Galatea

Was anyone undone by fire, or turned to ashes through desire?

Two young trans people find love whilst escaping oppression; a shipwrecked migrant searches for his family; goddesses clash; parents fret; an alchemist brews magic and a teenage Cupid sets hearts on fire - causing chaos and near disaster. And all the while, time is running out! Galatea is an unapologetically queer tale of love, magic, and the importance of welcoming outsiders.

Galatea was originally written in the 1580s by John Lyly, William Shakespeare’s best-selling but now long-forgotten contemporary, inspiring Shakespeare’s comedies from As You Like It to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I over four hundred years ago, this tale of love, joy and the importance of welcoming outsiders is an incredibly resonant story for modern times.

Galatea was originally commissioned by Brighton Festival, and adapted by Emma Frankland and Subira Joy, and edited by Andy Kesson. This text features set and costume design sketches by Mydd Pharo, BSL translation support from Duffy, and notes from each contributor on the creation of the piece. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Brighton Festival, in May 2023.

John Lyly was an English writer, playwright, courtier, and parliamentarian. He is sometimes grouped with other professional dramatists of the 1580s and 1590s like Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, and Thomas Lodge, as one of the so-called University Wits.

Emma Frankland is an award-winning theatre-maker and performer. She has created a diverse collection of work and was featured in the British Council Showcase at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival with an anarchic adaptation of Don Quijote. The show won the Wildfire Critic’s Choice award at the 2014 Ignite festival and has toured the UK and internationally, appearing in Rio de Janeiro at Festival del Tempo. Emma is an associate artist with Coney, and a regular collaborator with Chris Goode and Company and award-winning podcast Welcome to Night Vale. She is an established dramaturge for other artists and companies including Milk Presents and Rachael Clerke. Emma is a two-time Fringe First award winner and Total Theatre Award nominee. None of Us is Yet a Robot have presented work in Paris (Trans Time) Sao Paulo (Mix Brazil/ SSEX BBOX) Jakarta (British Council) and across the UK (Buzzcut, BAC, Forest Fringe, CPT, Brighton Dome.) The company is supported by a steering group of leaders in the arts, gender and science. is an award-winning theatre-maker and performer. She has created a diverse collection of work and was featured in the British Council Showcase at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival with an anarchic adaptation of Don Quijote. The show won the Wildfire Critic’s Choice award at the 2014 Ignite festival and has toured the UK and internationally, appearing in Rio de Janeiro at Festival del Tempo. Emma is an associate artist with Coney, and a regular collaborator with Chris Goode and Company and award-winning podcast Welcome to Night Vale. She is an established dramaturge for other artists and companies including Milk Presents and Rachael Clerke. Emma is a two-time Fringe First award winner and Total Theatre Award nominee. None of Us is Yet a Robot have presented work in Paris (Trans Time) Sao Paulo (Mix Brazil/ SSEX BBOX) Jakarta (British Council) and across the UK (Buzzcut, BAC, Forest Fringe, CPT, Brighton Dome.) The company is supported by a steering group of leaders in the arts, gender and science.

Subira Joy is a Black, trans, queer spoken-word performer, writer and activist, based in Brighton. Their work weaves together the personal and political, through experiences and imaginations, spoken with rage, softness, and laughter. Creator of award winning solo spoken-word show, Subira, and co-creator of Joy-Nduku, they have performed in the UK, Finland and Germany, and were poet-in-residence both at ONCA and Trope in March 2019. Subira regularly hosts their local poetry open mic, runs workshops, created poetry zine Doesn’t It Set your Teeth on Edge and is the co-editor of Trans Kink Zine. Their show Kill the Cop Inside Your Head toured in autumn 2023.

Andy Kesson is a theatre historian and teacher who works with experimental, fringe and mainstream theatre companies and practitioners, from Emma Frankland to the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has led research projects on the earliest English playhouses (BeforeShakespeare.com), the history of bears in England (BoxOfficeBears.com) and the contemporary performance of early modern plays (GalateaProject.org), and runs the education platform ABitLit.co. He is the author of John Lyly and Early Modern Authorship, the editor of essay collections on print popularity and early English theatre, and works across the fields of literature, performance, archaeology, ancient-DNA analysis, animal studies and queer, trans and disability studies.

Mydd Pharo is an award- winning designer, director and visual dramaturg working in theatre, opera, TV, film and live event, creating both intimate and epic scale installations and productions throughout the UK and internationally. His work primarily focuses on immersive and interactive audience experiences and expands both conventional performance spaces and discovered ones. He is Artistic Director of Wildworks, an international site-specific theatre company specialising in large-scale performances in unusual locations. Mydd studied Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art and Fine Art Installation at Falmouth College of Arts. Mydd has exhibited selected works at the V&A Museum London. He has also designed works for: Kneehigh Theatre, Wildworks, The Globe, The Royal Court, Punchdrunk, 1418NOW, National Theatre, National Theatre Wales, National Theatre Scotland, Battersea Arts Centre, Lyric Hammersmith, Young Vic, Paines Plough, Stratford East, and The Eden Project.

Duffy was an Associate Director for Galatea in May 2023, having worked with the team in their R+D two years prior. Duffy is an established BSL consultant/translation support in both theatre and the TV/film industry. Duffy worked on several Shakespeare productions such as the RSC’s As You Like It/The Taming of the Shrew/Troilus and Cressida. Duffy was on tour in 2023 with ELF & DUFFY: HEIST - a comedy show featuring mime, BSL and visual vernacular (VV).