Following critically-acclaimed runs and a BBC Radio 4 broadcast of The Listening Room, Crowded Room today announce its brand new production The Colours.
The verbatim play will premiere at Soho Theatre from 30 July to 17 August 2019, and will also be performed at Rowans Hospice near Portsmouth. Interviews to create the play were conducted throughout 2018 with patients, doctors, nurses and volunteers at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff and Ty Olwen Hospice in Swansea.
A number of post-show talks have been confirmed in August, with speakers who feature in the play including Dr Idris Baker (palliative care consultant at Ty Olwen) and Dr Mark Taubert (palliative care consultant at Velindre Cancer Centre). For more information and for details of how to book, please visit the Soho Theatre website.
Written by Harriet Madeley and directed by Max Barton, The Colours tells the story of five people as they lie on a tropical beach sipping piña coladas, moving through fantasy, memory and reality as they process the most profound yet ordinary of experiences: nearing the end of life. The play features an original score inspired by music chosen by the interviewees.
On her way to the first day of interviews in Cardiff, writer Harriet Madeley was diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis – an untreatable and potentially life limiting illness. Harriet said “You never know when you might have to confront your own mortality. I cancelled the interviews at first – I couldn’t handle the diagnosis at all. But going back a week later, the people I met blew my mind. Consciousness of death doesn’t reduce the quality of your life. Quite the opposite.”
The cast for The Colours includes Morfydd Clark, Claire-Marie Hall, Che Francis, Mark Knightley, and Harriet Madeley. It will be designed by Luke W. Robson, with lighting by Jo Palmer and sound by Ellie Isherwood.
