Graduating class performances

About Human Cannon

Human Cannon charts the struggle against Fascism in Spain through the stories of the village of Estarobon and one of its members, Agustina and her family. She begins by learning to fire her enemies’ cannon, and ends by herself becoming – through the strength of human will – the most effective weapon in the armoury of resistance and revolution: the human cannon of the title.

“Edward Bond’s work is extraordinary in its scope. He is hugely popular in France, Germany and throughout Western Europe, but he is often overlooked in the English-language world,” deplores director Alan Dilworth, who has recently curated Radical Practices: The Edward Bond Festival, an investigation of the works and ideas of the master British playwright, in collaboration with Bond himself.

Powered by his raw spare poetry, Edward Bond’s drama dissects society and reveals to us our fear, delusion, brutality, and blindness. “At the centre of Human Cannon, on a very direct and human level, is an investigation of how self-interest, be it even the need to put food on the table and protect our families, weakens our ability to act collectively to bring about lasting change,” explains Dilworth, adding that Bond is widely considered the inheritor of the Greek tragic tradition. “The Golden Age of tragedy was a time when people went to the theatre to confront their humanity and engage with deeply challenging political and social questions. Similarly, the stakes in Human Cannon, and in all of Bond’s plays, are very high.”

About Alan Dilworth, Director

Alan Dilworth’s work has been produced across Canada and in the United States. His direction of productions such as his own award-winning depression era tragedy The Unforgetting, Erin Shield’s Governor General’s Award-winning If We Were Birds - an adaptation of Ovid’s Tereus, Procne and Philomela, Andrew Kushnir’s verbatim opus The Middle Place, and Pamela Sinha’s odyssey of trauma and loss Crash, have established Alan as a shepherd of new Canadian classics. Alan's body of work is known for its striking stage imagery, and potent theatrical minimalism. He is a resident artist at The Theatre Centre, a member of The Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and co-artistic director of Sheep No Wool.

About Edward Bond, Playwright

After leaving school early and working in various dead-end jobs, Edward Bond began to write for the theatre. In 1965, his grim portrait of urban violence, Saved, in which a baby is stoned in its pram, aroused much admiration as well as a ban from the Lord Chamberlain. His provocative plays, including Early Morning (1969), which is often credited for sparking a debate that led to the abolition of theatrical censorship in England, Lear (1971), The Sea (1973), The Fool (1975), Restoration (1981), Summer (1982), The War Plays (1985) and Olly's Prison (1992) continue to arouse extreme responses from critics and audiences.

The 2012-2013 season of public performances of the NTS graduating class is an excellent opportunity to catch future artists of the Canadian stage in action just before the beginning of their professional careers. Graduating actors, playwrights, directors, designers and production personnel work year round with professional guest directors to present a varied season that will hone the skills and talents of these new artists.