Season 2015

The second season featured Twelfth Night, inspired by La Belle Epoque and the free bohemian lifestyle before the onset of war reflecting the sense of Twelfth Night as the last day of Christmas festivities. The run of the show, directed by Helen Tennison, was extended to two weeks, from June 20th until July 4th 2015 and the season was announced in London press launch at Other Palace (formerly St James Theatre).

About “Twelfth Night”

Shakespeare’s wonderfully poetic comedy Twelfth Night, also known as What You Will centres on mistaken identity and on how men and women are transformed by love, or promise of love.
Illyria, the setting of Twelfth Night, is important to the play’s romantic atmosphere. Illyria was an ancient region encompassing the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea which is the coasts of modern day Croatia. It included the city state of the Republic of Ragusa which has been proposed as the setting of the play.
In Illyria, Duke Orsino is sick with love with Lady Olivia, who is in mourning for her recently deceased father and brother. To honour their memory, she has sworn to live like a nun for seven years and refuses to receive any messages from Orsino. On the coast of Illyria, Viola and a ship’s captain are washed ashore following a shipwreck in which Viola believes her twin brother, Sebastian, has died. For protection, she disguises herself as a young man (called Cesario) and gains employment in Orsino’s household, where (s)he quickly becomes a favourite…
Twelfth Night was a time of revelry, in which the norms of society were inverted. Set in the early 20th century, the play will have a magical backdrop in Lovrijenac Fort, one of the most famous open air venues in this part of Europe.

Pre-production gallery

Photography by Andy Barker www.andybarkerphotography.co.uk

A Word from the Director

Twelfth Night is a comedy of mistaken identity, social position and most of all, love. Love in all its variety! Viola, Olivia, Orsino, everyone is helplessly, passionately, madly in love – probably with the wrong person. Love makes fools of them, as it makes fools of us all. In the audience we can relate only too well to the hilarity and tragedy of unrequited love. And there lies the melancholy undertone enriching the humour of this play. Add in a case of mistaken identity, a girl disguised as a boy and you have the perfect Shakespearean comedy.
The stunning setting of Fort Lovrjenac is the perfect location for this lyrical play, even more so because Shakespeare set Twelfth Night in Illyria, on the modern day Dalmatian coat. I’m taking La Belle Epoque as the inspiration for our setting, the free bohemian lifestyle before the onset of war reflects the sense of Twelfth Night as the last day of Christmas festivities. The last day that the rules of the carnival, its madness and disguises can subvert the usual order. This sense that time is running out, explored in the songs of cynical clown Feste, gives a greater intensity to the characters need for love. But as the sun sets, confusions are resolved and our heroes and heroines are united in true love. We are left with a sense that all is finally in its right place, the couples will live happily ever after, we hope…

Helen Tennison

CAST
  • Captain, Sir Andrew Aguecheek: Tom Michael Bylth
  • Curio, Sir Toby Belch, Priest: James Burton
  • Orsino: Jason Eddy
  • Maria: Emma Fenney
  • Malvolio, Antonio: Filip Krenus
  • Olivia: Helen Millar
  • Valentinem Feste, Sebastian: George Oliver
  • Viola (Cesario): Helen Watkinson

All other parts performed by the members of the cast.

TOM MICHAEL BLYTH (Captain, Sir Andrew Aguecheek)

Theatre credits include Cadfael: The Virgin In The Ice (No 1 Tour), The Duchess of Malfi (New Diorama Theatre), More Dead Girls (Theatre 503), The Significant Other Festival (Tristan Bates), The Importance of Being Earnest (No 1 Tour), Macbeth (RSC Dell & Camden People’s Theatre), Twelfth Night (Minack Theatre – Winner of The Minack Trophy 2012), The Trunk (The Space), At Porlock Weir (LOST Theatre),Night of the Hellhound (LOST Theatre), Antigone (The Cockpit), Much Ado About Nothing (The Courtyard),Macbeth (The Scoop), The Importance of Being Earnest (The Courtyard), The Alchemist (Hoxton Hall) andThe Changeling (National Theatre Archive).
Film and TV credits include Jack The Giant Slayer (Legendary Pictures), The Wing (Elbow Productions),Bloody Tales (National Geographic), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe).
www.tomblyth.co.uk

