Altitude North Theatre Company

Towards theatre, that art more than music resembles nature. We have eyes as well as ears, and it is our business while we are alive to use them.

One actor, one pianist, one percussionist x 3.

Aggression was all about releasing the energy within. It was premiered at York's Contemporary Arts Festival on 16 June 1999. I remember it was violent, uncompromising, physical and 'in your face'. Twelve months later came Schizophrenia or a gentle piece about loneliness which was premiered at LUU One Act Festival on 7 June 2000 and won the Best Director and Best Performance by cast awards. Sensitivity or an exploration of the male psyche marked the completion of the trilogy on 10 October 2000. On 25 April 2001, after an invitation of the National Theatre of Cyprus and the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus and the Cyprus Organisation for the Youth, the trilogy gave its world premiere in Cyprus.

Theatre, according to the Greeks, should educate, ask questions and lead to catharsis. Theatre of Cruelty, according to Antonin Artaud, should provide an affective athleticism where,

One should grant the actor a kind of affective musculaturematching the bodily localisation of our feelings.

An actor is like a physical athlete, with this astonishing corollary; his affective organism is similar to the athlete's, being parallel to it like a double, although they do not act on the same level.

The actor is a heart athlete.

Music theatre should combine sounds with visuals to capture and involve all the senses. What we are trying to create is a new art-form in which the performers interact through disciplined improvisation and create a performance which is alive, eloquent and relevant.

Aggression - Schizophrenia - Sensitivity : Cyprus Tour Reviews, 2001

"an amazing performance"

"Sensitivity leads to catharsis, touches the soul and relaxes the mind"

"The controlled body technique of the exquisite Sam Grogan"

"Adrian Smith's text is extremely poetic ... and it is in harmony with the music of George Rodosthenous"

"the music theatre of George Rodosthenous was like a theatrical dream"

The Independent (Cyprus) 2001

“Schizophrenia - Sensitivity is a double-bill of physical theatre and live music by Altitude North, a young Leeds-based theatre company under the leadership of director/composer George Rodosthenous. Adrian Smith's poetic text has been given a moving interpretation by two gifted physical actors, Oliver Renton and Jonathan Robson, and both pieces are accompanied by compelling musical scores composed by Rodosthenous. Schizophrenia is a poignant piece about an individual's inability to communicate with the outside world and the sense of alienation and aggression that ensue from it. Renton uses physicality and acting skill in challenging ways to voice his character's deep anxiety. Sensitivity is a strikingly sensual piece about the insight into the male psyche where weakness can lead to aggression, in a confident performance by Robson. It is a double-bill of intriguing performances by two talented young actors.”
© Ksenija Horvat www.edinburghguide.com
24 August 2001

“intense, committed performances”.
THE SCOTSMAN,
August 2001

“Altitude North's offering for this year’s Edinburgh takes the form of two pieces that are different yet complement each other. Experimental theatre is a handy tagword, or perhaps visual/tonal poetry is more appropriate.

In Schizophrenia, Oliver Renton plays a man who imparts a message to the audience in jerky movements that reflect the fragmented nature of his mental state. Sensitivity, on the other hand, is a more lyrical piece - as the title suggests - where Jonathan Robson uses the flow of his body to examine his own masculinity. A particularly effective moment is when he bandages his fists like a boxer's yet is unable to keep up the facade.

Adrian Smith's words for both sections have a strident ring .... On piano and composition, George Rodosthenous deploys a wide palette of textures to create at times mellow, at times jarring sound-scapes - mixing shades of the likes of George Winston and John Cage - aided by the able Jonathan Coates on tuned percussion and drums ... These are bravado performances all round.”
Nick Awde www.theatreguidelondon.co.uk
August 2001

Best Director Award, Leeds One-Act Play Festival 2000

Best Performance by Cast

Leeds One-Act Play Festival 2000

"an intensely involved interaction of language, music and movement"

"an uncompromising depiction of absolute loneliness"

"a unique theatrical experience"

Leeds Student 2000

"Never content to archly frustrate classification, it provoked, disturbed, and mesmerised"

"First-rate movement"

"Really quite stunning"

Theatre Group News 2000

"brilliantly poetic text"

"this is theatre as sensual experience"

"beautifully controlled performance"

"jarring harmonies and beautiful discord"

"vivid and eloquent"

"aggressively theatrical"

Schizophrenia has been, in my own experience of theatre, an utterly unique experience. As a performer, I have never experienced as liberating a devising process under any other director - the richness of Adrian Smith's script, and the seemingly effortless compositional skills of George led to a creative process in which there was room for both the struggle to fully engage with our subject matter, and the flowing, organic development of an ensemble production.

Our subject matter itself fascinated me from the outset, indeed, continues to fascinate me, for Schizophrenia is not a piece that sets out to offer resolution. Our research into the mental disease that is schizophrenia immediately captured our imagination. Here was a disease that affects one in every hundred people, predominantly those of my age and gender. Although schizophrenia appears in a number of guises - the name itself refers in fact to a number of syndromes, each manifesting themselves in markedly different ways - its defining characteristic lies in its incapacitation of the individual as a member of society. This is a syndrome that leads to the breakdown of an individual's ability to communicate effectively, empathise effectively, interact effectively with the society that humanity has fallen into creating.

