Preview
  • Iphigenia in Splott

  • By: Gary Owen
  • Narrated by: Sophie Melville
  • Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

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Iphigenia in Splott

By: Gary Owen
Narrated by: Sophie Melville
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Publisher's summary

Written By: Gary Owen

Directed By: Rachel O’Riordan

Performed by: Sophie Melville

Drunk, dazed, disoriented, and stumbling down Clifton Street at 11:30 a.m., Effie is the kind of girl you’d likely avoid eye contact with while silently labeling a drifter or a delinquent. You’d probably pass judgment, assuming you know her - but you don’t know the half of it. As Effie’s life spirals through a mess of excess, drama, and addiction plaguing her at every turn, she has nothing to look forward to but a hangover worse than death itself each morning. Until one night gives her the chance to become something more.

In this powerful new adaptation of the enduring Greek myth of the ill-fated Iphigenia, playwright Gary Owen, director Rachel O’Riordan, and actress Sophie Melville (who received a Drama Desk nomination for her stunning, furious solo performance) construct a modern day probe into the ostracized corners of society—and those who live there, victims of our own negligence. A New York Times Critic’s Pick that received both the James Tait Black Award and UK Theatre Award for Best New Play, Iphigenia in Splott was first produced by Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, UK. The Stage raves, "…Rachel O’Riordan captures the play’s many tonal changes in her production, which is fluid and textured."

©2019 Gary Owen (P)2019 AO Media LLC
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Go Behind the Scenes with Sophie Melville

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Our favorite moments from Iphigenia in Splott

Ladies and gents, I’ve come to collect.
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I see him seeing me.
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As on my own as I can be.
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I remember shouting like that.
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  • Iphigenia in Splott
  • Ladies and gents, I’ve come to collect.
  • Iphigenia in Splott
  • I see him seeing me.
  • Iphigenia in Splott
  • As on my own as I can be.
  • Iphigenia in Splott
  • I remember shouting like that.

About the Writer

Welsh playwright and screenwriter Gary Owen is the creator of a number of highly acclaimed productions, including the Olivier Award winner Killology, which premiered at the Sherman Theatre in 2017, Violence and Son, which had its premiere at the Royal Court in 2015, and 2015’s Iphigenia in Splott, winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Drama. His other works include Love Steals Us From Loneliness, Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, The Shadow of a Boy (which was awarded both the Meyer Whitworth Award and the George Devine Award), The Drowned World (winner of the Edinburgh Fringe First Award and the Pearson Best Play Award), Ghost City, Cancer Time, SK8, Big Hopes, In the Pipeline, Blackthorn, Mary Twice, Amgen: Broken, Bulletproof, and Free Folk. He has also adapted several plays and musicals for both the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (Spring Awakening and Ring Ring, a new version of La Ronde) and the Sherman Cymru (A Christmas Carol). In addition to his position as an associate artist at Sherman Cymru, Owen is also a creative associate at the Watford Palace Theatre, where his plays We That Are Left, Mrs. Reynolds and the Ruffian, and Perfect Match have been produced. He is the co-creator and co-writer of two seasons of Baker Boys, a BBC Wales original series.

About the Director

Rachel O’Riordan recently joined the Lyric Hammersmith in London as their Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive. Prior to this, she was the Artistic Director of Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre, where she has directed The Cherry Orchard, Killology (a co-production with the Royal Court Theatre in London); The Weir (a co-production with the Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bristol); Bird (a co-production with the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester); A Doll’s House; Iphigenia in Splott on its UK tour and at the National Theatre; Romeo & Juliet; and Arabian Nights. Killology won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre and was the first co-production between a Welsh theatre and the Royal Court Theatre. Iphigenia in Splott won both the UK Theatre Award for Best New Play and the James Tait Black Prize for Drama. It was the first production by a Welsh producing house to transfer to the National Theatre. Under Rachel’s leadership, the Sherman Theatre became the first theatre in Wales to win the Stage Awards Regional Theatre of the Year title in 2018.

Rachel’s work has been performed internationally. In 2018 Rachel directed Come On Home at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 2017 Iphigenia in Splott was performed at New York’s Brits Off Broadway season and was the only production by a UK company to be selected to be part of FIND Festival at Berlin’s iconic Schaubühne. She has recently worked for the British Council in Kiev, developing new artists. Before joining Sherman Theatre, Rachel was Artistic Director at Perth Theatre in Scotland. She holds a PhD from the University of Ulster.

Sophie Melville

About the Performer

Sophie Melville professionally trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. From there, she went on to star in a number of theatrical productions including Blue, Close Quarters, Pops, No One Will Tell Me How to Start a Revolution, The Divide, and Pagans, performing in theaters ranging from the Old Vic in London to the 59E59 Theaters in New York City. Her 2016 performance in Blackbird earned her the Wales Theatre Award for Best Female Performance, adding to the multitude of awards she won for her role in Iphigenia in Splott, which included the Stage Award for Acting Excellence at Edinburgh Fringe, the Wales Theatre Award for Best Female Performance, and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance. Melville has also been featured in the sci-fi comedy Canaries, as well as several television shows, including the BBC Three-commissioned The Left Behind and BBC One’s The Missing.

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Iphigenia moves from Aulis to Splott

If you listen to nothing else, listen to this play. Very raw. Very real. It brings into focus, with painful clarity, what it means to be sacrificed "for the good of the State".

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