Inspired by the book by Trevor Norton
Directed by Matthew Lenton
Set and Lighting designed by Kai Fischer
Original Music by John Anderson
Stars Beneath The Sea is a show about being underwater. It tells the story of the brave and brilliant pioneers of deep sea diving, and one man in particular, who pushed his life and sometimes the lives of others, to the limit. It is a show about depth, beauty and determination and incredibly stupid ideas, about the lonely impulse of delight that led people on hilarious journeys towards ingenious invention as well as tragic failure. Stars Beneath The Sea takes audiences to a place they never expected to go, but will never want to leave. Combining physical performance, animation, original music and projection, this is an exciting, action packed, funny and inventively visual show. Come and join us underwater.
Stars Beneath the Sea premiered at Tramway, Glasgow in May 2003 and toured to Junction CDC, Cambridge, The Lemon Tree Aberdeen, Cumbernauld Theatre, Leeds Metropolitan Studio Theatre, MacRobert Stirling, Traverse Theatre (Bank of Scotland Edinburgh International Children’s Festival). The show was performed by Sandy Grierson, Sean Hay, Skye Loneragan and Itxaso Moreno. Stars Beneath the Sea was revived in a production at the Assembly Rooms for the Edinburgh Festival. The revival was performed by Sandy Grierson, Sean Hay and Itxaso Moreno.
“Vanishing Point have established a reputation for exemplary stagecraft. Part of the magic is in the puppeteering…a lot of it is in the wit and attention to detail…but what elevates this production above other small scale theatre is the way it hints at things way beyond its own limits.”
The Times
“Seriously good theatre for all the family.”
Mail on Sunday
“Director Matthew Lenton takes on all comers in his ability to generate visual devices that carry both narrative and metaphorical weight.”
Metro
Invisible Man is the wordless story of an improbable imposture. A violin maker and her husband make beautiful instruments for a brutal buyer, who profits by exporting them across the border to the city that glows in the distance. Hypnotised by dreams of the city and the freedom it offers, one night the man makes a break for it, leaving the woman to face the music. But nearby, a prisoner escapes from his cell and arrives at the house of the woman. Frightened at first, they soon begin a daring façade in the face of increasingly suspicious authorities. Combining physical performance, puppetry, projected digital imagery and an original music score, Invisible Man is a haunting and deeply atmospheric show.
“Bubbling over with sex and violins…By all but dumping words, the mother of invention has come into the spotlight to create a movingly roughshod collage of sound and vision.”
The Herald
“What is striking about this one hour show is its sheer visual beauty…The Vanishing Point team bring the ideas together with terrific lyricism and flair, creating a dark domestic space illuminated by lamp-like images of beauty, exoticism or threat, and at one point, breathtakingly transformed – by a single shaft of light – into the towering forest of trees… the movement between the central couple, full of conflict, irritation and passion, is breathtakingly eloquent.
The Scotsman
Directed and designed by Kai Fischer and Matthew Lenton
Text by Kai Fischer, Matthew Lenton, Norman Gray, Paul Johnson
Original Music by Malcolm Lindsay
A Brief History of Time was a site-specific show presented at Tramway, Glasgow in September 2002. The show was performed by Michael Derrington, Robbie Jack, Jamie Harrison, Matthew Lenton, Michelle Rodley, Laura Smales and a committed team of volunteer stewards. Based on Stephen Hawking’s bestselling book, A Brief History of Time is about the universe, time and the urge to explore that leads humankind on a potentially infinite search for knowledge and ultimate answers. Embarking in groups of twelve, audiences begin a visceral journey around the spaces of Tramway. They encounter performance, animation and a sound and video installation, before indulging in a sinister game of cards which separates winners from losers. Winners are led one by one into the vast pitch darkness of Tramway 1, where faint images emerge from the darkness, before being led blindfolded into a nearby church. Here they are reunited with the losers, who have been on a journey of their own, for the final sequence.
“This is the infinite as ultimate. Moving stuff, for sure.”
The Herald
“What Vanishing Point have created in this show is a spiritual journey of the most ancient kind, a little pilgrimage from light to dark and back again that alters our consciousness and leaves us with and enhanced sense of the wonder and beauty of life. And that is the kind of experience on which it’s difficult to place a price.”
The Scotsman
“A provocative and intelligent evocation of an idea…stylistically and intellectually bold.”
Sunday Herald
Written and directed by Matthew Lenton.
Adapted from the play by Maurice Maeterlinck.
