About the Company

shiningman was set up in 2008 by director Robert Wolstenholme and producer Ben Crystal through a shared love of text-based theatre and forensic attention to theatrical detail.  Their aim is to stage the first major revivals of lesser known modern classic plays, with the highest possible production values.

Robert explains how they came up with the company name:

We took the name from a brilliant book by Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker. It’s set 2500 years in a future, post-nuclear holocaust, apocalyptic world. In the story, the survivors confuse the cause of their present state, mistaking ‘atom’ for ‘Adam’. In their minds, Adam is the shiningman who gets split to create the world, so the name shiningman for us is about the stories that we tell that help us understand who we are, which is, after all, what theatre is all about…

For their debut show, they have chosen Simon Stephens’ brilliant One Minute, which was first performed at the Crucible, Sheffield and on tour (in London at The Bush), in 2003 but has not been produced in Britain since.

Robert Wolstenholme - Director

Robert studied theatre at Warwick University and directing at Drama Studio, London and on the National Theatre Directors’ Programme. Recent productions include;

As director/co-producer: Guerilla/Whore (Tabard), Here (Tristan Bates), Private Lives (Canal Café) and Closer (Landor).

As director: The Unattended (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh), This to This (Union Theatre), If No One Loves You, Change (King’s Head), Bash (Hen & Chickens), Road (Croydon Clocktower), Love & Understanding, Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down (both Etcetera), Christie In Love, Oedipus The King (both Young Vic Genesis Directors’ Project), Octopus Pie (Edinburgh fringe), Dracula (Drayton Court), Mother Tongue (Oval House), Sleeping Nightie (White Bear), The Razorblade Cuckoo (Link Theatre), Can You Keep a Secret? and Was He Anyone? (both Croydon Youth Theatre) and countless rehearsed readings.

As assistant or associate director: work at the Old Red Lion, The Finborough, the Donmar Warehouse and The Almeida at home, in the West End and on tour.

Ben Crystal – Producer

Trained at Drama Studio, London.

Theatre includes: 5pm, No Particular Afternoon (The Space), Ohio Impromptu and Rough for Theatre 2 (Capital Centre), Caligula (Union Theatre), Comedy of Errors and Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe), Twelfth Night (national tour), Christie In Love (Young Vic Genesis Directors’ Project), Romeo in Video & Juliet (Oxford Literary Festival) and countless rehearsed readings and development workshops.

TV includes: Holby City (BBC), The Bill (ITV) and Starting Out (BBC).

Film includes: Julian Wald in Uprising (NBC/Warner) and the independents Hero, Click, Mercy and Cupid’s Whores.

Ben is also a prolific narrator/voiceover artist. His narration work includes: Audiobooks for RNIB Talking Books, including A Clockwork Orange, and narration for Channel 4 and the BBC

For more details, please see www.bencrystal.com