Marueen Lipman Will Lead New Play Reading at JW3

JW3 has announced Maureen Lipman for the exclusive first public play reading of Trudy Zeller Lives Here by Allan Leas and directed by Joe Harmston on Sunday 29 September 2024 at 7.30pm.

Trudy Zeller Lives Here is the true story of two elderly German women, one Jewish and the other Catholic, both were unwilling immigrants to the UK during WWII. Decades ago, divided by war and hatred, they now find themselves next-door neighbours. They agree on nothing except that their children routinely let them down and that the Nazis were a terrible thing. A turbulent yet inescapably symbiotic companionship starts to grow....

Maureen Lipman says "I am looking forward to this play reading of Trudy Zeller Lives Here. It is a Rom Com with heart."

JW3 is an exciting and safe space for artists to try out their work and enabling JW3's audiences the rare opportunity to engage with new theatre, in turn helping shape the work hopefully to a future life. It is also a wonderful opportunity for the creative teams to work with high profile actors, directors, musicians and performers to explore and bring to life new theatre early in its development. JW3 this year alone, has already staged several new pieces, giving both audience and creatives that rare opportunity and insight of being there at the beginning, including Haffkine (by Paul Twivvy/Simon Schama - cast including Ben Caplan), The Horse Beneath The Ice (by Paul Herzberg - cast including David Suchet, directed by Joe Harmston), Betty and June and Baby Jane (by Tracy-Ann Oberman - cast including Sophie Louise Dann).

Trudy Zeller Lives Here by Allan Leas is a play that feels very topical with war and refugees making the daily headlines. Allan Leas is the son of a Lithuanian Jewish refugee and was granted political asylum in the UK from Apartheid South Africa. Leas dedicates his work to refugee protection efforts in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, working with the UN for three decades. Post Brexit and the UKs rapid deterioration of government refugee policies, Leas decided to write a contemporary play Trudy Zeller Lives Here that confronts the troubling questions of why collective memory fades so quickly, why intolerance is so brazen and why historical connections fail to be drawn? Trudy Zeller Lives Here is based on the relationship between Lea's German mother-in-law and her Jewish next neighbour. Trudy Zeller Lives Here by Allan Leas is directed by Joe Harmston (current 5* production The Silver Cord - The Finborough).

Now is the time to enjoy live theatre with new, exclusive and exciting performances - see it first at JW3!