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The Persians : A production of a new version of Aeschylus’s The Persians: presented in the opening programme of National Theatre Wales (NTW). It involved the convergence of the approaches of site-specific work and of attendant devised performance and physical theatre, with those of scripted drama and conventions of stage practice; the application of advanced media and technology in a landscape setting; and levels of involvement for audiences in restricted contexts, outside the constraints of public licensing

Site-specific theatre performance; dramaturgy and direction by the author. A production of a new version of Aeschylus’s The Persians: created in the opening programme of National Theatre Wales (NTW) in a replica village constructed to rehearse urban warfare on the UK Army Sennybridge Training Area in mid-Wales. Performances: 11-21 August 2010.• In what ways might advanced techniques of site-specific practice be employed in the staging of dramatic literature to create new performance hybrids?• How might performance techniques and procedures serve to illuminate, explicate and problematise the multiplicity of meanings that resonate within and from a place?• How might funded, professional engagements offer opportunities to develop the practical and scholarly apprehension of site-specificity? The project involved the convergence of the approaches of site-specific work and of attendant devised performance and physical theatre, with those of scripted drama and conventions of stage practice; the application of advanced media and technology in a landscape setting; and levels of involvement for audiences in restricted contexts, outside the constraints of public licensing. It was designed to advance, elaborate and challenge NTW’s stated policy –that directly acknowledged the researcher’s earlier practical and scholarly work – to base its first season of dispersed productions around notions of ‘location’. It involved collaboration with the Ministry of Defence and Defence Estates and aimed to enhance and stimulate public appreciation and understanding of a particular location and its historical significance through site-specific practices. The site was explored during a workshop organized by the researcher in the AHRC ‘Landscape and Environment’ programme network ‘Living in a Material World’ (http://www.landscape.ac.uk/landscape/research/networksworkshops/livinginamaterialworld.aspx). The project is presaged in Pearson, M. 2010 Site-Specific Performance and fully described in Tompkins, J. & Birch, A. 2013 Performing Site-Specific, Theatre: Politics, Place and Practice. See also Primavesi, P. 2012 ‘Memories from a Theatre of War’, Performance Research, 17, 3.