Way to Heaven

Juan Mayorga, David Johnston

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781783197873
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro europeo

The heart of Europe. 1942. Children playing, lovers' tiffs, a deserted train station and a ramp rising towards a hangar. This is what you can see, but what should the Red Cross representative report say?
Way to Heaven has previously been produced at the Teatro Mara Guerrero, Madrid by the Centro Dramatico Nacional. A production of this English translation opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London in June 2005.

WAY TO HEAVEN

by Juan Mayorga
translated by David Johnston

Cast

Red Cross Representative Jeff Rawle

Boys Jack Binysh, Jake Briski, Leon Garner, Alexander Main, Abraham Pirry

Young Couple on Bench Vanessa Ackerman, Daniel Hart

Second Woman on Bench Claire Lichie

Girl Emma Pinto

Gershom Gottfried Richard Katz

Commandant Dominic Rowan

Director Ramin Gray

Designer Miriam Büther

Lighting Designer Johanna Town

Sound Designer Ian Dickinson

Assistant Director Simon Breden

Casting Amy Ball

Production Manager Sue Bird

Stage Managers Susannah Lawrence, Fay Mansfield

Costume Supervisors Iona Kenrick, Jackie Orton

Company Voice Work Patsy Rodenburg

The playwright and translator gratefully acknowledge the support of Jacques Le Ny and the Atelier Européen de Traduction.

THE COMPANY

Juan Mayorga (writer)

For the Royal Court: Voices from Spain season 1997 with Scorched Garden, 1998 International Residency developing Love Letters to Stalin, as part of the 2002 International season, The Good Neighbour.

Other theatre includes: Más ceniza, El sueño de Ginebra (Cuarta Pared, Madrid); El traductor de Blumemberg (Teatro Nacional Cervantes, Buenos Aires); Cartas de amor a Stalin (Teatro María Guerrero, Madrid); El Gordo y el Flaco (Teatro Adolfo Marsillach, San Sebastián de los Reyes); Animales Nocturnos (Sala Guindalera, Madrid); Últimas palabras de Copito de Nieve (Nuevo Teatro Alcalá, Madrid); Camino del cielo (Teatro María Guerrero, Madrid); Hamelin (Teatro de la Abadía, Madrid).

Vanessa Ackerman

Theatre includes: Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julius Caesar (RSC); Mythomania, Paradox (RSC Fringe TOP); Kvetch, Jew of Malta (Teatre della Contradizzione); The Ceremony (Soho). Television includes: The Bill, The Lost Prince.

Jack Binysh

Theatre includes: All Our Sons (Bloomsbury).

Simon Breden

As assistant director: Tejas Verdes (Gate).

As director: Slowburn (Etcetera); Yellow Rain (Embassy); Protect Me (Young Vic); The Bear, The Proposal (Landor); Detour (St. Mark’s Church); Yerma; Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me; In The Burning Darkness; The Real Inspector Hound (Burton Taylor Studio); Murder In The Cathedral (St. Peter’s Chapel).

Jake Briski

Jake has trained at The Harris Drama School. Way to Heaven is Jake’s theatrical debut.

Miriam Büther (designer)

Theatre includes: Platform (ICA); The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Lyceum, Edinburgh); Guantanamo (Tricycle/West End/NY); People Next Door (Traverse/Germany/Balkans/NY); The Dumb Waiter, Victoria Station and Other Pieces (Oxford Playhouse); Bintou (Arcola); Red Demon (Young Vic/Bunkamura Tokyo); Eskimo Sisters (Southwark); Lebensspiele (Three Mills Island).

Dance includes: Outsight, Tender Hooks (Fundaçâo C Gulbenkian, Lisbon); Toot, Possibly Six (Theatre Maisonneuve, Montreal); Track (Scottish Dance Theatre); Body of Poetry (Komische Oper, Berlin); 7DS (Sadler’s Wells).

Installations: Lazy Boys and Busy Bodies (KX Gallery, Kampnagel Hamburg); Gedankengebäude in der Kunst (Kunsthaus, Hamburg); Architekturkleider (National Gallery, Sopot Poland).

Awards include: Linbury Prize for Stage Design 1999, Bursary of Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft 1996.

Ian Dickinson (sound designer)

For the Royal Court: The Woman Before, Stoning Mary (& Drum Theatre, Plymouth), Breathing Corpses, Wild East, Shining City (& Gate, Dublin), Lucky Dog, Blest Be the Tie (with Talawa TC), Ladybird, Notes on Falling Leaves, Loyal Women, The Sugar Syndrome, Blood, Playing the Victim (with Told By an Idiot), Fallout, Flesh Wound, Hitchcock Blonde (& Lyric), Black Milk, Crazyblackmuthafuckin’self, Caryl Churchill Shorts, Push Up, Fucking Games, Herons.

Other theatre includes: Port, As You Like It, Poor Superman, Martin Yesterday, Fast Food, Coyote Ugly (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Night of the Soul (RSC/Barbican); Eyes of the Kappa (Gate); Crime & Punishment in Dalston (Arcola); Search & Destroy (New End); The Whore’s Dream (RSC/Edinburgh); Ian is Head of Sound at the Royal Court.

Leon Garner

Way To Heaven is Leon Garner’s theatrical debut.

Television includes: Watchdog.

Film includes: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Ramin Gray (director)

For the Royal Court: Bear Hug, The Weather, Ladybird, Advice to Iraqi Women, Terrorism, Night Owls, Just a Bl...