ANDREW VISNEVSKI (VISNEVSKY)
Theatre Director

 

Date & Place of Birth:
24th March 1953 - Rome, Italy.
Training:
Central School of Speech and Drama.
Languages:
Trilingual English, Polish & Italian.
Working French & Greek.
Member of:
European Academy of Sciences and Arts, ITI British Centre, Directors Guild of Great Britain, British Actors Equity
Andrew Visnevski has always encouraged a close link with the visual arts, aiming to establish Theatre as an exciting and vital art-form. Deeply influenced by Eastern European theatre and popular entertainment, he has developed a highly individual, text-based, visual style of theatre expression. He began work in theatre at the Young Vic in London in 1976. In 1978 Andrew Visnevski created The Cherub Company with the intention of presenting rare classics and the work of dramatists long neglected in the U.K. (After 21 years, Cherub remains a pioneering company in choice of repertoire and constant revaluation of theatre-language). He has directed over 80 productions of different plays (7 Edinburgh Festival Fringe premières, 8 U.K. tours, performances for British and European theatre festivals, British Council tours);
Freelance work abroad includes:
TWELFTH NIGHT William Shakespeare. Teatr im. Tadeusza Lomnickiego Na Woli, Warszawa. 2000
HAMLET William Shakespeare. The Greek Contemporary Theatre, Athens. 1998
MACBETH William Shakespeare. The Greek Contemporary Theatre, Athens. 1994
WILD HONEY Anton Chekov. The Jenny Karezi Theatre. 1991
HAMLET William Shakespeare. The National Theatre of Northern Greece. 1988
THE CARETAKER Harold Pinter. Amsterdam & National Tour Netherlands & Belgium. 1986/87.
The first production in Holland for 18 years; starring the doyen of the Dutch stage, Kees .Brusse.
STEPPING OUT The continental première of Richard Harris' blockbuster stage & film success. Amsterdam & National Tour, Netherlands. 1986.
Freelance work in the U.K. includes:
ROMEO AND JULIET William Shakespeare. The first multi-racial production in the U.K.
Young Vic Theatre, London & National Tour, 1982.
YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN The musical by Gesner. Upstream Theatre, London, 1981.
THE SECRET LIFE OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN Anton Binder. Fireraisers Company. British première at the Pleasance, Edinburgh Festival 1999. Starring George Dillon, Finty Williams and Polly Wiseman
Notable productions for The Cherub Company London include:
Kafka's THE TRIAL Andrew Visnevski. Edinburgh Festival Fringe Award : Young Vic London, toured U.K., Flemish Theatre Circuit, The Netherlands (for the British Council), Tel Aviv Festival. 1980/82.
TWELFTH NIGHT William Shakespeare. Music by Peter Fincham. London & U.K. tour, Egypt , The Netherlands, West Germany - 1982/84. Invited to Almagro Festival & Madrid, 1987. British Council tour to Iraq & Pakistan , 1988. Ethiopia, Sudan & Zimbabwe, 1989.
MACBETH William Shakespeare. Edinburgh Festival Fringe, three revivals in London, U.K. tour, Tel Aviv Festival, 1981/83.
THE BUTCHER OF BAGHDAD John Spurling. Written for The Cherub Company London. International première - London 21st June 1993.
THE EMPEROR OF THE MOON Aphra Behn. First production of this unique English Commedia dell'Arte in 300 years. Canterbury International Festival & Hoxton Hall, London, 1993.
THE LIFE OF EDWARD II OF ENGLAND Bertolt Brecht. BAC, The Place & Riverside Studio 2, London & U.K. tour, 1998/99.
Educational & Training Work:
includes productions and stage design projects (Slade School of Fine Art - such as , "Alchemy and the Eternal Quest in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL" - and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art); RADA Summer School director since 1987; seminars on Shakespeare, Chekov & Meyerhold (Arts Ed. London & RADA); Scene Study on M.A.Course in Text and Performance for RADA and King's College, University of London (1996/99); lecture on Directing Drama in Translation at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge University (1998).
Notable productions :
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, 1987 - 1995
RIGHT YOU ARE IF YOU THINK YOU ARE Luigi Pirandello
TROLLS IN HEART AND SOUL Andrew Visnevski. An original programme on the recurring themes in the last great plays of Henrik Ibsen
NANA Emile Zola, adapted by Olwen Wymark
Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, 1988 - 1992
THE FUNERAL, or MARRIAGE A LA MODE Sir Richard Steele
BLITHE SPIRIT Noël Coward
Central School of Speech and Drama, 1996
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA William Shakespeare
Arts Ed. London, 1987 - present
THE TRAP Tadeusz Rózewicz. British première
MARRIAGE BLANC Tadeusz Rózewicz. British première at the New End Theatre
REUNION IN GENTHIN Andrew Visnevski. Adapted from 'NIEMCY' by Leon Kruczkowski. British première at the New End Theatre
THE PUPPET THEATRE OF DON CRISTÓBAL
and
THE LOVE OF DON PERLIMPLIN AND BELISSA IN THE GARDEN
Federico Garcia Lorca. New End Theatre, London
LOKIS Andrew Visnevski. Adapted from the novel by Prosper Merimée. British première at the Riverside Studio 3
PENTECOST David Edgar (a collaboration with The Cherub Company)
MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN Bertolt Brecht

