Jericho House's KATRINA Documents Survivors' Tales, Previews 9/1

The Jericho House will present Katrina, a promenade production composed entirely of accounts provided by both survivors and those responsible for the failed relief effort following the hurricane which destroyed the City of New Orleans in August 2005.

Shedding light on some of the more extraordinary and under-reported aspects of the situation, Katrina is written and directed by Jonathan Holmes. To be performed at the Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf, Katrina previews from 01 September with press night on 04 September and runs for a strictly limited season until 26 September 2009. Tickets for Katrina go on sale today at the Young Vic. The newly composed score and immersive sound design, featuring indigenous New Orleans music, is by Peter Readman and Peter Nash. Full casting details are to be announced shortly.

August 2005 saw one of the worst natural disasters hit the United States as Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans, causing a humanitarian crisis. Katrina tells the stories of the survivors in the immediate aftermath through music and verbatim testimony.

In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina narrowly missed New Orleans. The resulting storms breached rotting levees and emptied neighbouring Lake Pontchartrain into the city. Marooned by floodwater that swamped over 80% of their homes, the inhabitants had to wait a week without food or clean water before their own government came to their aid.

Katrina uses survivor testimonies and the rich musical tradition of New Orleans to tell the story of the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. Staged in a five-storey warehouse on London's south bank, Jericho House's new play takes The Audience on an odyssey through a drowned city, enveloped in the most immersive of visual and aural designs, in the company of individuals displaced and abandoned within their own city.

Jonathan Holmes is a writer and director. In 2007 he wrote, directed and produced Fallujah, composed entirely of verbatim testimony, with Harriet Walter, Imogen Stubbs and Irene Jacob which ran in a specially adapted space on Brick Lane. In 2008 Holmes collaborated on a series of concerts at the South Bank Centre with Alan Howard, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. The same year he set up The Jericho House, a producing company. Holmes is currently working on a film, Perpetual Peace, which documents grassroots peacemaking activities around the globe.

The Jericho House specialises in partnerships between theatre, music and installation art. A nomadic venue, The Jericho House occupy buildings including theatres, galleries and abandoned structures, collaborating with partners to create idealistic performance environments.

Dates: 01 September - 26 September 2009

Performances: Tuesday - Sunday at 8pm Saturdays at 4pm

Ticket prices: £17 full price, £14 for previews, 25s and unders, 60 and over
and groups (subject to availability)
Address: Bargehouse
Oxo Tower Wharf
Bargehouse Street
London, SE1 9PH

Young Vic 020 7922 2922 http://www.youngvic.org/

Website: www.jerichohouse.org.uk

 

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