STAR ROVER

Central Line Touring are about to embark on a project to devise a peice of theatre. Hoping to be completed in autum 2006, theywill then tour locally and nationally.

This will be a piece of multi-disciplinary contemporary theatre, devised from Jack Londons book Star Rover.

It will be based on a text inspired by London’s friend Ed Morell, who spent 5 years in the barbaric San Quentin jail and is a searing indictment of a violent and corrupt penal system. Describing the brutality of a life behind bars and in solitary confinement, it explores the power of imagination to transcend physical hardship, and ultimately sustain hope. There are obvious connections with stories uncovered in such places as Guantanamo Bay and also with the struggles of those held captive such as Terry Waite and Brian Keenan.

The protagonist learns a strategy to help him endure the years of isolation: he begins a process of “star roving”, engaging the subconscious in a meditative state, visiting worlds from his past and his previous lives. There are beautiful passages (illustrated via multi-media interludes) as he embarks on colourful adventures of flight beyond the straight- jacket, abandoning the flesh in a yogic state known as “the little death”.

The incarceration of the protagonist will be represented by a tent like structure and the mental journeys told through projection as well as performance. Alternative lighting states inside and outside the tent will depict the isolation he feels as well as the freedom experienced during his star-roving. Journeys to other lives and utopian destinations will be portrayed through an innovative mixture of technology and physical theatre.