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Directing a new play for last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of an MA dissertation had left me with a number of questions and I felt the need to observe a more experienced director at work. I contacted Andrew Visnevski, director of the Cherub Company, whose work I have been closely following over the past years, admiring him as a director who obliterates distinctions between visual, physical and language based theatre. Andrew’s productions are always astounding in the complexity and haunting strangeness of the world they create, as well as in their technical perfection. I was eager to learn how Andrew managed to create such compelling theatre.

During the six months I spent with Andrew on his production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Edward The Second of England, as part of the DGGB’s Observer Scheme, I was very surprised to witness how a director whose productions are always a testimony to a most imaginative mind worked extremely intimately with the text. This always remained the basis and premise for all our work. Andrew reads and understands a text in all its complexities, getting underneath its skin, deconstructing it layer by layer, revealing its full richness, purpose and meaning. Images, metaphors, biblical, mythological and classical references are all identified and made sense of within the context of the play. This work was always practical and never academic. Once Andrew has dissected the text, his greatest skill lies in being able to translate it into the language and grammar of the theatre, juxtaposing the verbal imagery of language with the verbal imagery of the stage in blocking, movement, design, costume, make-up, lighting and sound. Taking the text literally and seriously, Andrew arrives at something that is far from literary. Specific and detailed work on the text became a solid basis and reference point for all subsequent work.

Most importantly, Andrew has shown me a methodology which is centred on uncompromising hard work that is always focused on the relationship between the stage and the auditorium. Never did we digress into endless discussions about ‘character’. Our only concern was with the stage and its representations for the sake of the audience.

Andrew has provided me with invaluable experience and practical education. His enormous generosity and kindness have restored my faith and confidence so that I can now feel more positive than ever about directing.

Martin Oelbermann

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drama
1605-1606

Theatre: Jenny Karezi
Producer: Contemporary Theatre of Athens
Opening night : 25th of December 1994

"To explore the full depth and complexity of Macbeth, we must risk to its limits the stance that nothing human is allien to us. All Shakespeare's great tragic characters slide from heights of decency and position to welter in a dark world of proscribed impulse; but only Macbeth and his Lady choose evil, and follow it headlong down."

Marvin Rozenberg, 1978.

Production team:
Translation: YIORGOS HIMONAS
Director:
ANDREW VISNEVSKY
Set designer: FOTINI DIMOU
Costume designer: FOTINI DIMOU
Music :
MIKIS THEODORAKIS
Lighting designer : BEN ORMEROD
Sound designer : LOUCAS HADJIS
Fighting director : CHRISTOPHOROS BOUBOUKIS
Administrator :VASILIS GEORGIADIS
Marketing & Publicity director :ARGIRO BOZONI
Assistant director :MANOS TZIMPRAGOS
. . .

Cast:
Duncan: ANDREAS ZISIMATOS
Malcolm: KONSTANTINOS KAZAKOS
Bonaldbain: ANGELOS KEHAYIAS
Macbeth: GEORGE KIMOULIS
Lady Macbeth: KARIOFYLIA KARABETI
Seyton:
SPIROS KONSTANTOPOULOS
. . .

 

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