The Bread and Roses Theatre will host a theatre festival of new writing that celebrates and champions imaginative concepts, spaceflight, fantasy, time travel, just to name a few. The genre of speculative fiction, also known as Sci-Fi is about to go centre stage from March 22 – 25.
Cyborphic presents Talos Theatre Festival 2018 and our newly appointed Marketing Manager,
Roman Berry, speaks with the Festival Director Christos Callow Jr to find out more about the origins and the excitement in the lead up to the Festival.
RB: Tell us about this year’s Talos Theatre Festival?
Christos Callow Jr: Talos: The Science Fiction Theatre Festival of London was founded in 2015, taking its name from the earliest robot in Greek mythology (well, a giant made of bronze but he was still an automaton, like Hephaestus’ servants). I don’t think there can be a Talos without some good robot plays! The festival is back this year, featuring plays with robots, unicorns, Frankenstein’s monster, clones, feminist utopias, and so many fascinating characters and visions!
RB: As the Festival’s Artistic Director what was the motivation to use Science Fiction as the vehicle/ theme for a theatre festival?
Christos Callow Jr: I’ve been interested in science fiction theatre since I started studying theatre at a drama school in Athens. I have worked before at The Bread & Roses Theatre, staging a fantasy play of mine, Voice, in 2015, and directed the science fiction play, SUM, by Susan Gray in 2014. I have founded with Susan the first international conference on science fiction theatre in 2014.
If the question is why I believe science fiction belongs on stage, the answer is, I think nothing belongs on the 21st Century stage more than science fiction; how can theatre-makers not engage with the same concerns and themes that film and literature are obsessed with?
Cyborphic presents Talos Theatre Festival 2018 and our newly appointed Marketing Manager,
Roman Berry, speaks with the Festival Director Christos Callow Jr to find out more about the origins and the excitement in the lead up to the Festival.
RB: Tell us about this year’s Talos Theatre Festival?
Christos Callow Jr: Talos: The Science Fiction Theatre Festival of London was founded in 2015, taking its name from the earliest robot in Greek mythology (well, a giant made of bronze but he was still an automaton, like Hephaestus’ servants). I don’t think there can be a Talos without some good robot plays! The festival is back this year, featuring plays with robots, unicorns, Frankenstein’s monster, clones, feminist utopias, and so many fascinating characters and visions!
RB: As the Festival’s Artistic Director what was the motivation to use Science Fiction as the vehicle/ theme for a theatre festival?
Christos Callow Jr: I’ve been interested in science fiction theatre since I started studying theatre at a drama school in Athens. I have worked before at The Bread & Roses Theatre, staging a fantasy play of mine, Voice, in 2015, and directed the science fiction play, SUM, by Susan Gray in 2014. I have founded with Susan the first international conference on science fiction theatre in 2014.
If the question is why I believe science fiction belongs on stage, the answer is, I think nothing belongs on the 21st Century stage more than science fiction; how can theatre-makers not engage with the same concerns and themes that film and literature are obsessed with?