Digital Programmes

Interiors conjures up the lit tenement windows of nocturnal Glasgow and the more isolated climes of the snowy Arctic north, where it is set in our imaginations; a mysterious place where the people who survive the long dark winters are ones with the solace of society around them. It’s about human contact, the need to be in the same place, the need to party, to reach out and touch. It’s about the conflict between inside and outside, our thoughts against our actions, the sanctuary of a room against the danger or beauty outside.

Although in 2009 we acknowledged the delicate influence of L’Interieur by Maurice Maeterlinck, the comparison now seems unhelpful. Whilst Interiors perhaps echoes some of the charged fatalism of Maeterlinck’s play, it’s really something quite different and certainly not a version or interpretation. This quote by the Venerable Bede is more important:

‘Humankind's present life upon earth is like the swift flight of a sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you sit at dinner on a winter’s day, with your friends and counsellors. In the midst there is a comforting fire to warm the hall but outside the wintry storms of snow are raging. The sparrow flies swiftly in at one door and out at another. Whilst he is inside, he is safe from the wintry storms, but after a short moment of warmth, he immediately vanishes from sight, returning to the winter whence he came. Man appears on earth for a little while, but of what went before this life or what follows, we know nothing at all.’

Our protagonists are guests at a meal but they’re also sparrows, afraid, like most of us, of what awaits outside.

Performers

Stefan Adegbola
Performer

Stefan Adegbola’s theatre work includes: The High Table at the Bush Theatre; Botticelli in the Fire at Hampstead Theatre; Richard III for Headlong, Bristol Old Vic and Alexandra Palace; Titus Andronicus for the RSC in Stratford-Upon-Avon and at the Barbican; The Convert at the Gate Theatre; The Christians, co-produced by the Gate Theatre and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh; and Red Dust Road for National Theatre of Scotland. Film and TV include: McDonald and Dodds, Lincoln, Extinction, Blitz, Enterprice and Doctor Who.

Lola Aluko
Performer

Lola Aluko is currently training at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on the BA Acting course. Theatre while training includes: The Seagull and Human Animals. TV includes The Demon Headmaster. This production marks her professional stage debut.

Elicia Daly
Performer

Elicia Daly is a Creative Associate of Vanishing Point. Originally from London, she graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and went on to appear in Her Naked Skin, directed by Howard Davies, at the National Theatre. Whilst at the National Theatre she was involved in developing Vanishing Point’s Interiors. Other productions with Vanishing Point include The Metamorphosis, The Dark Carnival, Bluebeard's Castle and The 8th Door (a co-production with Scottish Opera), The Destroyed Room (a co-production with Battersea Arts Centre/Tron Theatre/Eden Court), Tomorrow (an international co-production), and The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler (in collaboration with National Theatre of Scotland), which was also recorded for BBC Radio 3. Other recent theatre includes: Christmas Dinner at the Edinburgh Lyceum; Red Dust Road for the National Theatre of Scotland; Fanny and Faggot at Trafalgar Studios, with director Steve Keyworth; Purge at the Arcola Theatre, with director Elgiva Field; and Fen at the National Theatre Studio, with director Ria Parry. Elicia Daly’s work for TV includes: EastEnders, Call the Midwife and Holby City.

Pauline Goldsmith
Performer

Pauline Goldsmith has worked with Vanishing Point Theatre for over twenty years as an actor, writer and creative associate. She also creates her own comedy shows, including Bright Colours Only, which she toured internationally in a hearse. She is a double nominee of The Stage Best Actress Award, which she won for Samuel Beckett’s Not I. Most recent work includes the Olivier Award-winning Baby Reindeer, American Absurdum’s The House, and Beverley Hood’s Eidolon. Pauline Goldsmith hails from Belfast and lives in Glasgow.

Paul Thomas Hickey
Performer

Paul Thomas Hickey has worked professionally in theatre, TV, film and radio for over 30 years, throughout the UK and internationally. Previous productions with Vanishing Point include The Metamorphosis, Interiors, Home Hindrance and Wonderland. He has also performed with Citizens’ Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, Traverse Theatre, Dundee Rep, Paines Plough, Tron Theatre, National Theatre Of Scotland, Suspect Culture, Raindog, the Young Vic, Bush Theatre, the Royal Court and The Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic. TV and film include The Britoil Fraud, Nightlife, Cardiac Arrest, Casualty, Taggart, The Bill, Take the High Road, River City, Hope Springs, The Jacobites, Tinseltown, California Sunshine, Wanting and Getting, Summersault, Wasted, Perfect Sense, and The Angels’ Share.

