Marcus Roche
director/performer
Recent Projects
Bajarse Al Moro /
Going Down to Morocco
What was it about:
Marcus directed a staged reading of Jose Luis Alonso De Santos' classic play Going Down to Morocco in both Spanish and English as part of the first Contemporary Spanish Playwriting Season.
When and where:
Cervantes Theatre, Southwark, 2018
For photographs from the staged reading click here
Cheek by Jowl's
Pericles
What was it about:
Marcus is the Assistant director for Cheek By Jowl's Pericles by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins
When and where:
European Tour in 2018, including Barbican Centre, London.
For more about the production click here
Cheek by Jowl's
The Winter's Tale
What was it about:
Marcus was the Assistant director for Cheek By Jowl The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare.
When and where:
European Tour 2016, Worldwide (including US & Russia) 2017
For more about the production click here
For a response to the piece written by Mario Vagas Llosa click here (ES)
Click here for an interview with Orlando James and Marcus Roche
Focus on Productions
Production shots from shows. For more pictures click this link.
Bajarse Al Moro at the Cervantes Theatre (2018)
José Ramon Arredondo, Candela Gómez as Elena, Sergio Colón as Alberto . Photo credit: Deanne Jones
Ubu Roi at Play, Pie and a Pint (2012)
Barry Hunter, Helen McAlpine, Paul-James Corrigan. Photo credit: Leslie Black
Read the Skinny's review here.
Notable Projects
Some more projects that I have directed
A Night Before the Trial
and The Sneeze
by Anton P. Chekhov
What was it about:
The Night Before the Trail and The Sneeze are two of Anton Chekhov’s vaudevillian short stories that feature people striving to be the best they can be in a society obsessed with the pursuit of status. The audience were invited to join Chekhov and his associates to hear these "new pieces" only for their lives to take an absurd turn.
When and where:
At the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, as a curtain raiser to John Byrne's Three Sisters, on the 17th and 18th of October 2014
Review:
For Neil Cooper's review in the Herald click here
The Agony and Ecstasy
of Steve Jobs
by Mike Daisey
What was it:
This is a hilarious and sometimes harrowing tale of Steve Jobs and the Chinese workers toiling to make your beloved iPhones. Explore the legality and morality of electronic sweatshops in China, complete with armed guards, underage workers and disturbing tales of toxic factories. Agony shows how one man's story might not be able to topple an empire, but it can certainly give it a righteous shove.
Starring Grant O'Rourke
When and where:
Gilded Balloon, Edinbugh 2012, 2013 and UK Tour
**** - Metro
Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award shortlisted production and nominated for a Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland for best performance.
Vote for Me
by Marcus Roche
What was it about:
Part clown show, stand up, live art: Marxus sold his vote in the Scottish Referendum to the highest bidder in the audience. A piece centred round how the economy is the primary factor of influence in our democracy.
Buying votes is illegal, but is selling them…?
When and where:
Vote for Me, played at the Arches in Glasgow as part of the Early Days festival on the 16th of September 2014
Review:
For Neil Cooper's review in the Herald click here
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
What was it:
Romeo and Juliet made collaboratively between an international creative team and a Russian repertory theatre. Heavily physical, the production was an experiment with contemporary theatre and received critical acclaim.
When and where:
In rep. since 10th November 2012
Taganrog Opera and Drama Theatre, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Top Table
by Rob Drummond
What was it:
A restaging of Rob Drummond's play where a family falls apart on the day of a wedding, this time in full scale immersive experience at the Glasgow Hilton. Complete with improvising hen and stag parties that turned up the day off, after the night before, the audience were invited to the wedding of the year.
When and where:
25th May 2013 at the Glasgow Hilton. The event was a fundraiser for Cancer Support Scotland
Macbeth
by Shakespeare
What was it:
Two army buddies who've been celebrating survival of the recent bloodshed have one, two, many whiskeys and end up hallucinating a path to glory that spurs the lesser noble of the two to destroy all his friends, family and country, whose self-same destruction is ensured by a cheeky Westminster warmonger's opportunistic annexation of Scotland.
Collaboration with Patty Niemann glass artist who designed and created glasswork for the show.
Where and when:
Scottish Highland tour, May 2011
Read the Scotsman's review here
Training
Ecole Philippe Gaulier
Clowns
If I could I have learned nothing, that managed to forget everything I had learned, perhaps one day I could aspire to be a real idiot. This summer I joined the fraternity of people on a life-long quest of discovering my clown.
International Theatre Summer School 7
(VII Международной летней школе СТД РФ)
Theatre Union of Russia
Month long prestigious training in classical forms of acting, fencing, singing, voice, dance, physical theatre, Chekhov, Shakespeare.Trained as an actor in Meyerhold technique under Gytis Padegimas. During this school I played Quince in Moscow, directed by Ekaterina Granitova
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
Masters in Classical and Contemporary Text - Directing (Distinction)
All encompassing training in directing, delivered in part by the Shakespeare's Globe in London. Worked alongside playwright Nicola McCartney in a year-long development of a piece: Hartland.
Other Training (I used to be an Astrophysicist)
Young Vic Springboard 2012, FST Producer on placement, RSC Directors Workshop, University of Southern Denmark (SDU) Arts and Business, Traverse Young Writers
I have a diversity in training and I have a BSc Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Edinburgh.
Here's me talking about the link between physics and my work.