JAMES BURTON (Curio, Sir Toby Belch, Priest)

James trained at Mountview Academy, and St Mary’s University College, London. His theatre credits include: Colonel Brandon in a touring production of SENSE & SENSIBILITY for director Helen Tennison, Jacob Marley and The Ghost Of Christmas Present in Creation Theatre Company’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL in Oxford. Pompey and Agrippa in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (also for Creation), Charles Bovary in Faye Weldon’s MADAM BOVARY: BREAKFAST WITH EMMA (Rosemary Branch, National Tour), and PEER GYNT for the Ibsen Stage Company. He’s played Ben in THE DUMB WAITER (LPC European Tour), Horner in THE COUNTRY WIFE (Courtyard Theatre, London). Mr Toad in THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (National Tour). AMERICAN HAIKU (Jermyn Street Theatre, London), MAMMON INC (Raffles Hotel Theatre, Singapore), and MACBETH and MEASURE FOR MEASURE (for Jack Shepherd at the Arcola Theatre, London).

JASON EDDY (Orsino)

Jason trained at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Theatre includes Operation Magic Carpet (Polka Theatre), Antony & Cleopatra (Shakespeare’s Globe), Three Sisters (Culturcated), The Tempest (Teatro Vivo), Romeo & Juliet (Rosemary Branch), The Odyssey (Teatro Vivo/Albany), Sense & Sensibility (Yvonne Arnaud/UK Regional Tour), Breakfast With Emma (UK Regional Tour), A Midsummer Night’s Dream/Twelfth Night (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Measure For Measure and Othello (Rosemary Branch).  Film includes Forgotten Man (NFA Films), Persona (App Media), The Woman and the Machine (Surpasrealitse) and Beyond Wonderland (DDMB).

EMMA FENNEY (Maria)

Emma trained at Drama Studio London. Her theatre credits include Wuthering Heights (Rosemary Branch Theatre/ Yvonne Arnaud Theatre/ Tour), Kicking and Screaming (Riverside Studios), In the Footsteps of The Mitfords (Asthall Manor/ Theatre Chipping Norton), Sense and Sensibility (National Tour), Pinocchio (Luton Library Theatre), Fawlty Towers (Norwich Playhouse/ Tour), Inherit the Wind (Old Vic Theatre), Something Strange (Arcola Theatre), Casanova (King’s Head Theatre), Jane Eyre (Brockley Jack Studio) and the Old Vic 24 Hour Plays. Her Shakespeare credits include Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival). Emma also records audiobooks and dramas for Audible. Her titles include Wylding Hall, Chaos of the Senses, Now You See Me, Six Degrees of Assassination, An English Ghost Story and Backpack. She is extremely excited and honoured to be performing at the beautiful Fort Lovrijenac this summer. You can visit Emma’s website here: www.emmafenney.co.uk

FILIP KRENUS (Malvolio, Antonio)

Filip trained at East 15 Acting School (BA Acting) and Drama Centre (MA in Classical European Acting). His theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Midsummer Scene Festival, which he also produced for HTTP), King Lear and Dido, Queen of Carthage (Spring Season at Greenwich Theatre), Bent by Martin Sherman (Landor Theatre/Tabard Theatre), School for Scandal (for Red Handed Theatre Company, directed by Jessica Swale), Orestes – Re-Examined (Southwark Playhouse), Peer Gynt (Riverside Studios), Hell Screen (Oval House), Richard III and Macbeth (for the Faction Theatre Company), The Rivals (Camden People’s Theatre), Jane Eyre adapted by Polly Teale (Brockley Jack Theatre) and Shakespeare Inc. (Rosemary Branch Theatre).

