Hush - press release Fringe 2005
Hush send us this press release about their Ed Fringe production . . .
Fringe 20005 - is this it for modern parenthood
Hush, a powerful drama about a father-to-be's darkest fears, which premiered at this year's Fringe, has been highly acclaimed by the critics and theatre professionals alike with a series of four-star reviews...
Little children aren't supposed to want to hurt their Mummies and Daddies....
are they?
Adjust your expectations.
PLEASANCE DOME, AUGUST 5th 29th, 2005
ANDY JORDAN PRODUCTIONS presents the world premiere of hush, a chilling new play from award-winning young writer Samantha Wright. Directed by Donnacadh O'Briain, with lighting design by Chris Corner and original music composition by Helen Caddick.
Griff (Alex Palmer, from the movies Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire and Master and Commander) and Lydia Savage (Juliet Cowan of TV's This Life and Family Affairs) are expecting a baby. Their first. The time is right. They've planned ahead, and conceived right on schedule. Everything just as it should be. Except Griff. He keeps having nightmares dreams about the baby. Lydia's losing patience. Tonight they're expecting guests. Griff isn't in the mood for visitors. He decides to take matters into his own hands. The Savages are going to have company tonight. But it's not the company they're expecting.
It's coming.....
PRAISE FOR hush :
a chilling exploration of that Oedipal paranoia ..Alex Palmer's Griff is a fine portrayal of misdirected rage, while Juliet Cowan is superb as the put-upon wife ..as notable for its humour and restraint as for its mounting tension and gruelling climax. Her dissection of a malodorous area of male psychic anatomy is not only brave, but carried off with remarkable acuity.
Andrew Burnet, The Scotsman ****
a convincing and disquieting play. A audaciously different as it is disturbingly engrossing.
Metro ****
Excellent. Juliet Cowan and Alex Palmer are spectacular. Deeply unsettling but utterly riveting.
Three Weeks ****
Hush is everything I love about Fringe Theatre. It's superb. A fine play, superb acting and very well directed. I really enjoyed it.
Carol Tambor, founder of the Carol Tambor Award, which takes a Fringe act to be performed in New York
~ Under Consideration for The Edinburgh 2005 Writers Guild Award
hush is a play for anyone who wants to be a parent, but has never thought about having children. Far from recreating the cosy images of expectant first-time parents, Wright, 26, explores the fear of inviting the unknown into your home.
With more in common with classic horror literature and films such as Rosemary's Baby and Damien than the mainstream theatre tradition, hush reveals the sheer vilolence, physical and psychological, of the birthing process. The play takes us into a nightmarish dimension as Griff's world start's to crumble on the eve of the birth. Shifts in perception fuel destructive fantasies, as Griff's paranoia seeps into a quiet domestic evening. Projecting his warped and violent suspicions on to the vessel, his young wife, events build to a fever pitch as he begins to sharpen his knife against the enemy within.
hush delves into the darkness and paranoia in acknowledging that a new baby is not an accessory to the suburban domestic lifestyle, but a complete individual, a stranger in our midst. A stranger with the potential for anything.
Producer Andy Jordan (a veteran of bringing new writing to the Festival for almost three decades), said: This is a fantastic piece of work from one of Canada's most talented new writers. Samantha deals with an experience which most of us go through at some stage in our lives but looks beyond the normal expectations. She's an immensely talented writer, unlike many of her contemporaries in the themes she tackles.
It's a terrifically chilling piece of work which will send a shiver down the spines of everyone in the audience.
2005-08-21 20:31:17