All We Ever Wanted Was Everything at Welly Club, Hull © Sarah Beth
Set across three decades, from 1997’s Cool Britannia to today’s Brexit Britain, this multi-award winning gig theatre mixes original live music from James Frewer with bold new writing by Luke Barnes.
It’s a story about the world we inherited and the one we’re leaving behind. It’s the story of a million beating hearts. And an asteroid with other plans.
Trained in architecture, Bethany Wells is a performance designer working across dance, theatre and installation, with a particular interest in site-specific and devised performance. She sees all design as a form of activism, and is interested in exploring what can be achieved politically and socially by the collective live experience of performance.
Her credits include: Legacy (York Theatre Royal), Trust (Gate Theatre), Party Skills for the End of the World (MIF, Shoreditch Town Hall), The Department of Distractions (Third Angel), All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Middle Child UK tour), Cosmic Scallies (Graeae/Royal Exchange Theatre), We Were Told There Was Dancing (Royal Exchange Young Company), Removal Men (Yard Theatre), Dark Corners, Polar Bear, Seen and Not Heard (Complicite Creative Learning/artsdepot/Southbank Centre), The Desire Paths (Third Angel), The Factory (Royal Exchange Young Company), The Future (Company 3), Late Night Love (Eggs Collective), Live Art Dining, Live Art Bistro, Race Cards (Selina Thompson), Correspondence (Old Red Lion Theatre), Partus (Third Angel), My Eyes Went Dark (Finborough Theatre), WINK (Theatre 503).
An ongoing project, Warmth, is a wood-fired mobile sauna and performance space, commissioned by Compass Live Art and touring nationally.
Chris Prosho has recently finished sound operating on a 22-month international tour of the avant-garde musical Golem. Before this, he worked as a sound technician in the north east of England, mixing everything from death metal bands to orchestras. He also spent several years recording location sound for film and television. In his spare time, he likes to scuba dive.
Ed Clarke has previously worked at the Bush Theatre on The Royale, The Invisible, Perseverance Drive and Fear.
His other theatre credits include: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Middle Child Theatre); A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad); (Silent Uproar), A Christmas Carol and A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian (Hull Truck Theatre); Showboat (New London Theatre); The Infidel (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Orpheus (Little Bulb Theatre at BAC and worldwide); Baddies (Unicorn Theatre); The Realness, Politrix, Phoenix, KnifeEdge and Babylon (The Big House); Beauty and the Beast (Young Vic and worldwide); Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein (Olivier, National Theatre – Olivier Award nomination 2012); Backbeat (Duke of York’s Theatre); The Mysteries and The Good Hope (National Theatre); The Railway Children (Waterloo International Station and Roundhouse Theatre Toronto); Fatal Attraction (Theatre Royal Haymarket); His Teeth (Only Connect Theatre); Baby Doll (Albery Theatre); Alex (Arts Theatre, UK and international tour); Old Times, A Doll’s House (Donmar Warehouse).
James Frewer‘s composition credits include: Mixtape (Royal Exchange); The Hundred and One Dalmatians (Birmingham Rep); I Hate Alone, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (with Paines Plough),Mercury Fur, Weekend Rockstars: An Album Play (with Hull Truck), Modern Life Is Rubbish: A Musical Manifesto, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (Middle Child Theatre); Twelfth Night (Orange Tree); Folk (Birmingham Rep/Watford Palace/Hull Truck); Get Carter (Northern Stage/UK Tour); Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, A Taste of Honey (Hull Truck); The Thing About Psychopaths (Red Ladder Theatre/National Tour).
Musical Director and Performer credits include: The Snow Queen (New Vic Theatre); Dancehall (Cast Doncaster); The Night Before Christmas (Soho Theatre); This House (National Theatre, dep performer).
Sound Design credits include: The Season Ticket (Pilot Theatre/Northern Stage); This Land, Red Sky at Night (Pentabus); A Further Education, Deluge(Hampstead Theatre); Love Me Do (Watford Palace Theatre); The Ugly Sisters (Rash Dash/National Tour).
Luke Barnes is playwright, screenwriter and theatre maker using live performance and film to tell stories and make a good night out that’s both useful for use as humans and as a community.
Stage Includes: The Sad Club (National Theatre), All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Bush Theatre, Welly & Paines Plough Roundabout with Middle Child), No One Will Tell Me How To Start A Revolution (Hampstead Theatre), Bottleneck (Soho Theatre with HighTide), Chapel Street (The Bush Theatre & Edinburgh), Weekend Rockstars (Battersea Arts Centre & Hull Truck with Middle Child), Ten Storey Love Song (Hull Truck with Middle Child), The Saints (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton), Lost Boys New Town (National Youth Theatre), The Class (The Unicorn with National Youth Theatre), Eistedfodd (HighTide), A Wondrous Place (Manchester Royal Exchange), Loki and Cassie (Almeida Theatre), The Jumper Factory, Fable and Men In Blue (Young Vic,Taking Part)
Television Includes: Minted In Manchester (Channel 4).
Theatre that makes a noise
Middle Child are a Hull-based company creating gig theatre that brings people together for a good night out with big ideas. They tell untold stories which capture the electrifying moment when the beat drops, mixing original live music with bold new writing. Their events are live and loud, making sense of the modern world.
They are committed to breaking down barriers and ensuring that theatre is affordable and accessible for all. They will set fire to your expectations of what a night at the theatre can be.
Middle Child are an associate company of Paines Plough and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, supported by Hull 2017 UK City of Culture.
Paul Smith is a founding member and the artistic director of Middle Child. His credits with the company include: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, I Hate Alone Ten Storey Love Song, Weekend Rockstars, Mercury Fur and Saturday Night & Sunday Morning. He is an associate artist of Hull Truck Theatre, where he was assistant director on The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and A Taste of Honey. He graduated from the LAMDA Directing Course in 2011.
Yassmin V Foster is a director of movement and scholar, based in London. She works across classical theatre, dance theatre and film. She is a graduate of anthropology and media, and holds MA Choreomundus – International master in dance knowledge, practice and heritage. Her research, which she has presented across the UK, and in the US, investigates movement with the contexts of play, ritual and dance.
Yassmin has been awarded funding through Arts Council England and British Council Artists’ International Development Fund 2018, and will travel to Canada to continue her research. She also begins a PhD programme at Goldsmiths University in the autumn.
Yassmin’s work includes: Queens of Sheba (Nouveau Riche), Box Clever (Nabokov), With A Little Bit Of Luck (Paines Plough), and Last Night (Benin City).