HELEN MILLAR (Olivia)

Helen Millar trained at the Drama Centre.  Winner of the Alan Bates award for most outstanding newcomer.  Theatre includes: Death and The Ploughman (Tobacco Factory), Pericles, Two Gentleman of Verona, The Odyssey (Factory Theatre), Dracula’s: The Kisses, In the Footsteps of the Mitford’s (Scary Little Girls), 21 Breaths (Park Theatre), Pygmalion (Garrick Theatre), Macbeth (Broadway Theatre), Breakfast with Emma (Nominated for best actress in the Off West End Awards), Heartbreak House, She Stoops To Conquer, Arcadia (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), 24 hour plays, Symposium, The Spies in Room 502 (The Old Vic), Love of the Nightingale (Rough Fiction), The Consultant, Slice (Theatre 503). TV includes: Casualty, Eastenders, Holby City, Doctors, City Lights.  Film includes: Chemical Wedding, The Brink, Dark Rage, The Evening Was Long, Flash, The Rise and the Fall of the Krays. www.helenmillar.co.uk

GEORGE OLIVER (Valentine, Feste, Sebastian)

This is George’s second project for Honey-Tongued Theatre and Midsummer Scene following last year’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which he played Puck. His other theatre credits include work for Quorum Theatre in France, Vienna’s English Theatre in Austria and various projects in the U.K.
Film work includes the forthcoming The Fall of the Krays, My Brother the Devil, Prowl and SoulBoy. Television work includes parts in BBC Three’s Being Human, ITV’s Mrs Biggs and the children’s show Dani’s House. George is extremely happy to be working again in Dubrovnik and the stunning Fort Lovrjenac.

HELEN WATKINSON (Viola/Cesario)

Helen Watkinson trained at Drama Centre London, The Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute (Moscow), and with The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. She made her professional debut in the 2014 Rosemary Branch/ Yvonne Arnaud Guildford production of Wuthering Heights directed by Helen Tennison. Other stage credits include: Portia in The Merchant Of Venice (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival); Ophelia in Hamlet (Young Shakespeare Company); Ariel in The Tempest (Questors Theatre: RSC Open Stages); Chloe Can (The Lyric Theatre); London 2012 Olympics Team Welcome Ceremonies (NYT); Sophia in That’s Amore (winning play of the British Theatre Challenge 2014); and as W in After Liverpool, the debut production of CubbyHole Theatre Company co-founded by Helen (Rosemary Branch Theatre).

Production gallery

Photographer: Michel Sevelo

CREATIVE TEAM
  • Director: Helen Tennison
  • Executive Producers (Brilliant Events): Darija Mikulandra Žanetić & Jelena Maržić
  • Producer (Honey-tongued TP): Filip Krenus
  • Assistant Director: Fay Lomas
  • Composer: Benedict Davies
  • Musical Director: Amy Tweed
  • Costume Designer: Bryony J. Thompson
  • Assistant Costume Designer: Zjena Glamočanin
  • Lighting Designer: Saša Mondecar
  • Light System: Dubrovnik Summer Festival Team
  • Fight Director: Ronin Traynor
  • Photographer: Andy Barker
  • Hair and Make Up: Ivana Pleša
  • Stage Manager: Virginia Bolfek
  • Technical Manager: Darko Ivanković
  • Sound System: Fifi sound, Milan Tomašić
  • Graphic & Web Design: Davor Pukljak
HELEN TENNISON (Director)

Helen returns to Fort Lovrjenac having directed last year’s Hamlet and Midsummer Scene’s Twelfth Night, which also toured to Vienna’s English Theatre and The Bermuda Festival. As a freelance director, Helen has worked across the UK, Europe and in the United States for venues including Shakespeare’s Globe, Oxford Playhouse, Theatre Royal Winchester, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The Arcola and Soho Theatre. Her productions of Shakespeare include Antony and Cleopatra (Creation Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (CSF), Hamlet, Measure for Measure and The Tempest (The Rosemary Branch), and Titus Andronicus (The University of South Florida). Helen’s tenure as Artist in Residence at the University of South Florida saw the creation of the multi-media Ravens, focused on women, race and identity in American history. With Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud and The Rosemary Branch Helen produced and directed multi Award nominated tours of Fay Weldon’s Breakfast With Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights (which she also adapted). New writing includes work with Kate Kerrow for Women at RADA and The Night Before Christmas for the Herstory Festival. For five years Helen was Artistic Director of Barefeat Physical Theatre, directing numerous devised, physical performances. She has extensive education experience including work with in prisons and is committed to building links between theatre and the community. Work in development includes a new play for 2018 with Creation Theatre, research into the meeting point between naturalism and expressionism and an Arts Council supported interactive multi-media project inspired by The Rape of Lucrece. Helen is Head of the Two Year Acting Course at Drama Studio London. Her production of Alice in Wonderland is currently running at Bicester Village and Oxford University Parks.