Ultimately schizophrenia appeared to me as the definitive manifestation of the great existentialist nightmares of the twentieth century. The impotence of language as a medium of communication, the grim solipsism of the human condition - these intellectual horrors gripped the likes of Ionesco, Sartre, Genet - these are horrors inescapable for the schizophrenic. And if language is defunct, if our proudest boast alongside of our opposable thumbs is, in fact, fundamentally flawed, how can we, as emotional beings, free ourselves from the limits that our linguistic constructs impose upon us? Certainly we are not ready to abandon language as a lost cause, start again - after all, it is in no small part the gross arrogance of our species that has allowed us to become the dominant life form of our planet.

Music seems infinitely better equipped to evoke, or express those emotions that escape satisfactory linguistic explanation. Thus, the struggles with language within Schizophrenia lie in opposition to the understanding, the symbiosis felt with the piece's music. This symbiosis is not always comfortable - one's emotions are frequently not. Emotions within Schizophrenia produce and are produced by the rhythms and harmonies of the piece. Eschewing naturalism in favour of giving free reign to those physicalities, jarring, schizophrenic, sometimes violent, I believe that this piece has an emotional punch beyond the grasp of perhaps any other production that I have worked on. No compromise was taken in the devising process, no risk has been shied away from in the execution. It was never our intention to shock with Schizophrenia, yet the piece has done so. The piece does hold a deep sadness, one that I believe is universally recognisable - if it has shocked, I hope that it is through a recognition of the familiar within it, rather than some muted, xenophobic fear.

