Watch out, Edinburgh. We’re heading to the Fringe!
We’re excited to announce that we will be taking MY VOICE WAS HEARD BUT IT WAS IGNORED by breakthrough talent Nana-Kofi Kufuor to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022 as part of the Summerhall programme.
Following a successful tour in 2021 we are thrilled that this gripping and urgent play – and the pertinent questions it raises about racial identity – will reach a wider audience at this year’s festival.
Rod Dixon said: “ We’ve reunited a fantastic creative team including director Dermot Daly and look forward to taking this necessary and relevant work to an international audience in Edinburgh.”
Nana-Kofi Kufuor is a Ghanaian-English writer from Stockport making big waves in theatre. He is currently a cohort of the Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE programme mentored by award-winning playwright Roy Williams and an associate artist at Oldham Coliseum.
The play draws influence from his experiences growing up in Stockport with Ghanaian parents, and working in education with young people from a range of backgrounds.
Nana-Kofi Kufuor said: “Working at a Pupil Referral Unit, I once had a student try to take a knife to stab another student. Once I’d calmed him down, we sat in the canteen and he explained to me he wasn’t going to go quietly. The police were outside and they took him. I saw him a few weeks later, and he asked why I didn’t help him? That rush of guilt changed to anger and quickly to sympathy as he saw me as his protector. But I knew I couldn’t do anything. The crux of this play is how two people react to the same situation: they go on a journey; a journey a lot of people of colour go on – a realisation that where you are now isn’t necessarily where you come from.”
The play is directed by Leeds-based actor, director and filmmaker Dermot Daly whose extensive credits for stage and screen include work with Leeds Playhouse, Slung Low, Talawa, Theatre Royal Stratford East, BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
Dermot Daley said “My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored is a play about identity, about love, and how both of those things intersect with race. We don’t talk about race. We shout about race, we worry about it, we ignore it, we politicise it, but we don’t talk about it and the experiences and quality of life that are impacted by being ‘other’. This play investigates what race can feel like; how it touches everything, including a tangible sense of self.”
The original cast reprise their roles with Misha Duncan-Barry as ‘Gillian’ and Jelani D’Aguilar as ‘Reece’.
MY VOICE WAS HEARD BUT IT WAS IGNORED will play from Wednesday 3 – Sunday 28 August 2022 (No performance 15 & 22 August).
The post Edinburgh Fringe 2022 appeared first on Red Ladder Theatre Company.
