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
Natasha Gordon and Demi Oyediran are superb as the twins.
Intensely intimate
A powerful and necessary response to those who would physically and psychologically demonise other cultures.
This is nearly excellent, and it has so much going for it...
[The company's] trademark of impressionistic physical performances reinforcing a text is no longer as distinctive as it once was.
Feels like a big missed opportunity...still worthwhile for its performances.
Two unforgettable performances.
It was a well-balanced, meaty piece.
The evidence why June and Jennifer are the way they are is couched in unsatisfactory shorthand.
A devastating look at rejection and the postwar tensions between Caribbean adn white Britons.
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.
A gripping, thought-provoking, poignant 90 minutes.
Tragic tale of twins and their secret world
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
RSS feed of Theatre reviews