Brave Badger premiere The Listening Room at The Old Red Lion
· Brave Badger return with new verbatim play The Listening Room
· Premiering at The Old Red Lion from 7 February
· Tickets now on sale at www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk
Brave Badger return with The Listening Room, a new challenging yet uplifting verbatim play premiering at the The Old Red Lion Theatre, Islington, from Tuesday 7 February to Saturday 4 March. Written by Harriet Madeley (Brave Badger) and directed by Max Barton (Karagula at Soho Theatre, Piranha Heights at the Old Red Lion), the piece is sculpted from extraordinary real-life interviews recorded with victims and offenders of violent crimes, each of whom took part in an elective restorative justice process.
The first time Khamran met Tim, he attacked him with a baseball bat at a train station.
Now he’s sitting with a cup of tea, preparing to meet him for a second time.
A stirring exploration of life, death and justice, The Listening Room brings to the stage the voices of five real people whose lives were transformed by a single violent crime. Years after trial and punishment, each individual was given the chance to meet the person on the other side: the piece tells the story of the second transformation that happened when they said yes.
The cast features Charmaine Wombwell alongside Tony Hasnath, Kathryn Worth, Mark Knightley and Bruce Panday. Set design by Lauren Pratt and sound design by Jethro Cooke.
The production is Brave Badger’s keenly anticipated follow up to The Heart of Adrian Lovett and is the result of two years of research. In collaboration with the innovative Max Barton, Brave Badger have created a production which strips verbatim theatre to its bare bones and pushes it to new heights, with actors working as plain-clothed mouthpieces and audience members being invited to take part. Several of the victims and offenders whose own words and voices are featured in the piece will take part in post-performance Q&As on 7 February and 2 March.
In the lead up to the performance run, the company are delivering workshops with young offenders in Hackney in collaboration with Young Hackney. The workshops are designed to encourage young offenders to explore the option of restorative justice through telling their own stories and listening to others’.
Brave Badger is run by Harriet Madeley and Mark Knightley. They create socially engaged work to galvanise young people and engage non-traditional theatre-goers. Their previous production, The Heart of Adrian Lovett at Theatre Delicatessen, was supported by Arts Council England and sold out its final week, garnering excellent reviews including 5* from The Stage: “If there’s one show you see before the election, make sure it’s this.”
Tickets for The Listening Room are on sale: call 0844 412 4307 or book online.
Watch the trailer here.
Post show discussions will take place at the following times:
· 7th February, 8:45pm: Q&A with Ray and Vi Donovan
· 23rd February, 8:45pm: Q&A with restorative justice experts & practitioners
· 2nd March, 8:45pm: Q&A with Khamran Uddin & Tim Isherwood
· TBC: Additional sessions including with the Restorative Justice Council and Dr Meredith Rossner)