Image Credit: Cameron Speirs
UK PREMIERE
A Fairly Lucid Production
Written by Ben Noble
Music Composed by Simone Seales
Additional Words by Ro Bright, Meg Courtney, Björn Deigner, Dan Giovannoni, Elise Esther Hearst & Finegan Kruckemeyer
Directed by David Wood
Lighting by Katharine Williams
Set & Costumes by Ryan Webster
Stage Managed by Finley Dickens
Performed by Ben Noble & Simone Seales
NOMINATED FOR AN OFF FEST AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE BRIGHTON FRINGE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
GILDED BALLOON, TEVIOT, WEE ROOM
13 Bristo Pl, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ
Aug 2-27, 2023
14:00 (not 15)
60 mins
Image by Luke Cadden
REVIEWS
★★★★★ a work of art and perfection
READ THE FULL REVIEW: THEATRE AND ARTS REVIEWS
★★★★★ Disturbing and Compelling
READ THE FULL REVIEW: THE REVIEWS HUB
★★★★★ a demanding piece of theatre
READ THE FULL REVIEW: THE BRIG NEWSPAPER
★★★★ an enrapturing performance
READ THE FULL REVIEW: CORR BLIMEY
★★★★ uncompromising, urgent and vital
READ THE FULL REVIEW: THE QUEER REVIEW
★★★ MEMBER is transportive, devastating. It tackles a horrific phenomenon with elegance and sensitivity, and is to be highly recommended
READ THE FULL REVIEW: THE SCOTSMAN
★★★ MEMBER weaves a gripping tale of brutality and brokenness
READ THE FULL REVIEW: FEST MAG
a searing drama… great writing and performances
READ THE FULL REVIEW: THEATRE TRAVELS
“★★★★
Noble elevates this simplest of theatrical forms, the one man show, to an art that is hard to beat”
Everything is great for Corey.
He loves his wife.
He’s learning to talk to his son.
He got promoted at work.
Life couldn’t be better.
But when Corey’s sitting at his son’s hospital bed, everything he used to rely is about to be taken away. Deeply buried secrets bubble to the surface when no one’s looking and history will repeat itself.
Based on the gay hate crime epidemic that blighted Sydney’s coastline throughout the 1970s and 1990s, resulting in as many as 80 murders and 30 unsolved cases, this one-man show presents a gruesome Australian history lesson.
PLEASE NOTE: This production contains distressing or potentially triggering themes, Scenes of violence, Strong language/swearing
ARCH & BRUCE BROWN AWARD WINNER FOR BEST PLAY
NOMINATED FOR A MELBOURNE GREEN ROOM AWARD
READ THE PROGRAM
“★★★★★
Provocative, Punchy and Powerful.
An incredibly important work”
The first production of MEMBER premiered onJan 19, 2016 at La Mama, in Carlton Australia.
Directed by Casey Gould. Designed by Jacob Battista. Lighting by Lisa Mibus. Sound by Coleman Grehan. Stage Managed by Daniel Barca
Performed by Ben Noble
Image by Luke Cadden
CAST
Ben Noble
(he/him)
Ben is a queer disabled Australian based actor, writer, creative producer and teacher. He is the founder of Fairly Lucid Productions.
Ben received his Masters from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and studied at RADA (UK), Atlantic Theater Company Acting School (USA), Brave Studios & 16th Street Actors Studio (AUS).
Theatre highlights include: Playlist 21 (Red Stitch Actors Theatre) The Campaign (Gavin Roach Productions), Doctor Faustus, Little Light (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), As You like It (Shakespeare’s Globe) Two Gentlemen of Verona (RADA), Bed & Breakfast, MEMBER, Raton Laveur, Something From Nothing, interrogation (Fairly Lucid Productions), Wind in the Willows (Australian Shakespeare Company), The Subtle Art of Falling (Tunks Productions) Scrooge (Stage West Canada), Phaedra’s Love (Abstract Chaos), One Last (SummerWorks).
Film & TV highlights: Underbelly (Screentime Australia), Quiz (Nobull Productions), BJ Fletcher Private Eye (Bee Charmer Productions).
As the writer, Ben received an Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Playwrighting Award for MEMBER and St Martins Best Play Award (Short Trip - Winner, Pick A Card – 3rd Prize, Go, Fish - Finalist).
