Sound Archive’ for PEER UK; Sign Chorus VN for the National Archives UK; The Circuit and Shy God A Chorus for SPILL Festival; Sonic Signalling in Reverse for AIO/GIBCA Gothenburg; SHY GOD Chapter Một for Chisenhale Dance UK; solo exhibition, I love a broad margin to my life for Yeo Workshops Singapore; The Bolero Effect in Hanoi/British Council; Civic Voice Archive for the National Archives/UEL UK; The Circuit for Prague Quadrennial; and Temporality in a Cut at the Display Gallery. Moi Tran is a founder of East Asian Ticket Club, an engagement platform for the East Asian community and currently is Artist in Residence with Headlong.

Craig Kilmartin

Lighting Designer

Craig is a Lighting Designer, Relighter and Chief Electrician at York Theatre Royal. Previous York Theatre Royal work includes: Sovereign, The Coppergate Woman, Green Shoots, Me and My Divas, Mugabe My Dad and Me, Around the World in 80 Days. For Relights Off Broadway: A Brief History of Women. For Relights UK: A Brief History of Women, Taking Steps, Joking Apart, Better off Dead, The 39 Steps. As Production Electrician: Horrible History (Garrick Theatre); The Secret Garden (The Stables Theatre); Two-Headed (The Rose Bankside); The Fumidor (Croydon Warehouse).

Bethany Gupwell

Lighting Design Concept

Work in theatre includes: A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction at the Barbican; La Voix Humaine at Opéra national du Rhin; Little Scratch (also New Diorama) and Wolf Cub at Hampstead Theatre; War and Culture and Keep Watching at New Diorama; Here, the Woods at Southwark Playhouse; Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Moor and When Darkness Falls at the Park Theatre and on UK tour); Brown Girls Do It Too (also on UK tour), Fitter and Wonder Winterland at Soho Theatre; Frantic Assembly’s Ignition at Brixton House; Talking About a Revolution on UK tour; A-Typical Rainbow at Turbine Theatre; The Pirate, the Princess and the Platypus at Polka Theatre; We Started to Sing at the Arcola; Rice and Little Baby Jesus at the Orange Tree Theatre; You Heard Me at ARC Stockton and on tour; Interruptions at Jackson’s Lane; Albatross at The Playground); Talking Heads at Watford Palace; Tipping the Velvet at Mountview; The Last Harvest for the National Youth Theatre; Trade on UK tour; Queen of the Mist at Charing Cross Theatre; Zorba at Eve Lyons Studio Theatre; Chess at the Electric Theatre; I’d Rather Go Blind for Omnibus; Dracula at Leicester Curve; and Sweet Like Chocolate Boy at Brockley Jack.

Paul Clark 

Original Composer and Sound Design

Paul Clark is co-artistic director of performance company Clod Ensemble and has written original scores for all the company’s productions to date – ranging from totally acoustic works, to multi speaker installations including Silver Swan at Tate Modern; Under Glass at Sadler’s Wells; and On the High Road at South Bank Centre. He has written dozens of scores for the stage in the UK and internationally including many productions with Katie Mitchell including Waves at the National Theatre and Wunschkonzert for the Köln Schauspielhaus, and with Gare St Lazare with whom he created Here All Night at the Lincoln Center and The Abbey, Dublin. He has written music for and with a hugely diverse range of musicians from Manchester Camerata, Opera North and Renee Fleming to Dangermouse and Mark E Smith (The Fall). Paul Clark is an advocate for the access of young people to music and leads Clod Ensemble’s project for music creators, Ear Opener.

Madeleine Hudson

Musical Director

Madeleine has had a wide-ranging musical career, firstly in her native Dublin, and then on Broadway and the West End. For six years, she was Musical Supervisor for Riverdance – the Show, at Gershwin Theatre Broadway, and on all subsequent American, European, Australian and Far East tours. Credits as a Musical Director include: Phantom of the Opera, The Betrayal of Nora Blake, Falls, Follies in Concert, Guys and Dolls, Side by Side by Sondheim, Grease, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Wizard of Oz, Mary Makebelieve, South Pacific, Sweet Charity, George M, Little Mary Sunshine, Brigadoon, Waltzes from Vienna, Finian’s Rainbow, Irene, The New Mikado, Once Upon a Mattress and Mister Cinders. Madeleine has been Musical Director of the York Theatre Royal Choir since it was founded in 2016.

