Annie George Presents HOME IS NOT THE PLACE

Annie George presents Home is Not The Place. Supported by The Meadows Award (part I of the Resilience double bill with Twa) Part of the Made in Scotland showcase 2022.

As we reach the 75th anniversary of the partition, this powerful play reframes British Empire and migration narratives through the experiences of three generations of one Keralan family

Written and performed by Annie George | Directed by Gerry Mulgrew at Tech Cube 0 @ Summerhall, 3 - 27 August 2022 (not 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28), 19:20 (20:25), 12+.

Home is Not the Place, a powerful, poetic solo show, evolved from a quest by award-winning Keralan-born, Scottish artist Annie George to uncover her creative roots. The play tells the remarkable story of the short life and lost work of Annie's Indian grandfather, writer PM John, in the years just before India's independence from British rule in 1947.

Where does the desire to reach beyond the everyday, to communicate and share our thoughts and stories, come from? Is it in our DNA? How does the creative act transform us? Drawn from family memories, John's surviving work, published history, and authentic, contemporaraneous accounts, Annie reveals John's cease less desire for knowledge, his compulsion to write and document - uncommon in the family and local culture - and unwinds a tale of personal and political independence, across three generations in one family, immigrants and pioneers of sorts, in search of 'who we are, what we are, what we believe'.

In a new version directed by the celebrated Scottish director Gerry Mulgrew, and with 'an exquisite score' and visuals, Home is Not the Place is compelling show about identity and belonging, which considers how our ex periences shape us, what 'home' means and how we can live forever.

Annie says: "Writing this play was a way of getting to know my grandfather who'd died long before I was born. It revealed more than I knew of the family's history, connecting my Indian heritage across five generations to my Indian-Scots children and grandson. There were no other artists in my family apart from him, so I had no role model and little encouragement in my artistic pursuits. It can be a lonely place. So, imagine what it was like for him, coming from a poor family in a Little Village in rural South India of the 1930s, where no one wrote or published books as he did. And because he wrote, seventy five years after PM John died, I could bring him back, as he lives on through his words. We each have - and have the right - to tell our stories, however we can. Our way. If we don't, our stories will be told and owned by others, and then it would be as if we never ex isted. As I say in the play, 'we are history, poured out on to fragile pages."

A uniquely diverse, female-led company of creative artists have collaborated on Home is Not the Place to fur ther the representation of the artistry, stories and lived experiences of artists and people of colour, on the Scottish stage.

Home is Not The Place is presented in rep with Annie George and Flore Gardner's Twa which is at Summer hall's Tech Cube 0 on alternate dates to Home is Not The Place running from 4 - 28 August (not 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21-23, 25, 27) at 19:20 (20:25).

Supported by Creative Scotland, Made in Scotland showcase, National Theatre of Scotland, QMUE.

Annie George is an East Lothian-based, Kerala-born writer, theatre maker and occasional filmmaker. She was awarded the Scottish Book Trust's inaugural Ignite Fellowship in 2019, and the 2016 Inspiring Scot land Bursary (Saltire Society/Scottish Book Trust).

Productions include Twa - with visual artist Flore Gardner - and the solo shows Home is Not the Place, and The Bridge. Annie recently took part in The National Theatre of Scotland 'Thinking Space' residency, and is a Playwrighting Mentor for Playwrights Studio Scotland (2021-22).

She was a writer/ commissioning editor on Bella Caledonia's Many Voices project; directed a performed read ing of We Need to Talk About Safe by Sophie Goode and Corinne Salisbury at Assembly Roxy; performed in a rehearsed reading of Maryland by Lucy Kirkwood at Traverse Theatre Edinburgh in 2021; and performed in the first Shedinburgh Fringe Festival in 2020 (Gary McNair/Francesca Moody Productions).

Trained in directing at Contact Theatre Manchester, as part of ACE/decibel's Live and Direct initiative, Annie directed I Knew A Man Called Livingstone at National Library of Scotland, Scottish International Storytelling Festival and Storymoja Hay Festival Nairobi Kenya (2013); and Nzinga: Warrior Queen (2016) - both by Mara Menzies; was Assistant Director to Philip Howard on the Traverse pro duction of I Was A Beautiful Day; and Assistant Director on the development of Lost in Music (Magnetic North). She also trained in Radio Drama Directing (BBC Stages of Sound, London).

In short film Annie was: Writer/Producer of film poem At Rana Plaza; Director of Curry and Irn-Bru, a Real To Reel Award winner, nominated for the Satyajit Ray Foundation short film award, and which screened at festi vals in Durban, Rotterdam, Pakistan, Suriname, Spain, Bristol and Glasgow; and was Actor/Development Producer of Daddy's Girl, winner of numerous international awards including Prix Spécial De Jury for Short Film, Cannes Film Festival 2001.

Gerry Mulgrew (Director)

Gerry works extensively as a freelance director and actor, as well as being Artistic Director of Com municado Theatre Company, which he co-founded in 1983, along with fellow actors Alison Peebles and Rob Pickvance.

Other directing work includes: Royal Shakespeare Company (Moby Dick), the Royal Lyceum Theatre (The Hypochondriack), Traverse (Anna Chaimbeul), Perth Rep (Tam O' Shanter), Benchtours (Cherry Orchard/The Lesson), University of Tennessee (Blood Wedding), Dundee Rep (Mother Courage), KitiManver Company, Madrid (A Bright Room Called Day) and Parapanda, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (Mfalme Juha).

As an actor Gerry has appeared many times with Communicado, most recently in The Government Inspector, which he also directed, and The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel, directed by Gerda Stevenson.

Other acting work includes: Dundee Rep. Ensemble: The Visit (dir James Brining) and two plays directed by Dominic Hill: David Greig's adaptation of Jarry's Ubu The King, which went on to the Cervantino Festival in Mexico and Peer Gynt in the Dundee Rep/National Theatre of Scotland co- production, for which he won best actor at the CATS awards (with Keith Fleming). More recently, he has played Vladimir in Waiting For Godot at the Citizens' Theatre, Spanky Farrell in Nova Scotia by John Byrne for the Traverse Theatre, and reprised his role as Peer Gynt for an NTS tour of Scotland and The Barbican Theatre, London. He also performed in Federer v. Murray by Gerda Stevenson for Oran Mor. He played the part of the Scottish philosopher David Hume in The Tree of Knowledge by Jo Clifford at the Traverse Theatre. For more info see: https://www.nationalthe atrescotland.com/profile/gerry-mulgrew

Made in Scotland is a curated showcase of high quality performance from Scotland at the world's biggest arts festival, made possible by support from the Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. It is a partnership between Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Federation of Scottish Theatre, Scottish Music Centre and Creative Scotland. Find out more about the showcase at www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com.

Annie George presents
Home is Not The Place

Tech Cube 0, Summerhall, Summerhall Place, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL
3 - 27 August (not 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28) | 19:20 (20:25)
Aug 5, 7, 9,11, 13,17,19, 21, 23, 25, 27 | £13.00 (£11.00)
Preview: 3, August | £8
Box office: 0131 560 1581 | www.summerhall.co.uk

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