Archives: Projects

2023: Gaslight

A new updated version of the play by Patrick Hamilton which brought the word ‘gaslighting’ into the vernacular. Written for Johnny Vegas’ Woolyback Productions for b’cast on BBC R4 and SOUNDS. “Holloway’s modern adaptation is set in the present, with a deliciously vintage feel and scored with original music by Imelda May.” – The Radio Times

2021: During the Pandemic

2021: In May Jonathan contributed to the Pleasance/Vault Festival’s Fringe Futures event with his workshop on ‘building an ad-hoc company into a viable business’.

In April Jonathan participated in a week of workshops with Angel Exit Theatre collaborating with Newfoundland Actors laying the foundations for a new show concerning the experience of Dorset fishermen who travelled to Canada to work in the Cod industry.

In early 2021 Jonathan Holloway was due to travel to East Asia to work with Hong Kong’s Chung Ying Theatre Company to again direct his much admired version of Tale of Two Cities : Blood For Blood. (please go to 2016 to see details of the production). Previously performed in English with a British cast in HK’s Amphitheatre and Pleasance Beyond at the Edinburgh Festival, this revival was to be in Cantonese (translator, Dominic Cheung) and was due to open in April at the HK Cultural Centre, then transfer to the new Hadid opera house in Guangzhou, but was postponed because of Covid-19. It is now rescheduled for 2023.

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2020: THE TIME MACHINE on the Eve of the Pandemic

2020: Jonathan was commissioned by Creation Theatre Company to create a contemporary re-imagining of H G Well’s THE TIME MACHINE written to be a site specific performance at the London Library and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. The Pandemic shut down the live show one week into its 10 week run, and Creation Theatre re-mounted it as an online show.

“Jonathan Holloway’s story deconstructs the original novel to creative effect and uses a sparse cast and modern technology to explore moral puzzles… issues are also raised around the blurry lines between science and money and between science and the law… we are now in an alternative timeline where Oliver Hardy gave up the comedy shtick to become a noted physicist and Jean-Paul Gaultier is a computer engineer living in Birmingham”
– * * * * londonist.com
“a proper immersive experience” – * * * * theatreweekly.com
“this production is astoundingly and unnervingly prophetic… a thought-provoking and bang-up-to-date production that is so zeitgeisty it feels like the zeitgeist itself”
– * * * * northwestend.co.uk
“packed full of ideas… an enjoyable and thought-provoking new take on a classic story with the added bonus of a unique historic space” – * * * BritishTheatre.com
“bonkers, brilliant and just a bit too close to the bone! An interactive adventure through an amazing building” – TheFamilyStage
“Jonathan Holloway has adapted the father of science fiction’s best-seller into such a relevant immersive piece, it was as though it was written yesterday, or rather, tomorrow…. this production is astoundingly and unnervingly prophetic” – * * * * northwestend.co.uk
“always hugely literate and has a questing intelligence” – Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor
“brilliant” – * * * sardinesmagazine.co.uk
“an event that offers a unique adventure” – * * * * londonlivinglarge.com “We are whisked to alternate timelines where Wells wrote The Origin of the Species and Darwin wrote The Time Machine, where silent film comedy actor Oliver Hardy is a physicist and where Jean-Paul Gaultier is creating electronic music in Birmingham…. Thrilling” – * * * * bemyguest.org.uk
“it’s an eye opening bit of writing, that draws you in by showing you an idea of what the world would look like in the near future if something isn’t done” – * * * * withinherwords.co.uk

2017: 1984

Adapted and Directed by Jonathan Holloway
Site specific production for Creation Theatre, Oxford

1984 by Creation Theatre trailer on Vimeo

A site specific production for Creation Theatre at the Mathematics Institute, Oxford, based on Holloway’s BBC adaptation of 2012 which won a First Prize at the Prix Italia.

2016: A Tale of Two Cities

Blood for Blood
Adapted and directed by Jonathan Holloway (who also lit the show and acted in it)
Chung Ying Theatre Company, Hong Kong and Edinburgh Festival.

2015: Jekyll and Hyde

Adapted and Directed by Jonathan Holloway (who also lit the production)
Chung Ying Theatre Company, Hong Kong and London