Silence, co-produced by Mercury Theatre Colchester, Wiltshire Creative and Unity Theatre Liverpool opens in Colchester on Friday 12 October before embarking on a UK tour.
Silence is written by Nicola Werenowska, a Colchester based playwright, who was the runner-up of the inaugural Mercury Playwriting Prize. The Mercury's Sustained Theatre Associate Producer (in association with Tamasha and the Arts Council), Dilek Latif, is leading on the production and has worked with director Jo Newman (Wiltshire Creative) to put together an all-female cast and creative team, the large majority of which are of Polish heritage.
The play itself explores the inter-generational effects felt by Polish families as a result of the atrocities they experienced during WWII. Nicola is not of Polish heritage herself, but was inspired to write the story after getting to know her Mother-in-law and was spurred on when she met Nina Finbow, whose mother experienced similar tragedies during WWII and who eventually settled in England.
What holds families together?
What tears them apart?
What's brewing in the silences?
1996. London. It's Ewa's birthday. Her daughter Anna is coming home from university with a secret to share but Maria has some news of her own. As wartime memories of Siberia resurface, old steps are retraced to uncover the secrets of the past and a Polish heritage that unites and divides them.
Nicola Werenowska's funny and fascinating new play hurtles between Warsaw and London over two decades and three generations of a Polish/British family.
Tina Gray
Tina Gray
Tina Gray
Kate Spiro, Maris Louis and Tina Gray
Jo Newman
UK TOUR DATES:
Mercury Theatre Colchester
12 – 20 October
Box Office: 01206 573948
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk
Norwich Arts Centre
23 October
Box Office: 01603 660352
www.norwichartscentre.co.uk
Unity Theatre, Liverpool
25 – 27 October
Box Office: 0151 7094988
www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk
The Dukes, Lancaster
30 October
Box Office: 01524 598500
www.dukes-lancaster.org
York Theatre Royal
2 & 3 November
Box Office: 01904 623568
www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
Sir John Mills Theatre, Ipswich
5 November
Box Office: 01473 211498
www.easternangles.co.uk
The Marlowe Studio, Canterbury
6 & 7 November
Box Office: 01227 787787
www.marlowetheatre.com
Minghella Studios, University of Reading
8 November
Email to reserve tickets: minghellastudios@reading.ac.uk
Salisbury Playhouse
13 – 17 November
Box Office: 01722 320333
www.wiltshirecreative.co.uk
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