Thanks to: Grid Iron, Judith Doherty, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Marchmont St Giles, Catriona Johnston, Anna Pearshouse, Claire Botterill, Lisa Baker, Beatrice Dalle, Fanny Martin, Caroline Phipps, Brian, Jenny and Nicola Harrison, Joan and John Stokes, George Cole, Alasdair and Naomi Sim, The Maddermarket Theatre, Andrew Erskine, Mr Polly, Paul Madge, John Grainger, Stomping Feet Theatre Company, Mike Fisher, Tortoise in a Nutshell, Imaginate. 

Director’s Note

When Ben Harrison asked me to direct Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, I was delighted. We are friends and have walked together every week for the past five, but directing a director, is this madness? I shouldn’t have worried, the rehearsal process has been utterly joyful.

The process involves bringing four artists from four different disciplines together to bring to life to the stories from Ben’s teenage years, using music from the 1980’s. I wasn’t a teenager in the 80’s but I was a DJ and the music resonates with my past. The music chosen by Ben and composer/performer David Paul Jones has been restyled to match and work with the texts. David has brought in classical cellist Justyna Jablonska to add to the score. Emery Hunter completes the team as BSL performer.

How to bring these four together? My process involved working through the text and combining the different artists’ talents to ensure that every song, word and movement is part of the story. The signing of the show makes it accessible to those who can’t hear the story but it’s richer than that, the movements of the signing is a key element of our emotional narrative. Perhaps one of the most joyous parts of the process has been working with DPJ; of course I knew of his astonishing musical calibre and history, but the way in which he has redesigned the classic 80’s hits is fundamental to the heart and soul of Ben‘s text.

It has been a joy to work and create such a different kind of theatre with an immensely talented team. My favourite line in the show is “I cycled home, into my past, for a while”.  I believe Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me will allow our audience to cycle home into their past, present and future.

Enjoy the show.

Scott Johnston, September 2024

Biographies

Scott Johnston - Director

Scott Johnston is a theatre director, workshop creator, and facilitator.  His passion for the performing arts has taken him to work in South Africa, Lithuania, Ireland, Hungary, the USA, Finland and Romania. He recently left working at Performing Arts Studio Scotland where he helped shape creative lives of many of Scotland’s young actors, writer and directors. He is a National Theatre director in Romania, where his performance of Inheritance by John Harvey won awards at many festivals. Scott is an adviser to the Korean Theatre Association and a Board Member of Babel Fast in Targoviste, Romania. Notably, Scott’s excellence in promoting transnational practice earned him the prestigious University Medal from the National University Academy of Theatre in Târgu Mureș—an accolade that transcends borders. 

Ben Harrison - Writer, Performer and Producer

Ben formed his first company Stomping Feet in Norwich in 1988, and first brought it to the Edinburgh Fringe in 1989. He has directed over 75 professional theatre productions. He returned to the stage as an actor after a 27-year break for his collaboration with Amy Duncan in 2022, Undertow Overflow. He has been Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron from 1996, since when the company has won over 30 awards for its work. He has directed 29 of the company’s productions. Recent work for Grid Iron includes Doppler and Muster Station: Leith. His show Peter Pan for 360 Entertainment was seen by more than a million people in London and across the USA 2009-2015. Recent work includes The Perambulations of A Justified Sinner for the Edinburgh International Book Festival and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar for Helen Milne/Perth Theatre. 

www.benharrison.info 

David Paul Jones, Composer and Performer

DPJ is a vocalist, pianist, composer and arranger, based in Edinburgh. He has worked as an independent solo artist and collaborator across many disciplines and artforms throughout Scotland, UK and worldwide for over thirty years. His work blends contemporary classical sensibilities with digital media to create atmospheric and emotive soundworlds, including music for solo piano, instrumental works, songs and larger-scale vocal compositions and soundtracks and sound designs for theatre and dance productions.

He has collaborated with Ben Harrison for over twenty years, composing and performing soundtracks for many acclaimed Grid Iron theatre productions. His new song collection, Lone Tree, based on the beloved poetry of Kathleen Jamie, premiered at the 2024 Edinburgh International Book Festival. His soundtrack to Ramesh Meyyappan’s Love Beyond (currently on tour throughout Scotland), was awarded Best Music & Sound at the 2023 CATS Awards. DPJ’s recorded work is released on the Linn Records label.

www.davidpauljones.com

Justyna Jablonska- Cellist

Justyna Jablonska is an acclaimed cellist and music creator based in Edinburgh.  During the past decade, she has carved out an exciting career at the forefront of both Western contemporary classical and fusion music. She is passionate about cross-disciplinarity, and experimental performance. In 2022 Justyna released her first cross-cultural album with Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth "Songs for Cello and Carnatic Violin" funded by Creative Scotland. In the same year she premiered her first multimedia solo work "Lost and Found: A Cellist's Journey" funded by the Made in Scotland showcase. In 2024 Justyna obtained a PhD in creative practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her PhD was fully funded by the Carnegie Trust PhD Scholarship.

