Edward Bond’s The Sea, comes ashore at the Jericho Arts Centre, presented by The Slamming Door Artist Collective, from May 2nd to 19th. The Sea is set in the aftermath of a tempest on the salt-sprayed shores of a quiet village, two young lovers try to make sense of chaos in an irrational society peopled by eccentric characters.
A wild storm shakes a small East Anglian seaside village, and Willy is unable to save his friend from drowning. The raving coastguard is too drunk to do anything; Hatch the draper is passing by but he believes that hovering alien spaceships are slowly replacing people’s brains and he refuses to help, while the grande dame Mrs Rafi, bastion of respectability, amateur theatricals and velvet curtains from Birmingham, sets her face against the chaos.
First produced in 1973 in London, The Sea is the work of noted but controversial English playwright Edward Bond. Bond is widely regarded but also courts controversy due to the violence depicted in his plays, and radical take on modern theatre. The Sea is no exception, where its collection of furious eccentricity, bitter collision of class, and fierce burning of grief sways between light-hearted comedy and desolate poetry, in an unapologetic examination of rural manners and humanity’s unqualified potential.
With The Sea, The Slamming Door Artist Collective returns to the Jericho Arts Centre for its third time, having previously produced critically acclaimed Guest Productions of A Doll’s House and Flare Path. The Sea’s creative team includes director Tamara McCarthy, lighting design by Celeste English, sound design by Matthew MacDonald-Bain, set design by Sandy Margaret, costume design by Chantal Short and Cheyenne Mabberley, stage management by Nico Dicecco and Victoria Snashall, assistant direction by Laura Jaye, and dialect coaching by Ashley O’Connell.
For tickets and show details visit jerichoartscentre.com