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Speechless

Speechless

An extraordinary story of two girls' struggle to be heard...

Shared Experience (Jane Eyre, War and Peace, The Glass Menagerie) and Sherman Cymru (Deep Cut – Fringe First/Herald Angel/Amnesty International award-winners) join forces to portray the extraordinary story of identical twins June and Jennifer Gibbons. Refusing to speak to adults, the twins communicate in their own private language, their only relationship being their intense and turbulent bond with each other. Read more …

Inspired by Marjorie Wallace’s best-selling book The Silent Twins, Polly Teale and Linda Brogan’s powerful new play is an astonishing and moving portrayal of the secret world of a very special but ultimately destructive alliance between two sisters.

Speechless is directed and co-written by the Artistic Director of Shared Experience, Polly Teale. Celebrated for her potent visual and imaginative style, she won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director for her own play After Mrs Rochester, which also won the Time Out Award for Best West End Production.

Contains some scenes of a sexual nature

More information on this production is available at www.sharedexperience.org.uk.

The critical consensus

Natasha Gordon and Demi Oyediran are superb as the twins.

****(*)Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage.com

Intensely intimate

Kate Bassett, The Independent

A powerful and necessary response to those who would physically and psychologically demonise other cultures.

****(*)Neil Cooper, The Herald

This is nearly excellent, and it has so much going for it...

***(*)(*)Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

[The company's] trademark of impressionistic physical performances reinforcing a text is no longer as distinctive as it once was.

***(*)(*)Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

Feels like a big missed opportunity...still worthwhile for its performances.

***(*)(*)Michael Cox, Onstage Scotland

Two unforgettable performances.

****(*)Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

It was a well-balanced, meaty piece.

****(*)Alison Grieve, Edinburgh Festivals Magazine

The evidence why June and Jennifer are the way they are is couched in unsatisfactory shorthand.

Nick Awde, The Stage

A devastating look at rejection and the postwar tensions between Caribbean adn white Britons.

****(*)Anna Millar, The List

I'm afraid it's difficult for me to view this as anything other than a good idea for a play thwarted by a series of bad choices.

View from the Stalls

A gripping, thought-provoking, poignant 90 minutes.

****(*)Dominic Cavendish


Features about Speechless

Tragic tale of twins and their secret world

Kathleen Morgan, The Herald

Where and when?

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Thursday August 5, 2010, until Sunday August 29, 2010. Check the Traverse website for times and prices.. More info: www.traverse.co.uk

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