Rhum+Clay

Giants

In Development: Touring from 2023

Rhum+Clay

In Collaboration with National Theatre of Parramatta, Australia 

In 1956 three of Hollywood’s biggest stars - Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean descended upon a small country town in the middle of the Texan desert to begin filming the sweeping Hollywood epic, Giant. What followed was a three-way love affair, fuelled by insomnia, alcohol and jealousy, tragically cut short by the untimely death of James Dean. Our production, GIANTS, will tell the story of this intimate, dysfunctional triangle and the twisted narcissism that lay behind it all.

The style of the production will draw on the language of cinema and the inherent artifice of theatre. With both on and off-camera visible to the audience, the ensemble of actors will play with perceptions of what is real and what is a construct, borrowing from the visual language of cinema from the 1950s. 

What better way to see what we are now, than to look back at this moment which encapsulates the birth of modern celebrity with its intoxicating promise of re-invention? 

Constructed images, fragile egos and the tragic death of a young star combine in a cautionary tale about the seductive power of fame.

Cast & Creatives

Devised by Rhum + Clay

Writer: Stephen Laughton
Directors: Julian Spooner & Matt Wells
Co-Director: Kate Champion 
Producer: Sally Cowling