Vanishing Point @ Tramway

Acclaimed director Matthew Lenton has another laurel to stick in his cap: he has become the first UK director to be invited to lead this year’s prestigious École des Maîtres.

Lenton, the artistic director of the theatre company Vanishing Point, has a history of creating challenging productions of high quality. Recent work of his includes the award-winning play Interiors, which is returning for another European tour, Little Otik, which was a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland, and the recent (and somewhat controversial) production of The Beggar’s Opera, which split critics and audiences.

Vanishing Point has a reputation of excellence and is considered by many to be one of the most influential theatre companies currently working in Scotland. According to their website, they create highly theatrical work that is “action-based theatre, combining performance with multimedia” and results in work that is “visual, filmic, evocative and impressionistic.”

Lenton’s involvement with the École des Maîtres now puts him in league with some of theatre’s greatest practitioners, including Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Stein, Lev Dodin, Dario Fo, Eimuntas Nekrošius, Jan Fabre, Pippo Delbono and Antonio Latella, all of whom had worked with the school.

École des Maîtres itself is designed to put young aspiring actors in professional contact with some of theatre’s greatest artists, allowing them to not only train but to also work alongside them. Students come from all over Europe and go through a gruelling audition process for one of 22 places.

This puts Lenton in the unique place of not only representing the UK but in also influencing and guiding the next generation of practitioners.