The Sightless was first performed in 1999 at the Ediburgh Festival. The show was performed by Brian Conaghan, Anna Duffield, Pauline Goldsmith, Matthew Lenton, Alastair Rolls and Al Seed. The Sightless was revived in September and October 2001 at The Tron Theatre, Glasgow. This version was performed by Michael Derrington, David Ireland, Matthew Lenton, Gary McInnes, Hester Musson and Shernaz Patel. In a place, which not a single shaft of light penetrates, a group of men and women, blind to their surroundings, sit separated from each other. Abandoned by their sighted leader they grow ever more afraid of the darkness that envelopes them. The Sightless, performed in total darkness, is an unnerving thriller about perception, prejudice and the extent to which the fears that haunt us come from within.
Originally performed at BAC, London.
“This is not an experience for the claustrophobic or fragile. But it is intense, revealing and beautifully performed.”
The Scotsman
“An unsettling, vivid and intense experience.”
The Herald
Directed by Matthew Lenton and Alistair Rolls
Text by Matthew Lenton, with Anthea McKinlay and John Killick?Set
Lighting designed by Kai Fischer
Original Music by Malcolm Lindsay
Glimpse was performed by Paul Cunningham, Kay Gallie and Hope Ross.
Glimpse premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in January 2001 before touring to The Tron Theatre Glasgow, Dundee Rep, The Lemon Tree Aberdeen, Unity Theatre, Liverpool and Portsmouth Arts Centre. Glimpse was created through six weeks working with dementia patients and their carers at a day centre in the Scottish borders. Glimpse is the story of an archaeologist who has forgotten her greatest discovery. Affected by dementia, she lives in a world where her television talks to her and flowers grow from the walls of her room. Four hundred years before, an old woman is stranded with her son in the bleak wilderness of Sutherland, surrounded by the peat bogs that eventually claim her life. As the dawn emerges, so does the connection between these ghostly figures, centuries apart but strangely linked by an umbilical chord that spans the ages.
“A moving and occasionally disquieting piece of theatre…brings insight to this neglected section of our culture with a kind of teasing, primal whimsicality.”
The List
“Without a trace of polemic, we are deftly asked how many of our current attitudes to mental health are reflected in the ignorance of Mairi’s son Charles, who is torn, in turns, between cruel terror and bewildered compassion…If the sometimes poetic text is quietly impressive, the performances of the three strong cast are commensurate to its demands… Kai Fischer’s fine semi abstract set and Malcolm Lindsay’s excellent music add to the sense of seamless theatricality.”
Scotland on Sunday
“At first sight, there is a huge impertinence in Vanishing Point’s take on senile dementia… The company has the cheek to suggest there is a sort of poetry in this condition… By the end of Glimpse, it was clear here was a very sensitive and thoughtful play.”
Mail On Sunday
“A thought provoking and memorable production.”
The Stage
Directed by Matthew Lenton?Set
Lighting designed by Kai Fischer
Costumes by Moira Bromley-Wiggins
A boy arrives in the city shut in his father’s suitcase and begins a dark and surreal journey through life. This is his story. A remarkable journey involving refugees, a stolen moon, disputed ownership, inept policemen and a revolt among the dead. Strange landscapes and figures, comic and tragic, materialise and disappear like stories drifting through the imagination.
Blackout premiered at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, before touring to The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, The Wynd Theatre in Melrose, MacRobert in Stirling, The Lochside Theatre in Castle Douglas and The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen. Blackout was performed by Brian Conaghan, Alastair Rolls, Al Seed and Claire Waugh.
“An understated success, riveting performances all round…a fine achievement for a young company.”
Mail on Sunday
“Blackout was one weird, eerie play… proves that devised theatre can be as creative as the work of a single visionary writer.”
Go Magazine
“Ambitious and visually arresting.”
Metro
“Blackout bears evidence to Vanishing Point’s growing maturity.”
Edinburgh Evening News
Directed by Matthew Lenton
Text by Matthew Lenton
Set and Lighting designed by Kai Fischer
Last Stand premiered at Gilmorehill G12 in Glasgow before touring to East Kilbride Arts Centre and The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Last Stand was performed by Brian Conaghan, Giovanna Mackenna and Al Seed.
In a distant country, a man dreams of walking barefoot on the grass for the last time in his life. Back home, his estranged brother receives a parcel from death row containing stories of surreal but strangely familiar incidents. These incidents relate to a past they both remember and to a photograph taken years ago, in which they stand side by side. Last Stand is a distinctively visual show about brotherhood, memory, time and reflection, in which light paints amazing pictures and stories materialise out of thin air.
“A highly polished and distinctive piece of work. Vanishing Point already looks set to make its mark…Poetry in motion.”
The Times
“Vanishing Point did something really rather special at the Traverse last night. It caught the complete and undivided attention of every member of the sell out audience…it makes you think and it makes you laugh… the stories are fragments of genius.”
Edinburgh Evening News
“Visually elegant and tremendously atmospheric.”
The Scotsman