Performed at the Greenwich Playhouse October 2001

Galleon Theatre Company's World Première production of Shadows on the Sun, by the multi award winning writer Barrie Keeffe, was set in Paris in the summer of 1794. Barrie Keeffe is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose work has been performed in over twenty countries. He has won several awards for his plays including the Paris Critic's Prix Révélation; a Giles Cooper Award for Best Radio Play; a Thames Television Playwrighting Award; The Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award; and for the screen script of The Long Good Friday. Shadows on the Sun was Barrie Keeffe's first stage play for ten years. 

Shadows on the Sun is an epic play. It traces the events which led to Danton's death and concludes with the guillotine execution of Robespierre. It provides an alternative to Buchner's Danton's Death and highlights the differences between the charismatic, womanising Danton and the obscure, apparently dull provincial lawyer Robespierre who secured Danton's death 'to save the Revolution' and in so doing unleashed the 'reign of terror'. 

To Carlyle, Robespierre was the 'Sea-Green Incorruptable'. To George Sand the greatest man in recorded history. Lord Acton called him 'the most hateful character in the forefront of history since Machiavelli'. To Victor Hugo he was the 'algebra of Le Grand Révolution'. To Napoleon - its great scapegoat. To Keeffe a complex, flawed, sometimes ruthless but touchingly humane man.

CREDITS

• Directed by Bruce Jamieson
• Produced by Alice de Sousa

THE CAST

• MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE - NICHOLAS DEAL
• DANTON, HUNCHBACK, DOCTOR - ADEN CARDY-BROWN
• ST. JUST - RUPERT FAWCETT
• DAVID - ANTONY LAW
• ELEN, WHORE, CECILE - NIKKI LEIGH SCOTT
• BARERE - JON HOUSE
• CHARLOTTE, MADAME THEOT - OLIVIA FOX
• THE EXECUTIONER, FOUCHE - MARK HOLLOWAY
• HIS ASSISTANT, VADIER - IAIN DOOTSON
• THE CORPSE, COUTHON - STEVEN DIGGORY
• D’HERBOIS, SOLDIER - GRAHAM MORRIS-ALMOND
• VARENNE, SOLDIER - NATHAN RIMELL

THE CREATIVE TEAM

• STAGE MANAGEMER - ELIZABETH BUCKERIDGE
• FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER - PHILIP D'ORLÉANS
• ASSIST. DESIGNER - ELLEN DUNCAN
• LIGHTING DESIGNER - ROBERT GOOCH
• PUBLICITY DESIGNER - ALISON RAYNER
• PRODUCTION DESIGNER - MARTIN J. ROBINSON
• STILLS PHOTOGRAPHER - PAUL WELCH
• PRODUCTION ASSISTANT - CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

REVIEWS

“totally riveting” - Time Out

 

“superb” - What’s On

 

"an enjoyable anatomy of power" - Evening Standard

 

"Bruce Jamieson's directing of Galleon Theatre Company is stronger than ever"  - South London Press

 

“I am left with a conviction that Barrie Keeffe’s Shadows on the Sun may come to be recognised as one of the truly great plays of the 21st Century” - Kentish Times