UK PERFORMANCE

The testimonies performed by Finn Todd, Megan Symons, Morgan Lewins and Adam Pardy are part of a full-length script written by Annecy Lax, and drawn from testimonies collected by the student participants from their own grandparents, relatives or elderly friends. The extracts performed here are part of a response to the ideals and aspirations of Ruwanthie de Chickera’s Dear Children, Sincerely project which attempts to capture the voices of elders who have lived through profound social and political changes in the past seven or eight decades. These testimonies from the UK were used here as the ‘linking’ material between all the different performances developed across the residency at the University of Essex, abiding voices who reveal their life stories, hopes and challenges, in dialogue with the events and themes raised in other pieces.

Constant presences through the performances, the on-stage actors acted as proxy witnesses to the unfolding events, their subtle relationships with each other, and to the material, creating a framework where tragedy and triumph was received with the same accord and value; a sense that recovery and repair was possible. It was fascinating to see the ‘links’, commonalities and connections between the experiences of Janet from London, Margaret from the South, and Martin from the North of England, alongside the stories being shared across the other pieces, and of course, because of when the interviews took place, thoughts went to seismic changes in political alliances and the conceptualisation of borders and security (not to mention a lot of humour emanating from  hagiographic conversations about the Queen…)