Emery Hunter - Signed Performance

Emery Hunter is an actor and writer based in Glasgow. She trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Professional credits include: Smoke and Sickle (Village Storytelling Festival), Can Bears Ski? (Deafinitely Theatre and Pied Piper), Undertow Overflow (Ben Harrison), Don’t Make Tea 2022 and 2024 (Birds of Paradise).

Simon Wilkinson - Lighting Designer

Simon works internationally as a lighting designer for theatre, dance, and opera
Recent highlights include Punchdrunk’s Viola’s Room, the world premiere of Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (UK & Ireland), Islander (US Tour / New York / London), Vanishing Point’s Metamorphosis (Scotland / Italy), Vox Motus’s Flight (worldwide) and Robert Lepage’s production of The Magic Flute (Quebec City). For the National Theatre of Scotland, Simon has lit The Panopticon, Interference, The 306: Dawn, Dragon, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish & Roman Bridge. He has designed work for most of Scotland’s leading theatre companies including Vanishing Point, Lyceum, Traverse, Perth Theatre, Raw Material and Grid Iron. Simon won a Profile Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre Lighting for Ragnarok in 2024 and has won the Critics Award For Theatre in Scotland for Best Design three times - for Flight, Black Beauty, and Bondagers.

Fiona Fraser - Production Manager

Fi has been a Freelance Production Manager for over 25 years.  She has worked with many Theatre and Dance companies, from The National Theatre of Scotland, to Tortoise in a Nutshell, Rob Heaslip Dance and Farah Saleh.  Most recently Fi worked with Tenterhooks on Hercules The Bear and A Giant On The Bridge Produced by Kate Taylor. She‘s production managed over 30 productions for Grid Iron and has been the Production Manager for The Edinburgh International Children's Festival since 2018.  She's worked with Vanishing Point since 2009, managing most of their National and International tours.  Fi is the Director of her own company, Fi Fraser Production Management which aims to work with and mentor emerging Production and Stage Managers, and is also one of the founding members of the ARMS, Arts Resource Management Scotland (www.arms.myturn.com) 

www.fifraser.com

Katy Steele - Stage Manager

Katy is an Edinburgh based Stage Manager and has been freelance for 7 years, allowing her to work nationally and internationally with companies such as the Edinburgh Lyceum, Strange Town, Catherine Wheels, Oily Cart, Grid Iron, Fish & Game, Scottish Theatre Producers, The Letter J, Barrowland Ballet, Cade & MacAskill, and Scottish Dance Theatre. Having worked on several productions with Ben over the past few years she’s excited to be doing such a personal project with him and the rest of the team.

Ciarán McIntyre - Sound Engineer

Ciarán McIntyre is a Sound Engineer, Guitarist and Composer with a mix of skills gathered over years of pursuing a career in the creative arts. Building his first set of skills on the Glasgow gig scene, now he's spending more time Composing and Engineering. Following his work as composer on BAFTA Scotland Best Documentary winner Real Kashmir FC, the focus has been his band Emerald State and recording artists at his Matchbox Sound studio in Glasgow. This year he has also worked as a Sound Tech & Designer on Magpie (Drew Cuzack, Camden Fringe, Feb 2024) and A Silent Scandal (Meade Conway, Edinburgh Fringe, 2024).

Niall Walker - Microsite & Print Design and Marketing Campaign

Niall Walker is a marketing, media and design consultant with 25 years of experience in arts promotion in Scotland and beyond.  He was The Arches Marketing & Design Manager for 12 years before going freelance in 2014. Since then he has worked with various leading arts organisations, including CCA, National Theatre of Scotland, Raw Material, Vanishing Point, Take Me Somewhere and Scottish Ballet, where he is Press & Comms Manager. His specialties include: content creation, marketing strategy, graphic design, digital marketing and press campaigns. He has worked extensively at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and on theatre, live art and dance tours throughout Scotland, the UK and internationally.

Magda Paduch - Press and PR for Premier PR

Magda Paduch is a Director at Premier Scotland (previously The Corner Shop PR), an agency with over two decades of experience delivering world-class communications campaigns for the entertainment, arts and cultural industries. Over the past decade, she has worked across several of the Edinburgh’s leading festivals and countless other events and tours in the UK and Ireland. www.premiercomms.com

Claire Doyle - Ben’s Singing Coach

Claire trained at the Royal Academy of Music, London and has accumulated over 25 years of performance and teaching experience. She has enjoyed an extensively varied career in the arts. Currently, Claire teaches and consults, alongside directing her own arts-based social enterprise: 3Theatre. Awards and nominations include:  DipRAM awarded for ‘Outstanding Performance’ (Royal Academy of Music); HL Hammond Prize (RAM) and ‘Very Highest Commendation’ Ronald William White Prize for Acting Through Song (RAM). 3Theatre has received award nominations from ‘Hoop’ and ‘Pride of Scotland’ for dedicated work with young people and raising attainment through the arts, ‘empowering creativity’.