Maev Beaty. Artwork by Jacob Whibley.
The Great Fire
Necessary Angel’s The Great Fire by Roland Schimmelpfennig translated by David Tushingham, is an immersive audio experience, this five-part drama is narrated by Dora Award-winner Maev Beaty with original sound design and mix by Dora Award-winner Debashis Sinha.
“This summer nothing is divided equally”
The Great Fire evokes a world both everyday and otherworldly. Within a familiar folk setting of competing rural villages, Schimmelpfennig conjures a magical yet modern world beset by prejudice, misunderstanding, plague and climate catastrophe. And as we so often find in times of trauma, there remains friendship, and wonder, and even love.
“Love is stronger than everything”
“Roland Schimmelpfennig is a narrative master, The Great Fire is an inescapably gripping tale. It is at once harrowing, prophetic and achingly beautiful. It is a story that asks: where are we now? And how did we get here?“
- Alan Dilworth
The Process
Listen to Maev and Debashis speak with the Stageworthy podcast about the process behind The Great Fire.
Playwright
Roland Schimmelpfennig is one of the most produced European playwrights. His plays have been translated into over 20 languages. and he He made his US debut in 2007 with a production of his play Arabian Nights, produced by NYC’s Play Company.
He first worked as a freelance journalist and author in Istanbul before studying as a theatre director in Munich’s Otto Falkenberg School.. He then became an assistant director and later a member of the artistic team at Munich’s Kammerspiele. Roland Schimmelpfennig was then engaged as dramaturg and author at the Berlin Schaubühne for the 1999/2000 season and was resident playwright at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 2010, Schimmelpfennig was awarded the Mühlheimer Dramatists Award for his play The Golden Dragon. The play premiered at the Burgtheater Vienna and has since received more than 20 productions worldwide. Schimmelpfennig is the recipient of the highest Playwriting Award in Germany, the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Prize, to honor his entire Oeuvre.
Soulpepper produced his Indomeneus under the direction of Alan Dilworth in 2018, which was nominated for five Dora Awards.
Creative Team
Alan Dilworth
Alan Dilworth is an acclaimed director, writer, teacher. In 2019 he was named Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company.
Alan has directed across Turtle Island and beyond. He has brought over twenty five Canadian world premieres to the stage including the Governor General’s Award winning If We Were Birds by Erin Shields, the Dora Award winning Crash by Pamela Sinha, the Toronto Theatre Critics Award winning The Middle Place by Andrew Kushnir, the Stratford Festival and Soulpepper Theatre Company productions of The Queenmaker Trilogy by Kate Hennig (The Last Wife, The Virgin Trial and Mother’s Daughter), and his own plays, the SummerWorks Festival Jury Prize winning The Unforgetting and Ma Jolie.
In 2018, Alan served as the Acting Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company during a particularly challenging time. At Soulpepper he directed acclaimed productions of Incident At Vichy, Idomeneus, Eurydice, and The Goat or Who is Sylvia among others.
Alan is the recipient of the inaugural Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award, a Toronto Theatre Critics Award, and 3 SummerWorks Festival Jury Prizes. He has been nominated for 13 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for direction and production and his acting ensembles have been nominated for 5 Dora Awards, winning 3.
Alan has a BA in international relations, a BEd, and an MFA in directing.
Maev Beaty is a critically-acclaimed theatre maker, and stage, screen, and voice artist. She has originated roles in 26 Canadian Premieres, played lead roles at the Stratford Festival for 6 seasons and in theatres across Turtle Island including Soulpepper, Tarragon, the Globe, Canadian Stage, Theatre Passe Muraille and La Mama.
Maev is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, three-time Dora Award winner and fourteen-time Dora nominee in both performance and writing, referred to as “the excellent Maev Beaty” by the New York Times. Her film debut (Mouthpiece) was a Special Presentations Opening Film at 2019 TIFF.
Debashis Sinha
Selected sound design and composition credits include numerous works for Peggy Baker Dance Projects and productions with: Soulpepper Theatre Company, The Farber Foundry, The Stratford Festival, Young People’s Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Project Humanity, Theatre Passe Muraille (Crash, his sound for which won a Dora Award), inDance, Tribal Crackling Wind, Canadian Rep Theatre, Volcano Theatre, Pleiades Theatre, MTC Warehouse and Necessary Angel.
Sinha has won 2 Dora awards for Best Original Sound Design (We are Proud to Present…, 2016 and Crash, 2012) and a Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Design (Eurydice, 2016, along with lighting designer Kimberly Purtell and set and costume designer Lorenzo Savoini).
Necessary Angel Theatre Company Production
By Roland Schimmelpfennig
Translated by David Tushingham
Upcoming for The Great Fire:
The Stratford Festival 2024 Forum Performances
Lazaridis Hall, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, ON
July 25, 26, 27 at 2pm & 4:30pm
August 15, 16, 17 at 2pm & 4:30pm
September 12, 13, 14, 2024 at 2pm and 4:30pm
Conceived and Directed by Alan Dilworth
Featuring Maev Beaty
Sound Design and Mix by Debashis Sinha
Dialogue Editor / Assistant Recording Engineer Emma Pressello
Installation Design by Rick Banville and Alan Dilworth
Production Manager Rick Banville
PR Consultant Katie Saunoris
Graphic Design Jacob Whibley
Special Thanks:
Lorenzo Savoini
Lucy Peacock
Antje Oegel
Jutta Brendemuehl
Chandra Bulucon and Puppy Machine
Translation commission by the Royal Court Theatre