FILIP KRENUS (Creative Producer  – Honey-tongued Theatre Productions)

Filip Krenus is celebrating the fifth anniversary of setting up Honey-tongued Theatre Productions this year. When he set it up in 2012, he aimed to create a cultural bridge between the United Kingdom and South-Eastern Europe. He set up and produced the first festival of Croatian contemporary drama in London Short Shrift , which was sponsored by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the United Kingdom. The event featured five top Croatian playwrights and brought to London some of the best young Croatian actors and directors.

He has launched Honey-tongued READINGS – a series of rehearsed readings of both British and South-Eastern European plays and has set up Honeybear Youth Theatre, the children’s theatre branch of Honey-tongued Theatre Productions. Hedgehog’s Home was its first production. In 2015 Filip has set up LittleBIG Shakespeare workshop series for young audiences.

In Croatia, Filip has collaborated with several theatre companies. He has translated the comedy The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Abridged for Teatar EXIT, one of the most acclaimed Croatian theatres. The translation served as a basis for the Croatian version of the project for which he was also assistant director.

He also translated the works of the following playwrights into Croatian: Steven Berkoff, Jim Cartwright, Philip Ridley, Briony Lavery, Clare Dowie and Langford Wilson. For Short Shrift, he translated into English the plays by Croatian playwrights Vlatka Vorkapić and Dino Pešut. He is currently working on producing the UK premiere of Gloria by Ranko Marinković, a Croatian classic play which he has also translated into English.

He has translated into English the comedy Uncle Maroje by one of the greatest Croatian and European Renaissance playwrights Marin Držić.

Filip also translates for audio-visual media (Croatian National Television).

FAY LOMAS (Assistant Director)

Fay’s directing credits include: Berenice (The Space, January 2015) and Balloon (Vault Festival, 2015). She is due to direct a production of Lorca’s Blood Wedding at the Bread and Roses Theatre this summer. Fay’s assistant directing credits include: Dracula: The Kisses, also directed by Helen Tennison (Minack, autumn 2014) and Klippies, directed by Chelsea Walker (Southwark Playhouse, May/June  2015). She is a Resident Casting Director at the Finborough Theatre, where she is a member of the literary team as well. She also works as a reader for the Orange Tree Theatre.

BENEDICT DAVIES (Composer)

As a musician, composer and producer, Ben has worked predominantly from his London based studio producing scores and soundtracks for film and theatre since 2001. Theatre works include Cinderella and Alice (Creation Theatre), Twelfth Night (Midsummer Scene), Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility and Breakfast with Emma (Rosemary Branch/Tennison Quirk), Anthony and Cleopatra (Creation), Waterfall (Anu Kumar/Nitin Sawhney) and Pop’Pea (Theatre Du Chatelet). Ben’s educational projects have resulted in the composition of numerous original works for children’s musical theatre. Dramatic scores for film include Two to Tangle (Carparthia Pictures), The Hand You Are Dealt (Orchard Communications), Do You Know Why We’re Here? (Speakeasy), What If? (Orchard) with awards gained from film festivals such as World Media, Worldfest, Intercom, Midas and New York. As a pianist and keyboard player, Ben has performed with the North Sea Radio Orchestra, (Green Man Festival, Purcell Rooms, St Martin-in the-fields), William D Drake (Bush Hall), Harry Escott and Molly Nyman’s Samphire Band (Kings place) including live performance of Escott’s score to the film Shifty and of Vernon Elliot’s original scores for BBC series The Clangers. Ben recently recorded and engineered William D Drakes much-appraised new album Revere Reach.

