CultureClash to Bring HANNAH AND HANNA to Greenwich Theatre

Just a month after their launch at the Edinburgh Festival, brand new theatre company CultureClash will perform their five-star acclaimed show for five nights at Greenwich Theatre.

Hannah and Hanna - performed by Cassandra Hercules, from Cambridge, and Serin Ibrahim, who lives in Greenwich - will run from September 29 to October 3 and also mark the directorial debut of James Haddrell, the theatre's Artistic and Executive Director.

"We performed the show 24 times in four weeks in Edinburgh and we were delighted to pick up a host of four and five-star reviews," said James. "Audience feedback at the prestigious Assembly venue was fantastic so we decided to bring it back to Greenwich."

Hannah and Hanna was written by John Retallack in 2001 and tells the story of two teenage girls - one from Margate and one from Kosovo - who are thrown together at a time of great unrest following the huge influx of Kosovan refugees in 1999.

"It's been a huge learning curve for the two actors" James continued. "Edinburgh is hard work and the performers only had one day off in 25, but the play tells such an important story - and a story that could not be more relevant now. The play is about the challenges that asylum seekers face, and the sometimes violent resistance that they find from various communities, but it's told from the perspective of two teenage girls so has a very upbeat, emotional heart.

"From researching the play we discovered that many refugees at the end of the nineties were housed in depressed seaside towns where there were hotels standing empty" said James. "The local communities not only saw their seaside economy failing but the very source of their previous income being taken over by asylum seekers."

"Culture Clash had come to me and said they wanted to produce a show for the festival. We talked about what kind of show they wanted to do and what I wanted the theatre to be involved in. Between us we looked at various plays and came across Hannah and Hanna.

"For a long time I had been looking for something to work on which responded to the rise of what I see as legitimized xenophobia, particularly around the recent general election when parties on the far right were granted much more media time than their equivalents on the left, when policies of exclusion were increasingly given a legitimate face."

"It was a fantastic experience for me to direct for the first time. It was a big decision to take out a few weeks to direct a show because we run Greenwich Theatre with a very streamlined staff, but it was a story that was really important to me."

Not a word of the script was altered but the part of Hannah was changed to a young black girl. "We wanted to make the point that racist sensibilities are not limited to white communities in this country - and it worked," said James.

Serin and Cassandra have both just graduated from the Guildford School of Acting - which produced Brenda Blethyn and Bill Nighy among others - and are looking forward to their Greenwich debut.

"Edinburgh was absolutely brilliant, an incredible opportunity, and to perform at somewhere like Assembly was amazing," said Serin. "But we couldn't have done it without Greenwich Theatre's support. They were supporting so many other companies as well, so it was great to be named alongside people like Lost Watch and Smooth Faced Gentlemen, and to have James Haddrell directing us.

"One lady in the front row was joining in with almost everything we did. We talked to audiences afterwards and they were giving us hugs and taking pictures with us. It was great."

Cassandra has a law degree but sees her future in the theatre. "This has given me credibility as a professional actor," she said. "We're interested in touring the show but we would need funding. We also want to work on something new ourselves, especially as a lot of the feedback was about what we're going to do next.

"It was like being part of a family with the other companies supported by Greenwich. No one had ever heard of us before but we got amazing exposure. It was a challenging experience but it was also one of the best things I've ever done in my life."

Hannah and Hanna, 29 September - 3 October at 8pm
Tickets £13.50, Concessions £11 (inc £1 booking fee)
Box Office 020 8858 7755
www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk

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