altitudenorth
	Aggression, Schizophrenia, Sensitivity Aggression Director/ Composer: George Rodosthenous Text by: Steve Sweeney-Turner Starring: Performer: Sam Grogan Pianist: George Rodosthenous Percussionist: Jonathan Coates Schizophrenia Director/ Composer: George Rodosthenous Text by : Adrian Smith Starring: Performer: Oliver Renton Pianist: George Rodosthenous Percussionist: Jonathan Coates Sensitivity Director/ Composer: George Rodosthenous Text by: Adrian Smith Starring: Performer: Nick Court / Jonathan Robson Pianist: George Rodosthenous Percussionist: Jonathan Coates The history of a music-theatre trilogy Where do we go from here? Towards theatre, that art more than music resembles nature. We have eyes as well as ears, and it is our business while we are alive to use them. John Cage One actor, one pianist, one percussionist x 3. Aggression was all about releasing the energy within. It was premiered at York's Contemporary Arts Festival on 16 June 1999. I remember it was violent, uncompromising, physical and 'in your face'. Twelve months later came Schizophrenia or a gentle piece about loneliness which was premiered at LUU One Act Festival on 7 June 2000 and won the Best Director and Best Performance by cast awards. Sensitivity or an exploration of the male psyche marked the completion of the trilogy on 10 October 2000. On 25 April 2001, after an invitation of the National Theatre of Cyprus and the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus and the Cyprus Organisation for the Youth, the trilogy gave its world premiere in Cyprus. Theatre, according to the Greeks, should educate, ask questions and lead to catharsis. Theatre of Cruelty, according to Antonin Artaud, should provide an affective athleticism where, One should grant the actor a kind of affective musculaturematching the bodily localisation of our feelings. An actor is like a physical athlete, with this astonishing corollary; his affective organism is similar to the athlete's, being parallel to it like a double, although they do not act on the same level. The actor is a heart athlete. Music theatre should combine sounds with visuals to capture and involve all the senses. What we are trying to create is a new art-form in which the performers interact through disciplined improvisation and create a performance which is alive, eloquent and relevant. Aggression - Schizophrenia - Sensitivity : Cyprus Tour Reviews, 2001 "an amazing performance" "Sensitivity leads to catharsis, touches the soul and relaxes the mind" "The controlled body technique of the exquisite Sam Grogan" "Adrian Smith's text is extremely poetic ... and it is in harmony with the music of George Rodosthenous" "the music theatre of George Rodosthenous was like a theatrical dream" The Independent (Cyprus) 2001 Edinburgh 2001: “Schizophrenia - Sensitivity is a double-bill of physical theatre and live music by Altitude North, a young Leeds-based theatre company under the leadership of director/composer George Rodosthenous. Adrian Smith's poetic text has been given a moving interpretation by two gifted physical actors, Oliver Renton and Jonathan Robson, and both pieces are accompanied by compelling musical scores composed by Rodosthenous. Schizophrenia is a poignant piece about an individual's inability to communicate with the outside world and the sense of alienation and aggression that ensue from it. Renton uses physicality and acting skill in challenging ways to voice his character's deep anxiety. Sensitivity is a strikingly sensual piece about the insight into the male psyche where weakness can lead to aggression, in a confident performance by Robson. It is a double-bill of intriguing performances by two talented young actors.” © Ksenija Horvat www.edinburghguide.com 24 August 2001 “intense, committed performances”. THE SCOTSMAN, August 2001 “Altitude North's offering for this year’s Edinburgh takes the form of two pieces that are different yet complement each other. Experimental theatre is a handy tagword, or perhaps visual/tonal poetry is more appropriate. In Schizophrenia, Oliver Renton plays a man who imparts a message to the audience in jerky movements that reflect the fragmented nature of his mental state. Sensitivity, on the other hand, is a more lyrical piece - as the title suggests - where Jonathan Robson uses the flow of his body to examine his own masculinity. A particularly effective moment is when he bandages his fists like a boxer's yet is unable to keep up the facade. Adrian Smith's words for both sections have a strident ring .... On piano and composition, George Rodosthenous deploys a wide palette of textures to create at times mellow, at times jarring sound-scapes - mixing shades of the likes of George Winston and John Cage - aided by the able Jonathan Coates on tuned percussion and drums ... These are bravado performances all round.” Nick Awde www.theatreguidelondon.co.uk August 2001 *Schizophrenia* Best Director Award, Leeds One-Act Play Festival 2000 Best Performance by Cast Leeds One-Act Play Festival 2000 "an intensely involved interaction of language, music and movement" "an uncompromising depiction of absolute loneliness" "a unique theatrical experience" Leeds Student 2000 "Never content to archly frustrate classification, it provoked, disturbed, and mesmerised" "First-rate movement" "Really quite stunning" Theatre Group News 2000 *Sensitivity* "brilliantly poetic text" "this is theatre as sensual experience" "beautifully controlled performance" "jarring harmonies and beautiful discord" "vivid and eloquent" "aggressively theatrical" Stagewrite 2000 Schizophrenia: A performer's point of view *Schizophrenia* has been, in my own experience of theatre, an utterly unique experience. As a performer, I have never experienced as liberating a devising process under any other director - the richness of Adrian Smith's script, and the seemingly effortless compositional skills of George led to a creative process in which there was room for both the struggle to fully engage with our subject matter, and the flowing, organic development of an ensemble production. Our subject matter itself fascinated me from the outset, indeed, continues to fascinate me, for Schizophrenia is not a piece that sets out to offer resolution. Our research into the mental disease that is schizophrenia immediately captured our imagination. Here was a disease that affects one in every hundred people, predominantly those of my age and gender. Although schizophrenia appears in a number of guises - the name itself refers in fact to a number of syndromes, each manifesting themselves in markedly different ways - its defining characteristic lies in its incapacitation of the individual as a member of society. This is a syndrome that leads to the breakdown of an individual's ability to communicate effectively, empathise effectively, interact effectively with the society that humanity has fallen into creating. Ultimately schizophrenia appeared to me as the definitive manifestation of the great existentialist nightmares of the twentieth century. The impotence of language as a medium of communication, the grim solipsism of the human condition - these intellectual horrors gripped the likes of Ionesco, Sartre, Genet - these are horrors inescapable for the schizophrenic. And if language is defunct, if our proudest boast alongside of our opposable thumbs is, in fact, fundamentally flawed, how can we, as emotional beings, free ourselves from the limits that our linguistic constructs impose upon us? Certainly we are not ready to abandon language as a lost cause, start again - after all, it is in no small part the gross arrogance of our species that has allowed us to become the dominant life form of our planet. Music seems infinitely better equipped to evoke, or express those emotions that escape satisfactory linguistic explanation. Thus, the struggles with language within Schizophrenia lie in opposition to the understanding, the symbiosis felt with the piece's music. This symbiosis is not always comfortable - one's emotions are frequently not. Emotions within Schizophrenia produce and are produced by the rhythms and harmonies of the piece. Eschewing naturalism in favour of giving free reign to those physicalities, jarring, schizophrenic, sometimes violent, I believe that this piece has an emotional punch beyond the grasp of perhaps any other production that I have worked on. No compromise was taken in the devising process, no risk has been shied away from in the execution. It was never our intention to shock with Schizophrenia, yet the piece has done so. The piece does hold a deep sadness, one that I believe is universally recognisable - if it has shocked, I hope that it is through a recognition of the familiar within it, rather than some muted, xenophobic fear. Oliver Renton (performer, Schizophrenia)

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© Copyright 2007 Altitude North Theatre Company

Aggression

Starring:
Performer: Sam Grogan
Pianist: George Rodosthenous
Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Schizophrenia

Starring:
Performer: Oliver Renton
Pianist: George Rodosthenous
Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Sensitivity

Starring:
Performer: Nick Court / Jonathan Robson
Pianist: George Rodosthenous
Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Aggression

Starring: Performer: Sam Grogan Pianist: George Rodosthenous Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Schizophrenia

Starring: Performer: Oliver Renton Pianist: George Rodosthenous Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Sensitivity

Starring: Performer: Nick Court / Jonathan Robson Pianist: George Rodosthenous Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Starring:
Performer: Sam Grogan
Pianist: George Rodosthenous
Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Starring:
Performer: Oliver Renton
Pianist: George Rodosthenous
Percussionist: Jonathan Coates

Starring:
Performer: Nick Court / Jonathan Robson
Pianist: George Rodosthenous
Percussionist: Jonathan Coates