(AUS)
Simone Seales
(they/them)
Music Composer & Performer
Originally from Florida, Simone Seales is a Glasgow-based cellist who completed their postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2021. They focus on free improvisation (both tonal and atonal) and devising music for theatre. Simone is currently the Young Artist in Residence for Chamber Music Scotland, a recipient of the Sphinx MPower Grant, and they are the co-artistic director of ‘demo theatre collective’. Recently, they have appeared on tour with RashDash Theatre in ‘Oh Mother’, in the Edinburgh Arts Festival as part of Thulani Rachia’s piece ‘obuyile’; DanceBase’s SnowMotion showcase and Hidden Door Festival alongside dancer Taylor Han in the dance-theatre piece ‘With Catastrophic Consequences’; the Fringe Festival as part of the Pianodrome Sessions; they performed a solo set interpreting poetry into music at The Great Western Festival; a COP26 Fringe Event at the Glasgow Cathedral performing a contemporary interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four-Seasons, led by Sarah Wagner; they hosted a Juneteenth Event at the Alchemy Experiment which celebrated Black Women’s Joy
(US/UK)
THE TEAM
David Wood
(he/him)
Director
David is a Glasgow-based theatre-maker, a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a recipient of the Dewar Arts Award. Directing credits include: Untitled 2009 (Queen Jesus Productions), Member (Fairly Lucid Productions) Last Orders (Overlap Theatre) & A Beginner’s Guide to Populism (NoLogo Productions). Rehearsal director credits include: A Ladder to the Stars & The Hidden (Visible Fictions) and Channeling Jabez (Play, Pie and Pint). His solo show, IV Effigy, exploring being a queer ,medically-created, only-child is currently in development.
Ryan Webster
(he/him)
Set & Costume Designer
Ryan Webster is a Queer, Neurodivergent Set and Costume Designer and creative who trained at Middlesex University, London– to whom he would like to extend a special thankyou to the tutors & staff for their support and guidance to this point.
Credits Include: -
As Designer: - Mermaid (Theatre 503, Battersea); My Sister is Missing (Kings Head Theatre, Islington); A Murmuration of Starlings (Middlesex University, Hendon); The Ant Experiment (Camden Peoples Theatre, Camden); Five Guys Named Moe (Ovation Productions, Upstairs at The Gatehouse, Highgate); OUT, Hope for Holloway and Making Home (Mountview MA Site Specific Performance, HMP HOLLOWAY); Death Steps Back (Mountview MA Site Specific Performance, HMP HOLLOWAY); Greenland (The Grove Studios, Hendon).
As Associate Designer: - Bacon (Riverside studios London, Edinburgh Fringe, Bristol Old Vic London), Grindr The Opera (Design Assistant, The Union Theatre, Southwark); Nul Points (Design Assistant, The Union Theatre, Southwark); ANIMAL (Assistant Designer, Hope Mill Theatre Manchester, Tobacco Factory Bristol, The Park Theatre London) Much Ado About Nothing (Design Assistant, Duke of York’s Theatre, London); Providencia – Electric Picnic (Scenic Assistant/ Set Dresser, Stradbally Hall, Ireland); UNCHAIN ME (Scenic Assistant, DREAMTHINKSPEAK, Brighton Festival).
Other Credits Include: Umm Kulthum and the Golden Era (Head Of Wardrobe, Ithra theatre, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia); From Here to Eternity (ASM & Wardrobe, Aria Entertainment, Charring Cross Theatre); Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Stage Crew, The Aldwych Theatre, London); West Side Story (Draughtsperson, Jason Denvir, Festival Ljubljana, Slovenia); Casual Technician (Wilton’s Music Hall, Shadwell); Casual Technician (OPEN, Ealing); Scenic Painter (Brick Lane Music Hall, Woolwich)
Instagram: @Rwebsterdesign
Twitter: @Rwebsterdesign
Website: www.rwebsterdesign.Com
Katharine Williams
(they/them)
Lighting Designer
Katharine Williams is a lighting designer, writer, and leader of projects.
Their recent lighting designs for theatre include: The Doncastrian Chalk Circle for National Theatre Public Acts at CAST Doncaster; Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Leeds Playhouse and HOME, Manchester; Oh Mother, Look at Me, Don’t Look at Me and Two Man Show for RashDash; Drag Me To Love for Bonnie and the Bonnettes, and The Enemy for the National Theatre of Scotland.
Projects include Love Letters to the Home Office, which used art, words, and theatre to campaign against the UK’s immigration policy; Crew for Calais, which mobilised people in creative industries to work with refugees; and People Powered, which lent support to the NHS and frontline services during the early part of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Katharine Williams directed and lit These Hills Are Ours on UK tour. Their plays as a writer include Walk with Me at VAULT Festival; and These Are Our Neighbours in Glasgow Southside.
Finley Dickins
(they/them)
Stage Manager
Finley is a stage manager and technician based in Glasgow.
Credits include:
Technical Stage Manager, Sex Education Xplorers (Independent Arts Projects);
Technician, Super Special Disability Roadshow;
Associate Production Manager, Don't. Make. Tea. (Birds of Paradise);
Technical Operator, Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas (Lyric Hammersmith);
Stage Manager, God's Only Child development;
Stage Manager, Queen Jesus mini-season (Queen Jesus Productions);
Company Stage Manager, PUBLIC (Ockham's Razor).
Production Stills from 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival production. Images credited to Cameron Speirs. Promo photos underwater credits to Luke Cadden.