Following the beginning of rehearsals, YTR has begun an environmental campaign involving individuals or companies pledging to do better for the environment in a manner that they choose. This also coincides with York Environmental Week, and displays YTR’s commitment to expanding the impact of a production beyond the stage. 

Feel free to share your pledges on the whiteboard in the café seating area of YTR, or put them in the comment of any of our social media posts! Use #IPledgeWithYTR or tag us on any social platform.

Here are some from our lovely staff, trustees and customers so far:

I pledge to buy books second-hand!

I pledge to drive electric instead of the petrol car this month!

I pledge to use charity shops to find new clothes!

I pledge to eat vegetarian this week!

I pledge to only use reusable baby wipes!

I pledge to only buy local fruit and veg!

New for Spring 2023, you can enjoy our transformed patio terraced garden area. Our beautiful outdoor pocket park is now fully accessible and new planting is underway. With wildlife friendly trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns and climbers to provide a lovely spot for audience members, café customers and passers-by to sit back and enjoy.

About Headlong

We’re Headlong. We make theatre with the power to move.

Big, exhilarating productions that use the unexpected to connect everyone we reach, right across the nation. Whether a work is old or new, there are always different questions we can ask. So our productions are an invitation: to come and see something in a new way. Join us.

Previous Headlong productions include Henry V, Jitney, Corrina, Corrina, Best of Enemies, People, Places & Things and Enron, and major digital theatre innovations Signal Fires and Unprecedented.

headlong.co.uk

For Headlong

General Manager Joni Carter

Marketing Manager Bella Cox

Development Manager Lucy Howard Taylor

Finance Director Keerthi Kollimada

Executive Director Lisa Maguire

Assistant Producer Radha Mamidipudi

Executive Assistant Carla-Marie Metcalfe

Development Consultant Kirstin Peltonen

Literary Manager Frank Peschier

Producer Zoë Anjuli Robinson

Artistic Director Holly Race Roughan

Communities Associate Iskandar إسكندر R. Sharazuddin

Artist/Designer in Residence Moi Tran

Headlong is grateful for the generous support of the following Trusts and Foundations:

Backstage Trust

The Buffini Chao Foundation

We would like to thank the following individuals for their generous support:

Neil and Sarah Brener

Annabel Duncan-Smith and Victoria Leggett

Alyce Faye Eichelberger-Cleese

Nick Hern

Jack and Linda Keenan

Beth and Ian Mill KC

Rob O’Rahilly

We are also grateful for the dedicated support of our Board members:

Justin Audibert, Paddy Dillon, Cas Donald, Sarah Ellis, Lucinda Harvey, Julia Head, Jacqueline Hurt, Prime Isaac, Nicky Jones, Lil Lambley, Donna Munday, Sir Trevor Phillips OBE, Toni Racklin, Lesley Wan

A big thank you to our sponsors for A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction, Pinnacle!

Established in 2019 by Managing Director Adam Hickey, Pinnacle has established a reputation throughout Yorkshire as a dedicated and trustworthy Conservation and Restoration Specialist.

Carrying out projects within a 100-mile radius from our Head Office in York, with projects ranging from £500 – £5 million undertaking minor conservation inspections through to full internal and external restoration and conservation works.

When commenting on their sponsorship, Pinnacle has said:

“We are extremely proud to offer our support to such as exciting and innovative performance at the wonderful York Theatre Royal. The theme aligns perfectly with our core environmental principles of sustainability as well as fairness, ethical supply chains and locally sourced materials and labour.  In building conservation, we have been acting on these principles even before they became a trend based on our need to match vernacular architecture and utilise the rich skillset of the local population. The show is perfectly timed to coincide with York Environmental Week and we couldn’t be more pleased to offer our full support to help raise awareness of this great event.”

It is extremely valuable to continue to support your local theatre, and we are grateful for the support of our lovely local community.

Our thanks to Recycle York, who have provided the bikes used in the performances of A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction.

Looking for a one-of-a-kind outfit for an event or stand-out costumes for an upcoming production? Our Costume Hire department is a treasure trove, with thousands of options to choose from. Available for anyone to hire, we have an eclectic range on offer – from Halloween outfits to period dress and pantomime costumes… Our friendly, helpful staff and volunteers would love to hear from you! Contact us to make an appointment: costumehire@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk / 07703715138
Unit 3, Birch Court, Osbaldwick
Link Road, YO19 5JA

We have over 100m of rails of costumes from past productions which we re-use and repurpose, giving them a new lease of life. Hiring our quality costumes is much better for the environment than buying something new!