Edinburgh Festival Fringe – We Were Kings

We Were Kings: 

Fusing text with physical theatre, We Were Kings is a fast-paced coming of age play about three twenty-something friends reunited.

Following sell-out London previews at the Roundhouse and the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, in motion presents the world-premiere of We Were Kings. We Were Kings finds three friends – Jack (Abe Buckoke), Rosie (Marieta Melrose) & Max (Thomas Lawrence) – reuniting over a drink after some time apart. Max has returned from his first deployment, afraid of the prospect of having to go back; Jack is forging new plans for he and Rosie after an altercation with Max during training; Rosie is adrift, uninspired and dissatisfied.

Jordan Blackwood, most recently Resident Trainee Director at the King’s Head Theatre, injects physical theatre into the narrative, weaving real-time dialogue with stylised flashbacks to bring the friends’ shared past vividly to life; these moments of memory are subtly framed by James Melling’s ever-present sound design. 

We Were Kings has been crafted through an open rehearsal process with the cast (all of whom trained on the Collaborative and Devised Theatre programme at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama) all contributing directly to Daniel Cameron’s numerous redrafts.

in motion marks the coming together of two Scots with a few English chaps and a Bulgarian. Jordan, having recently directed rehearsed readings at the Traverse Theatre and Daniel, a member of the Playwright Studio Scotland,  will be presenting their work together for the first time in their native Scotland. The in motion team make their fringe débuts with We Were Kings.