If We Were Birds
MGA’s 2018 Spring Season
Monday 30th April and Tuesday 1st May at 7.30pm
Presented by our graduating Acting course students Upstairs at Assembly Roxy as part of our 2018 Spring Season.
If We Were Birds is a shocking, uncompromising examination of the horrors of war, giving voice to a woman long ago forced into silence, and placing a spotlight on millions of female victims who have been silenced through violence. A deeply affecting and thought-provoking re-imagining of Ovid’s masterpiece “Tereus, Procne, and Philomela,” Erin Shields’s award-winning play is an unflinching commentary on contemporary war and its aftermath delivered through the lens of Greek tragedy.
When King Pandion marries his daughter Procne off to war hero King Tereus, she must leave her beloved sister Philomela behind. After years of isolation in a foreign land, Procne begs Tereus to collect her sister for a visit. But when Tereus is confronted with Philomela’s beauty, his desire triumphs over reason, igniting a chain of horrific events. A harrowing exploration of violence and revenge, this adaptation features a chorus of ravaged women, each a survivor of a twentieth-century conflict: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Nanking, and Berlin.
VENUE: Assembly Roxy Upstairs – 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU, Morningside Road, EH10 4DR
at 7.30pm each evening
Written by Erin Shields
Directed by Molly Innes
If We Were Birds is performed by arrangement with Ian Arnold, Catalyst TCM Inc. www.catalysttcm.com