Kristian Lustre
Performer

Kristian Lustre holds a HND Diploma from Performing Arts Studio Scotland. His recent theatre work includes Once You See the Smoke with the Scottish Youth Theatre and Revolting at the Traverse Theatre.

Sergio Di Paola
Performer

Sergio Di Paola trained at and graduated from the Academy of Drama Arts of the Bellini Theatre of Naples, Italy, and attended Décroux method pantomime training courses directed by Eugenio Ravo, Yves Lebreton and Julie Goel. He has been awarded the ‘Comix’ National Prize at Studio 1 Theatre in Rome and the Critics’ Prize at Martina Franca and Modena Cabaret Festivals. He has collaborated with international theatre company Teatro Meridional – Madrid. Theatre work includes: Mercadante Theatre of Naples directed by Renato Carpentieri; Pirandello’s The Giants, a theatre-circus show directed by Davide Iodice at the Venice Biennale; The Thief and the Milonga, directed by Lindsay Kemp at the Versiliana Festival; Romeo & Juliet, a night of organized raving directed by Paolo Rossi; Napoletango, directed by Giancarlo Sepe at the Naples Theatre Festival, and Interiors directed by Matthew Lenton. He is the author and the protagonist of a solo pantomime show, Mr Alone's Misadventures, and wrote two plays that have been staged at festivals: Mother Minnie's Sons, inspired by the Marx Brothers, with Lucio Allocca; and The Other Magnificent Jerry, inspired by Jerry Lewis, with Massimo De Matteo. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Cirque du Soleil clown team. He is a co-founder of the Nouveau Théâtre de Poche of Naples, where he trains students in Commedia dell’Arte and clowning.

Aurora Peres
Performer

Since graduating from the Silvio d’Amico National Academy of Drama in Rome, Aurora Peres has worked with the directors Gigi Proietti, Critstina Pezzoli, G. Barberio Corsetti, Andrea Baracco and Giorgina Pi. Her work on stage includes: Constellations by Nick Payne, directed by Silvio Peroni; Vita di Edoardo II of England by Brecht and King Lear directed by Andrea Baracco; Fred's Diner by Penelope Skinner, directed by Giacomo Bisordi; The Glass Menagerie directed by Jiuri Ferrini; and A Doll’s House, directed by Arthur Naucyziel as part of Franco Quadri’s Ecole des Maitres Project. She was involved in Fausto Paravidino's project, Crisi. Her film work includes The Wedding Director, Vincere, Il Traditore and Esterno Notte (a work in progress) with Marco Bellocchio; and Prima di andar via, directed by Michele Placido.

Alana Jackson
Understudy

Alana Jackson graduated from the BA Acting course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2020. Recent theatre includes: The Metamorphosis with Vanishing Point, which is due to tour again this year; and Mary and Ada Set the World to Rights for Òran Mór in Glasgow. Other work during training included Middletown, A View from the Bridge, and The Haunted Hotel (a radio production with BBC Scotland). TV includes Scot Squad.

Davide Pini Carenzi
Understudy and Associate Director

Davide Pini Carenzi was born in Cremona in the north of Italy. As an actor he has attended workshops and seminars led by Enrico Bonavera, Claudia Contin, Mariano Dammacco, Emma Dante, Danio Manfredini, Ferruccio Merisi and Gabriele Vacis. He has had singing lessons and vocal training with Key Foster Jackson and Antonella Talamonti and has attended vocational training for apprentice actors with Stefano Geraci, Elisa Cuppini, Massimiliano Civica and Piotr Boroski at Fondazione Pontedera Teatro. Experienced in classical dance and acrobatics, Davide Pini Carenzi is a graduate in Theatrical Ideation and Production and Performing Arts from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Brescia. He has performed in Infinite Passioni directed by Mariano Dammacco; Aspettando Godot directed by Roberto Bacci; Che tragedia! directed by Annalisa Bianco and Virginio Liberti Davide, and Ditegli sempre di sì directed by Geppy Gleijeses. He has written and performed in Nei polsi, un debole battito and Campo Santo monologues.

 

Creative team

Matthew Lenton
Concept and direction

Matthew Lenton is the founder and artistic director of Vanishing Point. His work with Vanishing Point has been performed across Europe, South America, Russia, Asia and China. Recent productions include: The Metamorphosis, a co-production with Emilia Romagna Teatro and Tron Theatre, which opened for three nights in Glasgow in March 2020 before closing for lockdown; The Dark Carnival, a co-production with Citizens Theatre created with the band A New International, and The Dark Carnival Unplugged, a stripped back rural touring version; Tabula Rasa, a co-production with Scottish Ensemble based on the music of Arvo Pärt; Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Lliam Paterson’s The 8th Door with Scottish Opera; The Destroyed Room at the Edinburgh International Festival; Interiors at the Edinburgh International Festival, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, FIBA Buenos Aires, Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, Stanislavsky Festival Moscow, Santiago A Mil Chile, BOZAR Brussels, Brighton Festival, New Classics of Europe Festival and Lodz/Shanghai Grand Theatre; Tomorrow at Brighton Festival, Cena Contemporanea Festival Brasilia, Stanislavsky Festival Moscow, and Hangzhou Westbrook International Arts Festival China; and The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler for National Theatre of Scotland and Brighton Festival.