AMY TWEED (Musical Director)

Amy trained at The University of Winchester and Drama Studio London. She is an actor-musician, mainly playing tenor saxophone, but she also enjoys playing ukulele, piano, clarinet, bass guitar….anything really! Amy is a part of a theatrical folk band called The Waggon Band, and she is looking forward to performing with them at several festivals this summer including Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire.  As an actor, Amy has performed all over the UK and her theatre credits include Kipper’s Snowy Day, Miki and One Snowy Night (Slot Machine and Norden Farm),  Rum Culls and Ragwater (Greenwich Theatre / The River People), The Full Bronte (Scary Little Girls, Tour)  Leaper and Tim & Light (Tucked In Productions), Paper Wings (The Beehive, Southwark Playhouse), The Salty Socks of Dunkirk (Shanty Theatre Company, Marine Theatre and tour), Danny The Champion of the World (Birmingham Stage Company, UK tour) The Canterbury Tales (Tacit Theatre), It’s Only Make Believe (Upstairs at the Gatehouse), AngelRust and The Terrible Tales of the Midnight Chorus (The River People – Edinburgh Festival, Bestival and Greenwich Theatre).

BRYONY J. THOMPSON (Costume Designer)

Originally from Seattle, Bryony J. Thompson is a freelance director, designer, and writer. She studied acting and costume design at Bennington College in Vermont and was an Artistic Associate at the Rosemary Branch Theatre 2011-2016. She directed and designed Romeo & Juliet (Rosemary Branch, 2012), directed, designed and adapted Jane Eyre (Rosemary Branch 2013 and Rosemary Branch & tour 2014).  In 2014 she directed the world premiere of Spirit Harbour, a contemporary opera, for Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, which was later performed at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival King’s Cross, and directed pluck. Productions’ inaugural project, The Cow Play by Ed Harris. In 2015, she directed, adapted and designed Pride & Prejudice for The Rosemary Branch and directed a new play, F.A.N.Y., for Anonymous Is A Woman, which toured the Midlands. Costume credits include Helen Tennison’s production of Wuthering Heights (Rosemary Branch, Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud, & tour), Twelfth Night for Honey-tongued Theatre Productions in Dubrovnik, Croatia (which later went on to Vienna’s English Theatre and the Bermuda Theatre Festival), and Empty Vessels (Rosemary Branch Theatre).  In 2016, Thompson remounted her production of Jane Eyre to celebrate Charlotte Bronte’s 200th birthday, directed Venus Quarry for pluck. Productions as part of Catford-Upon-Avon and directed, designed, and adapted a new production of Persuasion (Rosemary Branch Theatre and tour). This year, she made her own wedding dress and is endeavouring to get her adaptations published. You can follow her on twitter, @bryonyjoan, or find out more about her work here.

RONIN TRAYNOR (Fight Director)

Ronin has directed fights for over 250 productions including film, TV, musicals, opera, motion capture and numerous theatre shows in the UK and overseas. Credits include SEGA’s BAFTA winning Total War series (Empire, Napoleon, Shogun II, Rome II and Attila), Killzone Mercenary (Playstation), Blue Peter (TV), Candle to Water (feature), The Powder Room (feature) and series The First Musketeer, Ren and The Syndicate. A certified teacher with the BASSC, Ronin is the director of Independent Drama, providing theatrical action services to the film and theatre industry. www.ronintraynor.com
www.independentdrama.com

ANDY BARKER (Photographer)

Encompassing PR, advertising and conceptual photography, Andy has created the beautiful and the bold with her own distinct style. She is passionate and hard working about everything she does. She brings her digital expertise and attention to detail in all she creates. Most of all she loves being out there shooting because sometimes that’s where amazing things can happen by using her insight and intuition.
www.andybarker.com