THE ISLAND TRILOGY

a project adapted and directed by Irina Brook

THE ISLAND OF SLAVES
by Pierre Marivaux (new production)
characters and performers

Iphicrate Hovnatan Avedikian

Arlequin Jeremias Nussbaum

Trivelin Augustin Ruhabura

Euphrosine Isabelle Townsend

Cléanthis Ysmahane Yaquini

Caliban Hovnatan Avedikian

Prospero, Stefano Renato Giuliani

Ariel Scott Koehler

Ferdinand, Trinculo Jeremias Nussbaum

Miranda Ysmahane Yaquini

Professor, Tiresia, Marine, several roles Renato Giuliani

Marine, Poseidone, Hermes, several roles Scott Koehler

Ulysses, Telemachus Jeremias Nussbaum

Penelope, Poliphemus, Circe, Lotofaga Ysmahane Yaquini

assistant director Geoffrey Carey
company manager Renato Giuliani

set design Noëlle Ginefri-Corbel

sound design Samuel Serandour

lighting design Thibault Ducros

stage manager / props master Philippe Jasko

production assistant Angelo Nonelli

production coordinator Virginia Forlani

An Odyssey is particularly recommended for children and families.

Irina’sDreamTheatre invites you to join us as we travel from island to island on an action-packed quest, a journey of self-discovery.

Each island draws us into a different world and atmosphere, but beyond appearances, beyond the sand, the sea and the blue skies, we find that in each of the microcosms we are confronted by profound questions about our humanity, our emotions and our behaviour.

We follow Ulysses on his mythical adventures as he tries to find his way home; on the way, we see him escape the intoxicating lure of the Lotus-eaters, outwit the blood-thirsty Cyclop, resist the call of the sirens, and almost succumb to charms of the sorceress Circe, before reaching his beloved family in Ithaca. This is a journey of wits, of challenges, of passions and of the senses.

At the end there is no pity for Penelope’s suitors; no forgiveness. Only revenge.

Next, we find ourselves shipwrecked on Prospero’s Island: this is a seemingly enchanted place, full of music and magic. But there is a darker side to what we first perceive, as this island is controlled by a powerful tyrant: the esoteric magician-chef Prospero. Its sole inhabitants are his daughter, Miranda, the monster, Caliban, and a spirit of the island, Ariel, young people who all, in their own different ways, share one and the same dream: to escape Prospero’s patriarchal domination to gain independence and freedom.

This island provides a deeper question into the heart of man: how do we allow those we love to be free, to be themselves; how do we use or abuse our power over others? And ultimately, can we forgive and let go?

Finally, we have a crash-landing on the Island of Slaves. This is a clearly an utopian island, ruled by idealised values of justice and equal rights, inspired by the thinking and writings of the Age of Enlightenment. This is a place where social experiment is deemed necessary for the common good. Here we find a mysterious « ruler », Trivelin. An ex-slave who has made it his life-search to study people’s behaviour: when masters and slaves land on his island, he tests them by reversing their roles in society, with the ultimate hope that this exercise will « cure » them from selfishness.

On this island, we can dream of a world where kindness, generosity, compassion and forgiveness count above anything else.

Daughter of director Peter Brook and actress Natasha Parry, Irina Brook is a child of the theatre. Born in Paris, she spent grew up between England and France. At eighteen, she went to New York to study acting with Stella Adler and began acting Off- off -Broadway. Back in Paris, she performed in The Cherry Orchard under her father’s direction at the Bouffes Du Nord. She then moved to London and acted in film, television and numerous theatre productions. She directed her first production A Beast On The Moon by Richard Kalinoski, in London in 1996. She realized immediately that her real vocation was directing, not acting. This was followed by Madame Klein and All’s Well That Ends Well. In 1998 she created the French version of A Beast On The Moon at the Theatre de Vidy -Lausanne, then at MC93-Bobigny and finally , after an international tour, at the Theatre de l’Oeuvre in Paris. She received five Moliere awards (including best direction and best show). She also directed the television version, for which she received the Prix Mitrani. She was then invited by Ariane Mnouchkine to work with the troupe of the Theatre du Soleil. They restaged a french version of All’s Well That Ends Well at the Avignon Festival. In 2000, she staged Katherine Burger’s Resonance at the Theatre de l’Atelier, and received another Moliere award and the SACD prize Nouvel Espoir ( Best Newcomer). She created a one hour version of Homer’s Odyssey for the Festival of Sartrouville.( for young audiences). After this came Juliette and Romeo at Vidy - Lausanne and the Théâtre National de Chaillot in 2002; Bernard Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa for Vidy and Bobigny , which also was invited to play in Tokyo. She directed Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie at the Theatre de l’Atelier, Brecht’s The Good Person Of Schezuan at Lausanne and Chaillot, which then toured for a year. Next came Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge at San Luis Rey at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne and the Théâtre de Sceaux , and The Island of Slaves by Marivaux at the Théâtre de l’Atelier.

In 2006, Irina was asked to recreate her The Glass Menagerie with Japanese actors at the New National theater of Tokyo.

She created En Attendant le Songe (Waiting For The Dream) in 2005, her version of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream for six men, first produced by the Dedans-Dehors Brétigny Festival and then the Villeneuve les Avignon before a French and European tour and a month at the Bouffes du Nord (December 2007). The production has played over 300 times in France and all over the world, including in Canada and New York. She then put together her own company, in association with Olivier Peyronnaud and the MCNN ( Nevers): La Compagnie Irina Brook and they created Somewhere… a Mancha, inspired by Don Quichotte, for Villeneuve-les-Avignon in July 2008, and then in Paris and on tour. Her first opera was The Magic Flute which she co-directed with Dan Jemmett, for the Dutch Reisopera, (conductor Ton Koopman.). Next came Eugene Onegin at Aix-en-Provence followed by La Cenerentola at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Teatro Comunale of Bologna and the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. She also directed La Traviata in Bologna and Lille. And Haendel’s Giulio Cesare at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. In 2007, the Teatro Real of Madrid invited her to direct Il Burbero di Buon Cuore by Martin y Soler. This was revived in 2011 in Barcelona. Since 2009, her company has been touring all their productions: An Odyssey, En Attendant le Songe, and Somewhere la Mancha. The company created Tempete!, taken from Shakespeare’s Tempest. Irina put together a new show in 2010 in NY at La Mama: La Vie Materielle, with texts by Marguerite Duras and VirginiaWoolf and live original music by Sadie Jemmett. In 2011 she created Pan, her version Barrie’s Peter Pan, at the Theatre de Paris. In July 2012 she was invited to Salzburg Festival to create Ibsen’s Peer Gynt for the Salzburg Festival, and also to show her company’s Tempest!. This year she has re-imagined her company under the new name of IRINA’S DREAMTHEATRE, in collaboration with Parisian producer and literary agent, Marie Cecile Renauld and Marie-Astrid Perimony. She recreated La Vie Materielle this January 2013 in France with the MCNN, for a small tour. After her partecipation to Spoleto56 Festival of 2Worlds with The Island Trilogy, next April 2014, she will direct Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore for the Berlin Deutschesopera and Don Pasquale at the Vienna Opera in April 2015. In 2002, Irina Brook was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.