Elephant's Graveyard will be screened from Thursday 17th - Saturday 19th September 2020
A circus longing to be famous meets a tiny town in Tennessee that wants something to break
the monotony - in the end both get what they wish for with deadly results. The true tale of the
only known lynching of an elephant, the award-winning Elephant’s Graveyard will be available to stream from Thursday 17th September.
Set in September of 1916, the play combines historical fact and legend. Economic value,
vengeance and public image tear up a community who were just looking for a show. Elephant’s
Graveyard explores the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge. This
timely, mesmerising tragedy resonates as it interrogates the repercussions that follow when the
mob get what they demand.
Director Colin Blumenau comments, We shouldn't be feeling too sorry for ourselves or that
COVID and the world are against us. We can still make excellent work, just in a different way. I
spy a gap that sits between the full live experience and that offered by Netflix. I am very excited
about the possibilities that exploring this new medium offers and am thrilled to be working with
such brilliantly talented people to realise this play in this way.
Elephant’s Graveyard is a play that resonates through the decades since the actual events with
which it deals. Every generation faces its challenges of how the human tribe coexists one with
another. This play is about how we take that challenge on. More than that, it's a great story with
all the elements. It's sad, it's funny, it's moving and it's horrifying in equal measure.
the monotony - in the end both get what they wish for with deadly results. The true tale of the
only known lynching of an elephant, the award-winning Elephant’s Graveyard will be available to stream from Thursday 17th September.
Set in September of 1916, the play combines historical fact and legend. Economic value,
vengeance and public image tear up a community who were just looking for a show. Elephant’s
Graveyard explores the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge. This
timely, mesmerising tragedy resonates as it interrogates the repercussions that follow when the
mob get what they demand.
Director Colin Blumenau comments, We shouldn't be feeling too sorry for ourselves or that
COVID and the world are against us. We can still make excellent work, just in a different way. I
spy a gap that sits between the full live experience and that offered by Netflix. I am very excited
about the possibilities that exploring this new medium offers and am thrilled to be working with
such brilliantly talented people to realise this play in this way.
Elephant’s Graveyard is a play that resonates through the decades since the actual events with
which it deals. Every generation faces its challenges of how the human tribe coexists one with
another. This play is about how we take that challenge on. More than that, it's a great story with
all the elements. It's sad, it's funny, it's moving and it's horrifying in equal measure.
CREATIVE TEAM
DIRECTED BY COLIN BLUMENAU
PRODUCED BY COLIN BLUMENAU FOR THE PRODUCTION EXCHANGE
DOUGLAS MCJANNET FOR ARDEN ENTERTAINMENT
EDITED BY PHIL SEALEY
PR CHLOÉ NELKIN CONSULTING
MARKETING BETH NICOLS
PRODUCTION TEAM EMMA DENLY, SOPHIE MATTHEW & FLORRIE WILBY
PRODUCED BY COLIN BLUMENAU FOR THE PRODUCTION EXCHANGE
DOUGLAS MCJANNET FOR ARDEN ENTERTAINMENT
EDITED BY PHIL SEALEY
PR CHLOÉ NELKIN CONSULTING
MARKETING BETH NICOLS
PRODUCTION TEAM EMMA DENLY, SOPHIE MATTHEW & FLORRIE WILBY
THE CAST
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HUNGRY TOWNSPERSON
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BALLET GIRL |
RINGMASTER |
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STEAM SHOEVEL OPERATOR
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ENGINEER |
YOUNG TOWNSPERSON
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TOUR MANAGER
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STRONG MAN
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MUDDY TOWNSPERSON
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TRAINER
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CLOWN
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MARSHAL
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PREACHER
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A BREIF OPINION FROM VIK SIVALINGHAM“A play about the lynching of an elephant?”
Of course, it IS an American play and one must expect a certain amount of theatrics… by which we, in the UK, mean farfetched, ludicrous even! Yet George Brant’s 2008 Keene Prize and David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award winner, The Elephant’s Graveyard is a play that speaks directly to all of us- and more specifically, to the times we live in. |
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Based on true events in the town of Erwin, Tennessee in America’s Deep South, and told in a series of interwoven monologues, Brant cleverly makes the audience complicit as witnesses to the witnesses of the events. Given the South’s bloody history of race relations, playing out in present day with the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA (and internationally) and the ever present suspicion of ‘one rule for them and another for us’ between the haves and the have nots in this country, the topics the play touches on is perhaps starker today that when it was written.
I am thrilled and extremely proud that The Production Exchange is finding ways to engage with artists and audiences alike with this fascinating tale.
I am thrilled and extremely proud that The Production Exchange is finding ways to engage with artists and audiences alike with this fascinating tale.
