I WISH TO DIE SINGING to Play Finborough Theatre

Commemorating the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, the world premiere of a documentary drama I Wish To Die Singing - Voices From The Armenian Genocide opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 21 April 2015 (Press Nights: Thursday, 23 April and Friday, 24 April 2015 at 7.30pm).

"On the night of Saturday, April 24th 1915, the Armenians of Constantinople were snoring in a calm sleep - exhausted from their Easter celebrations - while in the Central Police Station a secret project was in motion..."

Commemorating the exact centenary of the deportations that began the Armenian Genocide, I Wish To Die Singing - Voices From The Armenian Genocide is a controversial documentary drama uncovering the forgotten secrets and atrocities of a denied genocide. Following several characters through these traumatic events, the play includes eye-witness reportage, images, music, poetry from Armenia's greatest poets, and verbatim survivors testimonies from one of the greatest historical injustices of all time.

The Armenian Genocide of 1915-16 was perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government against the Armenians, a Christian minority in a Muslim state. Up to one and a half million people died.

The word 'genocide' itself was invented by Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe the events of 1915. Adolf Hitler used the Armenian Genocide as a direct inspiration for the Holocaust during the Second World War.

To this day, the Turkish government refuses to admit that genocide ever took place.

Playwright Neil McPherson is Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre. An earlier version of I Wish to Die Singing was presented for a sold out short run at the Finborough Theatre in 2005 to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. An extract from I Wish to Die Singing is also being performed in Los Angeles in April 2015 by Center Theatre Group in partnership with the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Director Tommo Fowler returns to the Finborough Theatre where he directed Obama-ology and was Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre working on Sommer 14: A Dance of Death and Harajuku Girls. Trained with Living Pictures and on the Short Course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Direction includes Monster Party (Arcola Theatre), Vesting Day (Southwark Playhouse), a staged reading of Wake (English Touring Theatre Studios), The Repast, Porcelain, Just Say No (Theatre503), The (Accidental) Execution of Alan Bishop (Pleasance London) and Extremely Brief and Violent (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). Assistant Direction includes Handel Furioso (Arcola Theatre and National Tour), Rainbow (Edinburgh Festival and winner of Fringe First Award) and Mojo Mickybo (Old Red Lion Theatre).

Dramaturgy includes Rumpy Pumpy (King's Head Theatre and Tour) and No Border, an intranational verbatim theatre project.

THEGREATWAR100 series is a new occasional series of works about - or written during - the Great War to be presented by the Finborough Theatre from 2014 to 2018 to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.

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