Recent work outside Vanishing Point includes: 1984 for Emilia Romagna Teatro, CSS Udine, Teatro Bonci Cesena and Teatro Bellini Napoli; Charlie Sonata by Douglas Maxwell and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh; The Merchant of Venice for the National Theatre of Kosovo; Striptease and Out at Sea for FIT Festival, Lugano; Mister Holgado at the Unicorn Theatre; and Home for National Theatre of Scotland.

In 2010, Matthew Lenton became the first British director of the Ecole des Maitres, a masterclass for young actors from across Europe presented in Udine, Napoli, Brussels, Rheims and Lisbon. He teaches regularly at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he sees his work with students as a crucial part of his own continued learning experience. Productions at RCS include Circle of Fifths by Szymona Bogacza, Dracula by Liz Lochead, Roberto Zucco by Bernard Marie Koltes, The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Ivanov by Anton Chekhov.

Pamela Carter
Dramaturg

Pamela Carter is a writer for performance, director and dramaturg. Her work has been produced in the UK and internationally since 2004. Her plays and libretti include We Are in Time for Scottish Ensemble and Untitled Projects; Them! and Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner for National Theatre of Scotland; The End of Eddy for the Unicorn Theatre and Untitled Projects; LINES at The Yard Theatre; and Skåne at Hampstead Theatre. As a dramaturg she has also worked with The Pappy Show, Untitled Projects, Graeae, Holly Blakey Dance, Malmö Opera, DAU Films and Casson Mann Design.

Kai Fischer
Set and Lighting Designer

Kai Fischer trained at Glasgow University and HDM Stuttgart. His work with Vanishing Point includes set, lighting and projection designs for The 8th Door and Bluebeard's Castle with Scottish Opera; The Destroyed Room, Wonderland and Saturday Night; set and lighting for The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, The Beggar’s Opera, Little Otik, Subway, Mancub, Lost Ones, Glimpse, Blackout and Last Stand, as well as lighting for Tabula Rasa and Tomorrow. His earlier work with Vanishing Point included co-directing and co-designing Stars Beneath the Sea, Invisible Man and A Brief History of Time.

His other design work for theatre includes set, lighting and projection design for The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff for Northern Stage and Harbourfront Center Toronto; Inés de Castro for Scottish Opera; Mouthpiece at the Traverse Theatre; set and lighting for Grit for Pachamama; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Wondrous Flittings at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh; Mister Holgado at the Unicorn Theatre; Somersaults, Mancub, Allotment 3, Allotment 4, and Home Caithness for National Theatre of Scotland, and Enough at the Traverse; as well as set and costume for Tracks of the Winter Bear at the Traverse; and numerous lighting designs for Citizens Theatre Glasgow, Dundee Rep, Lung Ha’s, National Theatre of Scotland, Perth Theatre, RCS, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (New York), the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, SweetScar, Theatre Babel, the Traverse Theatre, Tron Theatre, Beckman Unicorn and the Young Vic.

His own projects include Last Dream (On Earth), produced in association with National Theatre of Scotland and Tron Theatre Glasgow, and Entartet, a performance and installation produced with Vanishing Point and CCA Glasgow. Kai Fischer also directed and designed a production of Gaslight for Perth Theatre.

Alasdair Macrae
Music and Sound Designer

Alasdair Macrae (Aly) studied theatre arts at Langside College, Glasgow. He has worked as an actor, musician, composer, and sound designer for a number of companies including National Theatre of Scotland, the National Theatre of Great Britain, Scottish Opera, the Royal Court, Northern Stage, Dundee Rep, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, the Traverse Theatre, Tron Theatre, Communicado and The Arches Theatre Company, Glasgow. For Vanishing Point his work includes: Invisible Man, Lost Ones, Subway, Interiors and The Beggar’s Opera. He won the Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best Use of Music and Sound for The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart for National Theatre of Scotland, Subway for Vanishing Point and The Government Inspector for Communicado. He has also won a Herald Angel Award and two Fringe First Awards.

Finn Ross
Projection and Video Designer

Finn Ross has won two Olivier Awards, a Tony and three Drama Desk Awards.

