‘one of the UK’s most singular theatre companies’ The Guardian
JUNE 2020: PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE VANISHING POINT STATEMENT ON THE IMMEDIATE AND LONGTERM FUTURE.
Vanishing Point is Scotland’s foremost artist-led independent theatre company, internationally recognised and acclaimed for its distinctive, ground-breaking and visionary work. Our mission is to create world class, international theatre, led by director Matthew Lenton.
Established in 1999, the Company has developed an international reputation for creating bold and ambitious performances that are visceral, visual and entertaining. We explore our contemporary society through a unique lens of abstraction, imagery and text, creating worlds that resemble our own, but are magical and sometimes surreal. We produce highly visual, multimedia theatre infused with haunting poetic visions.
‘an international force’ The Herald
Our perspective is international and multicultural. We collaborate with artists and producers from other countries and cultures, us travelling to them and them to us, thereby enriching life experiences, artistic experiences, the diversity of our respective cultures and the experience of our audiences. We create work that overcomes language barriers and communicates across cultures.
‘In overcoming differences of language, Lenton has developed a theatre of soundless voyeurism, defying every rule of drama… brave and relentless, terrible and necessary’ The Scotsman on Wonderland
Our work has been created and performed in over 20 countries with leading international festivals and venues including Edinburgh International Festival, Buenos Aires International Festival, Santiago A Mil, BOZAR Arts (Brussels), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Stanislavsky Season Festival (Moscow), National Theatre of Portugal (Porto) & Brighton Festival.
Our Ethos
There is no formula to the way we work. We think that if our shows start to resemble each other closely, it's because we're not striving hard enough to find a truthful connection between form and content - the content of each new show is different. So too should the form be. Simply, each time we begin working on a show, we create form and content together, so that each influences and unlocks the other.
If there is something constant in our work, it is an attraction to abstraction, visual and aural poetry and a rejection of naturalism. There is also the rejection of conventional ‘structure’ and received notions of what ‘drama’ or ‘a play’ should be and there is the appeal of darkness, imaginative and physical.
There is the belief that there should be space for an audience to ‘dream on’ to what they see, that not everything should be explained, that not everything is explainable.
There is the belief that watching our work should be like watching dance, without the apparent choreography but with the same meticulous significance of action, or like standing in front of a painting, which begins to move when somebody plays some music. But not like a play.
There is a belief in hard work and a commitment to supporting artists who do not come from a background of privilege or wealth.
There is a belief that ‘doing it your own way’ is better than going through the system.
There is the belief that critics should engage with the invitation the artist is making, and not judge things by their own standards.
There is a belief in the mystery and privacy of the creative and artistic process. It is not something we want to share with everyone. The rehearsal room is an intimate, private place where, primarily, everyone must feel comfortable – to experiment, to make mistakes, to discover, to improvise, play and finally to make something beautiful, moving and mysterious for audiences.
There is a belief that creativity and creative thinking runs through everything and belongs to everyone - not only the artists making the shows, but the producers, operational team and technicians, whose creative thinking and big ideas help propel the company forward.
To enable us to better realise our artistic vision and to celebrate diversity and cultural exchange we aim to continually develop new relationships with partners, collaborators, co-producers and audiences across the world.
Led by Artistic Director, Matthew Lenton, we work with a regular team of creative associates and have developed work and toured our productions around the world, including Brazil, Russia, China and across Europe. We work with students, independent artists, small, mid & large scale venues and festivals across the world.
Current productions available for touring include Tabula Rasa, Tomorrow, Interiors and The Dark Carnival: Unplugged. Whether you are interested in finding out more about developing a partnership, presenting our work or collaborating on something new we are interested to hear from you. In the first instance please contact us on hello@vanishing-point.org
Where We've Been:
Paris, Reims, Quimper (France); Porto, Lisbon, Guimares (Portugal); Naples, Modena, Bologna, Rome, Udine (Italy); Beijing, Shanghai (China); Seoul (South Korea); Lodz (Poland); Santiago (Chile); Buenos Aries (Argentina); Moscow (Russia); Brussels (Belgium); Sau Paulo, Brasilia (Brazil); Lugano (Switzerland); Prishtina (Kosovo); Tbilisi (Georgia); Colombo (Sri Lanka); Skopje (Macedonia); Ajaccio (Corsica), plus all over Scotland.
