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City of Glass

HOME, Manchester & Lyric, London

2017

★★★★
Neo-noir thriller that rewrites the rulebook for theatre design.
★★★★
Visually astonishing… totally different from anything else you might see at the theatre
★★★★
You can hardly believe that such a small band have created this extraordinary world
★★★★★
Truly Innovative; a marriage of technology and live performance that heralds a new era of vital, sensual, liminal theatre
★★★★
A stunning visual and verbal experience, with long passages of narrative illustrated with superb, often entrancing, video imagery.
★★★★★
An intense, beautiful, visually-glorious experience

It started with a phone call…

When reclusive crime writer Daniel Quinn receives a mysterious phone call from a man seeking a private detective in the middle of the night, he quickly and unwittingly becomes the protagonist in a real-life thriller of his own. He falls under the spell of a strange and seductive woman, who engages him to protect her young husband from his sociopathic father. As the familiar territory of the noir detective genre gives way to something altogether more disturbing and unpredictable, Quinn becomes consumed by his mission, and begins to lose his grip on reality.

Will he be drawn deeper into the abyss, or could the quest provide the purpose and meaning he needs to rebuild his shattered life?

Opened 2017

HOME Theatre, Manchester & Lyric Theatre, London

Selected Reviews

Impossible to Stage? Multimedia Impresarios Take On Paul Auster
Paul Auster on City of Glass on stage: ‘This goes beyond the realms of my imagination'
Technically innovative and visually extraordinary adaption of Paul Auster’s slippery novella
A show quite unlike anything else on the London stage… hugely ambitious, technologically marvellous, and compellingly hypnotic – an utterly remarkable achievement.
59 Productions are undoubtedly amongst the most innovative and technically advanced design teams currently working in the theatre.
A stunning achievement, shot through with urgency and frenzy, and it oozes class. You will be hard pressed to see better theatre this year.
A tremendously impressive production both in the range of its actors, its hi-tech and seamless stagecraft and its ability to make (relative) sense of Auster’s postmodern masterpiece.
Where Leo Warner’s direction for 59 Productions really scores is in the realm of wizardry, not only do actors transform themselves, the bland setting magically changes thanks to multimedia effects that literally illuminate the set

VR Experience

My name is
Peter Stillman

My Name is Peter Stillman is a brand new Virtual Reality (VR) experience created by 59 Productions and supported by The Space, inspired by American novelist Paul Auster’s first work, The New York Trilogy. It opened at HOME, Manchester in February 2017 and transferred to the Lyric, Hammersmith in London, alongside the stage production of City of Glass in April 2017.

 

Credits

A 59 Productions, Lyric Hammersmith, HOME and Karl Sydow production. Directed, designed and produced by 59 Productions.

Based on the first novel of The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster and the graphic novel by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli

Generously supported by:
Jon and NoraLee Sedmak
Arts Council England
Jerwood Charitable Foundation

 

CAST

Vivienne Acheampong

Mark Edel-Hunt

Chris New

Jack Tarlton

Charlie Cunningham (Lyric only)

Oscar Williams (Lyric only)

Lochlan White (HOME only)

Riley White (HOME only)

CREATIVE TEAM

Adapted by
Duncan Macmillan

Director
Leo Warner

Set Designer
Jenny Melville

Video Designer
Lysander Ashton

Lighting Designer
Matt Daw

Movement Director
Kim Brandstrup

Sound Designer
Gareth Fry

Composer
Nick Powell

Casting Director
Julia Horan CDG

Costume Designer
Molly Einchcomb

Dramaturg (HOME)
Petra Tauscher

Associate Video Designer
Raphael Pimlott

Animators
Joseph Pierce
Edward Stockton
Marco Sandeman
Nicol Scott

Associate Lighting Designer
Leo Woolcock

Facial Tracking Developers
Ollie Lindsey
Adam Child

D3 Programmer
Rowan Pitts

Lighting Programmer
Chris Hirst

Child Casting Director
Louis Hammond CDG

Dialect & Vocal Coach
Nia Lynn

Assistant Director (JMK Leverhulme Scholar)
Piers Black-Hawkins

Assistant Sound Designer / Sound Operator
Harry Johnson

Consultant Magician
Simon Evans

PRODUCTION TEAM

Company Stage Manager
Nick Hill

Stage Manager
Nic Donithorn

Deputy Stage Manager
Edward Salt

Assistant Stage Manager
Damien Stanton

Chaperone (London)
Joy Farrukh

Chaperone (Manchester)
Suzanne Eyre

Costume Supervisor (Lyric)
Ellen McQuaid

Costume Design Assistant
Clara Lopez

Hair and Make-up
Susanna Peretz

 

FOR 59 PRODUCTIONS

Producers
Anna Jameson
Vicky Graham

Production Manager
James Roxburgh

General Manager
Suzanne James

Creative Associate to the Director
Akhila Krishnan

Design Assistants
Matt Taylor
Dale Croft
Claudia Fragoso

Technical Associate
Maximilien Spielbichler

Model Maker
Rachael Smith

 

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Press
Jenn Reynolds PR

Marketing
AKA

Graphic Design
Rebecca Pitt

Photography
Johan Persson

Legal
Sean Egan

Set Construction
Stage One

Lighting Supplier
White Light

Video Supplier
Stage Sound Services