weeks later, I was 7,000 miles from home, at Buenos Aires International airport, praying that the impulsive trip to learn Argentine Tango in its heartland was not a mistake. However, over the next few months I realised that any fear I had of travelling alone was blown out of the water by the fear of stepping onto a dance floor in front of hundreds of strangers every night. Tango was not for the faint-hearted and here, congregating daily in dance studios across the city, I found something transcendent that welcomed all ages and nationalities into its embrace. Including this young British woman.
Returning home after three months, I felt like a foreigner in my own country. From the raucous streets of Buenos Aires I had dropped back into quiet, suburban Buckinghamshire; a scene change that couldn’t have been more jarring. Finding it difficult to move back to my daily routine – and with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Don’t Cry for Me Argentina playing on repeat – I created a one-woman show, building on a blog I’d kept whilst away, and relived the moments I had experienced there.
Just as Tango appeared so swiftly into my life, two years later the story captured the imagination of a writer, Ron Hutchinson, and we began to create a full play from my adventure. Every Argentine Tango dancer, be it a beginner or a world champion, has a personal story to tell of how they came to find this dance, or as in my case, how it found them. Across the globe from Paris to Havana, Siberia to India there are thousands of dancers who discover that once they start learning, it becomes an addiction they cannot stop. Tango is just an improvised set of steps, but it becomes a compulsion that inexplicably grips certain individuals and compels them to travel alone across the world, to spend hundreds of hours in lessons and at social dances (milongas).
Over the last century Argentine Tango has continued to evolve in style and the number of dancers is constantly increasing, yet there are still very few studies, books or plays on the dance. Flying Into Daylight will be the first of its kind in combining Tango dance and bandoneon music in a theatrical form and it’s thanks to Ron’s magnificent skills as a writer, that having never danced one step of Tango he can express so simply and beautifully Virginia’s journey into that world. The play is not based solely on my experience; it is the passage of so many people also in search of that very human desire for change.
I am thrilled that this story is receiving its premiere at Live Theatre with a hugely talented cast and creative team and I hope that for a few hours, you too can feel the energy, escapism and vitality of Buenos Aires and Argentine Tango.
Victoria Fischer
Original Story
A Word From Live Theatre’s Artistic Director
I hadn’t met Ron Hutchinson before this project came about. I’d been aware of his early stage work over here and in the United States but our paths had never crossed until last year when a mutual friend, Eoin O’Callaghan read the first draft of Flying Into Daylight and put us both in touch.
Eoin made a good call. I read it, loved it and thought we should try and make it happen. The script was beautifully written, based on a true story by Victoria Fischer, cradled within a clever overall metaphor that I found both sensual and life-affirming.
The exciting possibility of fusing the art form of Tango, with its distinctive choreography and live music seemed to my mind inherently theatrical. It looked a perfect fit for Live Theatre but at the same time like many of our plays, had a universal reach; from Tyneside to London and New York via Newcastle Quayside and the docklands of Buenos Aires.
In creating this piece we are delighted to welcome back some of our most talented creative associates, Gary McCann as Designer and Malcolm Rippeth as Lighting Designer along with two of the country’s finest exponents of the Tango art form, bandoneonist and composer Julian Rowlands and choreographer Amir Giles who come to Live Theatre for the first time.
The casting of Summer Strallen and Jos Vantyler completes an ensemble of enormous and glittering talent who, along with our brilliant production team and the entire staff of Live Theatre, aim to give our audiences a great night out in the theatre. And finally not forgetting our Friends of Live Theatre whose support continues to help us do all we do, and whose support we are acknowledging alongside this World Premiere of Flying Into Daylight.
Thanks to them all. Enjoy.
Max Roberts
Co-Director & Artistic Director, Live Theatre
Cast
Virginia Summer Strallen
Marco Jos Vantyler
Creative & Production Team
Writer Ron Hutchinson
Based on an original story by Victoria Fischer
Directors Ron Hutchinson & Max Roberts
Music created & performed by Julian Rowlands
Choreographer Amir Giles
Designer Gary McCann
Lighting Designer Malcolm Rippeth
Sound Designer & Technical Manager David Flynn
Production Manager Drummond Orr
Creative Producer Graeme Thompson
Stage Manager Fiona Kennedy
Deputy Stage Manager Kate McCheyne
Technician Sam Stewart
Creative Apprentice Craig Spence
Costume Supervisor Lou Duffy
Assistant Choreographer Tara Pilbrow
Casting Sooki McShane CDG
Casting Lucy Jenkins CDG
For Assisted Performances
British Sign Language Caroline Ryan
Captioning Philip Armstrong
Audio Description & Touch Tour Louise Ainsley
Thanks
Naomi Grant, for her advice on Francis Bacon, Miranda Garrison and Leandro Palou for their help with the initial workshop in London, Eoin O’Callaghan, Aaron Davies for use of his photograph for the initial image, Lee Proud and Michelle Percy at Silverlink Holdings.
CAST
Virginia Summer Strallen
Theatre credits include: The Life of the Party –A Celebration of the Songs of Andrew Lippa (Menier Chocolate Factory), Dale Tremont in Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre and National Tour), for which she received her fourth
