Frozen

Presented by - The Nonentities (A)

Location - Studio

Standard Ticket Prices

Curtain Up 7.30pm

Description

Agnetha, an American academic, comes to England to research a thesis entitled "Serial Killing: A Forgivable Act?" This brings her inContact & Map with Nancy, a mother in a state of frozen hope following the disappearance of her daughter, and Ralph, a loner with a bit of previous who is looking for some distraction.Drawn together by horrific circumstances these three embark upon a long, dark, emotional journey which finally curves upward into the light.

Frozen was first produced at the Birmingham Rep in 1998 and went onto win the TMA Best New Play Award and the Eileen Anderson Central Television Award for Best Play. If you consider yourself an informed 'theatre goer' you owe it to yourself to see this production.

Child abuse, along with strong language may not seem to be a 'fun night out', however, audiences can be sure of witnessing some first class performances in a thought provoking play that ends on an optimistic note. -----

Director's Notes

In 1980 stressed housewife and mother of two, Nancy Shirley, dispatches her much loved ten year old daughter, Rhona, on a simple errand to visit grandma’s house..... She never arrives. Little does Nancy realise but her happy home is about to encounter the ultimate trial, as something so cruel, so horrific, seeks to wrench apart their comfortable existence.

Twenty years later and loner, Ralph Wantage, is having a very bad day. Following his arrest for the unsuccessful abduction of a young girl, he finally admits under police interrogation to the similar abduction and murder of seven other such children.... one of whom was a ten year old named Rhona.

Visiting New York academic, Dr Agnetha Gottmundsdottir, seeks to break down the frozen walls of Ralph Wantage’s psyche in an attempt to verify the theories expressed in her thesis entitled "Serial Killing - A Forgivable Act?" What faces her, is a far greater test of personal strength and character than she could ever have anticipated; as she attempts to reconcile not just Ralph’s demons but also her own.

Briony Lavery draws together these three fatefully linked characters and questions the very nature of evil; taking us on a taught emotional journey through grief, revenge, compassion and ultimate forgiveness.... Not for the faint hearted.

"A major play... thrilling, humane and timely." The Times

"Consistently surprising and even bravely comic... The almost thriller like promise of the play’s climactic confrontation is like a time-bomb ticking in the back of your head." Independent