Provided By: Unity Theatre
This Saturday, December 17 at 7.30pm & 8.30pm, Unity Youth Theatre will give a special Christmas performance - 'Once There Were Trees' - inspired by the setting of the Dark Dark Wood and written by the members themselves with award winning Liverpool playwright Esther Wilson ('Ten Tiny Toes', 'Tony Teardrop', 'Unprotected').
Esther Wilson is an award-winning Liverpool playwright and screenwriter. She has written for Bafta and Emmy award winning shows The Street and Accused. She has also won an RTS Award for best newcomer for The Street.
Unity Youth Theatre and their directors, Laura Campbell and Carl Cockram worked with Esther Wilson to bring together the following programme note:
“Britain is the loneliness capital of the world.
“Shockingly, it is a greater concern for young people than it is for the elderly. Loneliness is linked to stress, depression, anxiety, paranoia and addiction. The Internet and social media can be great at keeping us connected to the wider world but it can be detrimental when it replaces personal interaction.
“We are bombarded with information on how we should look, think, feel and experience the world. We often find ourselves lacking in comparison. Everyone seems to be out there having a great time…except ‘me’.
“Or we are faced with the notion that the world is a terrible place. Death, war, famine, climate change. We struggle with great waves of guilt and compassion while feeling inadequate at not being able to do anything to make the world a better place. We have invented all these wonderful systems - science, religion, technology - to help us understand what it is to be human. But they often overwhelm and control us. And stop us from accepting that there are many unknowns in the world…things that can’t be explained or put in a ‘box’. Young people look to the adult world for answers…but we simply don’t have them all. We don’t have many. In reality we are all curious children negotiating an unfamiliar path that can be both terrifying and exciting. Isn’t it our duty to enable those coming after us to trust in their own instincts and thoughts? To help them develop the courage to step into the unknown on their own terms? Original thinkers dare to question what the world accepts as fact. In order to move forward we have to learn and adapt.
“We are a creative species. Look around you. Most things you see have been thought into being. Whatever terrifying things happen around us the desire to celebrate life will still course through our veins. It is manifest in our singing, our dancing and our laughter. It’s the subversive two fingered salute to oppression, suffering and death. It comes from our young people. It is a glorious cause for celebration.
“This piece has been inspired by Dante’s inferno, The Bible, The Viz, Iceland, Carl Sagan, the Beatle’s White Wlbum, Prince, the Anglican Cathedral Gardens, Sting, Night of the Hunter, the 80’s music scene, Red Riding Hood, Absurdism and the courage of the original thinkers of Unity Youth Theatre.
“A collective endeavour involving Unity Youth Theatre, Laura Campbell, Carl Cockram and Esther Wilson.”
Working with Action Transport Theatre and Katie Scott, a designer from Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, the Dark Dark Wood draws on visual ideas from the Christmas show, Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf. The theatre is delighted to have received a grant from the PRS Foundation, which has made the series of events possible.
Tickets can be booked via Unity Theatre’s Box Office, by calling 0151 709 4988 or via www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk.
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