BRIAN by Trouble In The Square

Aim

Trouble In The Square are fundraising to help support the tour of BRIAN 2024/2025 throughout the UK and Northern Ireland.

Trouble In The Square are a Portsmouth based theatre company who are currently developing a project to expand the culture in Portsmouth, and bring it far and beyond its expected reach. 

 This is a project that will cost a fair amount of money... but this is also a project that represents community, and therefore should be moved by community. So many of us have felt displaced and away from home, even when near what should be home to us. Immigrants who do not know where home is anymore; Navy who do not feel at home and have left a bit of their own heart everywhere around the globe; the child who has moved schools; the teenagers who have now started University. The shift is present everywhere we set foot, all around us. 

 BRIAN, written by Luke Feechan, is the story of an Irish sailor who finds himself lost in an empty sea. He is not haunted by the ghosts of his past, but desperately trying to hold on to them as they grow ever distant. Driven by a banshee, his voyage is about the liminal stages in our lives. When your past home isn’t home anymore, when the person you have become can no longer walk in your old shoes, you are adrift. Nostalgia charts Brian’s course ahead as he searches for a shore that no longer exists. Like him, we are lost and we have the right to be

 BRIAN is a two person, intimate show designed for thrust and in-the-round venues where lighting and soundscapes play an important role. This is a piece of Physical Theatre, deeply rooted in Ecological Theatre, utilising techniques such as immersion and atmosphere. We aim to take the audience on an enriching journey they will identify with and hopefully let their hand go, leaving them with a sense of home in their hearts. The unknown is bountiful. Diving into a foreign space and encountering foreign feelings can and probably will be the beginning of one's growth.

What Venues are Suitable for BRIAN and Why?

 In-the-round and Thrust venues suit BRIAN the best as the show relies on the intimacy between performer and spectator. BRIAN suggests proximity, not distance or displacement. There is no power relation between the show and its viewers. It is rather a recognition of a common battle all of us fight. This is a show about community for communities.

Social Impact 

BRIAN is about the void experienced in liminal stages of life. It is therefore significant that we are bringing our work to those moving through the education system as the first void most of us experience is the transition between school and college, college and university, or education and work. We want to expand the local artistic education and theatre attendance by bringing our work closer to communities for whom theatre may not be ordinarily accessible.

Therefore, as part of our commitment to social impact, we intend to conduct workshops across the country, providing access to artistic platforms for those with limited opportunities. These workshops cover music in theatre, physical theatre practices, monologue work and creative process development. Our workshop dates will run from April 2024 to December 2025. 

If you are an organisation interested, or have an enquiry email us on [email protected] 

Documentary

In Collaboration with the amazing Director Julie Mareckova, BRIAN will also be followed by a film crew, adapting the process and the show into a documentary. 

From filming interviews, research and creative development, Julie Mareckova´s work will be focused on documenting BRIAN´s social impact on communities both in education and work environments.

About us

 Founded in 2022, Trouble In The Square is a theatre company based in Portsmouth, UK. We are a group of artists bringing a diverse range of practices together. We strive for truth and relation to human experience as we shift the world onto the stage, through ours and the community's experiences.  With ties to ecological theatre, physical theatre and other performance techniques, we are here to create unique and atmospheric environments and push the limits of performance. Let us hold your hand, look you in the eye with a smile, and take you on a stroll through our stories. 

Trouble In The Square were recently touring their latest show "IL Burattino" by Morgan Turner, a piece about war. More information on our work visit SHOWS.

Miguel Mota - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/ACTOR                                                                                                           Founder of Trouble In The Square, trained actor (at ACE, Porto), with a Bachelor Arts degree in Drama and Performance from Portsmouth University. Miguel has worked in Cinema, Television and Theatre. Coming all the way from Portugal, he seeks to work within the bounds of atmospheric, physical and ecological theatre.  

Luke Feechan                              ACTOR/COMPOSER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR                                                                                            Co-founder of Trouble In The Square. Luke is an actor, composer and director from Winchester who trained in musical theatre at the University of Portsmouth.

Justine Ní Quinn  - ACTOR/DIRECTOR                                                                                                                               Justine is an Irish physical theatre actor from Belfast, and a recent graduate of the Royal Birmingham conservatoire with a BA in acting as-well as an acting degree from the Guildford school of acting, her credits since graduating include a fairy in A midsummer night's Dream in the lightwoods park and a self choreographed music video for post punk rock band Baudelaire                                                                                                           

Julie Mareckova - Film Director

Julie, a graduate of the University of Portsmouth with a master's degree in Filmmaking from the University of Sussex, specialises in both writing and directing short films. Her expertise extends to producing and editing, and she has actively contributed to dynamic film sets. With a valuable placement year as a production manager in a film company, Julie brings a well-rounded skill set and practical industry experience to her craft.                       

Trouble In The Square Website: https://www.troubleinthesquare.co.uk/

Chat to us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trouble_in_the_square/

Photography: Michael Lynch Film, Ella Sharma

Illustration: Jack Deaney

This project successfully funded on 12th February 2024