Fail Better Productions is the first resident company at The CAPITAL Centre

Fail Better was founded in 2001 with a Pinter Double Bill that toured to the Welsh College of Music and Drama, the RSC Summerhouse, and the Play in English Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. Since then they have staged two Sarah Kane revivals: Crave ('gut-wretchingly effective' The Scotsman) and Phaedra's Love ('pure theatrical gold' Metro) at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as devised and new writing projects in London: Echo and Narcissus ('challenging, gripping, creative' The Stage) and Diary of a Madman ('Best Fringe Show of 2007' Tamara Gausi in Time Out). Last year, they returned to Warwick with Stasis: Beckett Shorts for The CAPITAL Carnival and the Beckett and Visual Culture Conference.

Working with Warwick students and staff through practical workshops, performance projects and work-in-progress showings, Fail Better’s residency delivers CAPITAL’s objective of developing creative thinking through forms of teaching and learning that emphasise active performance on the part of both teachers and learners.

Residency April 2008-May 2009:

The residency has three strands, Beckett, Shakespeare and Myth, supplemented by theatrical productions and the development of new work.

Beckett in performance: practical exploration of Beckett’s drama through workshops with students. The company has already established a strong expertise in exploring Beckett in practice through education work and public performance. This strand is enriched by the direct contribution from our performers, director and designer who have recent professional experience of staging Beckett’s drama.

Shakespeare in performance: practical workshops focusing on the interpretative choices and technical requirements of performing Shakespeare on the contemporary stage. Some of Fail Better’s performers have played at Shakespeare’s Globe and members of our production team have worked on RSC productions.

Fail Better plans to explore Recycled Shakespeares alongside this strand through open events at the CAPITAL Centre. Fail Better staged a full production of Play without a Title which was performed at CAPITAL and the Belgrade as part of their Residency.

Rewriting Myth: development of an existing concept with our Director collaborating with students, professionals and academics on his Persephone project. Explorative and devising workshops take place within the CAPITAL Centre and a work-in-progress showing will take place as part of CAPITAL's New Work Festival in May 2009.

To request further information or to express an interest in any of the forthcoming projects, email Jonathan Heron at the CAPITAL Centre J.P.Heron@warwick.ac.uk.

Please visit www.failbetter.co.uk for information about the company’s work.