Recent work in theatre includes: Back to the Future, Frozen and Les Misérables in the West End; Sweet Charity at the Donmar; Mean Girls on Broadway; Bat out of Hell in the West End and internationally; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End and on Broadway; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on Broadway, in the West End and on tour; Jagged Little Pill and In the Body of the World for the American Repertory Theatre and on Broadway; American Psycho on Broadway and at the Almeida; Betrayal on Broadway; Chimerica at the Almeida and in the West End; The Tempest at the RSC and the Barbican; and The Master and Margarita, All My Sons and Shunkin for Complicité. Opera includes: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny for the Royal Opera House; Missa Solemnis for the LA Philharmonic; Benvenuto Cellini, The Death of Klinghoffer, Death in Venice, The Damnation of Faust and Don Giovanni for ENO; Hänsel und Gretel, Zauberflöte and A Dog’s Heart for DNO, Amsterdam; La clemenza di Tito and Mr Brouček for Opera North; Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Béatrice et Bénédict and The Turn of the Screw for Theatre an der Wien; and Rinaldo at Glyndebourne. Dance includes Anna Karenina for The Joffrey Ballet; The Nutcracker for Atlanta Ballet; and The Feeling of Going for Skånes Dansteater and Malmö Opera.

Eve Lambert
Costume Designer

Eve Lambert trained at the College Marie-Victorin, Montréal, studying Fashion Design, before continuing her education at the Edinburgh College of Art in Performance Costume. With Vanishing Point, she has worked on The Beggar’s Opera and the award-winning Interiors which has toured internationally. Eve Lambert has designed costumes for many contemporary dance companies including Errol White Dance, David Hughes Dance, X-Factor Dance and for Australian choreographer Lina Limosani. She is also experienced in designing costumes for puppetry and street theatre having worked with the Puppet Lab on productions including Big Man Walking, The Wishgatherers, The Gift and The Big Shop Inverness. She also designed costumes for Heer Ranjha by Ankur productions. Now resident in Québec, Canada, Eve Lambert divides her time between designing set and costumes for touring social theatre company Théâtre Parminou, growing bio vegetables on her co-owned farm and raising her three children.

Vanishing Point

Vanishing Point is Scotland’s foremost artist-led independent theatre company, internationally recognised and acclaimed for its distinctive, ground-breaking and visionary work. Its mission is to create world class, genre-defying theatre for venues of varying scales – from international stages to local village halls – with a commitment to performing for audiences across Scotland, wherever they live and however remote they may be.

Now in its 22nd year, the Glasgow-based company has developed an international reputation for creating bold and ambitious performances that are visceral, visual and entertaining. It has delivered new and exciting collaborations and cross-art form productions across Scotland and abroad.

In recent years it presented its largest theatre production to date, The Dark Carnival – a collaboration with the Citizens Theatre and Dundee Rep and the Glasgow band A New International – which was followed by The Dark Carnival: Unplugged, introducing the company’s new model of small-scale touring theatre which enables more people across Scotland to experience a Vanishing Point production. Prior to this the company had worked with two of Scotland’s national companies – Scottish Opera and National Theatre of Scotland – and one of Europe’s leading string orchestras and Scottish Ensemble to create new productions. The company’s recent collaboration with the Tron Theatre – on a critically acclaimed production of The Metamorphosis – was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, and will now tour during spring 2022.

In the summer of 2016 the company was invited to appear at the Edinburgh International Festival presenting a double bill of the internationally-acclaimed Interiors with the more recent production The Destroyed Room. This EIF appearance followed sell-out performances of Tomorrow at the Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as part of the Made in Scotland 2015 Programme.

Vanishing Point’s international work has continued apace with their debut performances in China in 2016 with Tomorrow, and appearances at FIT in Lugano in September 2017 with Striptease and Out at Sea, a small-scale work which had originally been seen at the Citizens Theatre in 2015. A version of The Destroyed Room was produced to acclaim by Greek Theatre Company, Mneme in January 2018. Vanishing Point presented Interiors in China and South Korea in 2018 and 2019. Plans for its international collaboration with ERT Festival on an Italian-language version of The Metamorphosis were put on hold due to Covid-19, but the production finally premiered in October 2021. The company has also just announced a collaboration with Kanagawa Arts Theatre in Tokyo which will start in 2022 and include performances in Scotland and Japan in 2023.

More recently Vanishing Point has begun to support a new generation of talent through its own ‘Unplugged’ productions and its awards programme Everyone is Creative. During the Covid-19 pandemic the company has also co-produced with Brite Theater the innovative theatre piece for lockdown, Deliverance.

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