This Technicolor Play
Conceived and Directed by John Kurzynowski
Created and Produced by Not Quite Theatre co.
Project in development
“Technicolor” [ tek-ni-kuhl-er ]
noun — a system of making color motion pictures by means of superimposing the three primary colors to produce a final colored print.
adjective — flamboyant or lurid, as in color, meaning, or detail.
Behind the idyllic facade of the postwar American home lurks the melodramatic and flamboyant style of Douglas Sirks’ 1950s Technicolor cinema, shining an overly saturated light on the hypocrisy of outdated social norms that still dominate today’s entertainment and media. By interrogating the impact of Sirk’s 1955 melodramatic masterpiece All That Heaven Allows on contemporary artistic practices, an ensemble of secondary stock characters — the Gossiping Busybody Neighbour, the Local Prominent Businessman, the Free-Spirited Dancing Communist, the Familiar Unassuming Milkman ... and Uncle Bernie — ultimately find themselves searching for sincerity amidst the haze of these outdated norms that permeates their shared liminal space, all while activating the Technicolor tropes of Sirkian filmmaking. What they uncover is the dark underbelly of melodrama — the ugly truth hidden beneath the bright veneer of ridiculously dramatic storytelling. This postdramatic theatrical experiment seeks to expose this underbelly and transpose the lurid worlds of Sirkian cinema to the stage.
This Technicolor Play has received several research & development workshops at SCRUM Studios in London with the following participants and creative team:
Performers: Alex Ansdell, Emma Clark, Lauren Lucy Cook, Dean Elliott, Emily Foxton, Harry French, Jack Gogarty, Ellie McCoy, Tom Neo, Libby Symons
Assistant Director & Photographer: Emily Foxton
Producer: Ellie McCoy
If you are interested in learning more or would like to support the further development of this project, please contact me.
noun — a system of making color motion pictures by means of superimposing the three primary colors to produce a final colored print.
adjective — flamboyant or lurid, as in color, meaning, or detail.
Behind the idyllic facade of the postwar American home lurks the melodramatic and flamboyant style of Douglas Sirks’ 1950s Technicolor cinema, shining an overly saturated light on the hypocrisy of outdated social norms that still dominate today’s entertainment and media. By interrogating the impact of Sirk’s 1955 melodramatic masterpiece All That Heaven Allows on contemporary artistic practices, an ensemble of secondary stock characters — the Gossiping Busybody Neighbour, the Local Prominent Businessman, the Free-Spirited Dancing Communist, the Familiar Unassuming Milkman ... and Uncle Bernie — ultimately find themselves searching for sincerity amidst the haze of these outdated norms that permeates their shared liminal space, all while activating the Technicolor tropes of Sirkian filmmaking. What they uncover is the dark underbelly of melodrama — the ugly truth hidden beneath the bright veneer of ridiculously dramatic storytelling. This postdramatic theatrical experiment seeks to expose this underbelly and transpose the lurid worlds of Sirkian cinema to the stage.
This Technicolor Play has received several research & development workshops at SCRUM Studios in London with the following participants and creative team:
Performers: Alex Ansdell, Emma Clark, Lauren Lucy Cook, Dean Elliott, Emily Foxton, Harry French, Jack Gogarty, Ellie McCoy, Tom Neo, Libby Symons
Assistant Director & Photographer: Emily Foxton
Producer: Ellie McCoy
If you are interested in learning more or would like to support the further development of this project, please contact me.