Interviews

Five reasons To See…. Invisible

Douglas Rintoul is the artistic director of Transport, an international arts company based in south-east England. It exists to make work which celebrates the diversity of the human experience, engages the imagination and promotes new forms and collaborations.

He has directed for the Barbican, Trafalgar Studios, Dundee Rep Theatre, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, the National Theatre Studio, Salisbury Playhouse, Ipswich’s New Wolsey Theatre, Creation and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He is also a long-standing associate director to Simon McBurney of Complicité and an assistant and associate director for Deborah Warner.

1. The story: Invisible is a funny, moving and topical portrayal of the world in flux. Lara left home convinced that hard work and talent would reward her with a better life. Anton was forced to leave his village and now finds himself suspended 16 floors above a city cleaning windows. Malik stands on a beach and looks out towards a country where women apparently walk around half-naked.

Felix, a young businessman with a pretty wife and a lucrative future, finds it difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. Amid the world of visas and wind turbines, commuter flights and nightclubs, fairy tales and tabloid press a chance meeting drives disparate lives towards a chilling point of no return…

2. The team: Invisible is the world premiere of a drama written by Croatia’s leading playwright Tena Štivičić} and choreographed by [Darren Johnston. It’s an innovative fusion of new writing, visual theatre and movement. Transport’s last two productions were well-received nationally.

3. The subject matter: Invisible takes on the big subjects: migration, globalisation and identity. Using very human and domestic narratives, it aims to change the way we understand what it means to be a migrant, shifting the way we perceive ourselves and others around us by making large questions concerning the modern world immediate, recognisable and accessible.

4. The cast: The ensemble is made up of international and British actors whose credits include the National Theatre, the RSC, Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, the New Wolsey Theatre, The Bush and The Gate. The cast includes Liam Bergin who starred in Eastenders as Danny Mitchell and Guildhall-trained Polish actress Anna Elijasz for whom Invisible marks her professional debut.

5. The legacy: You’ll never look at the world in quite the same way again.