Puppet show is creative healing
AN award-winning former All Hallows pupil is to bring her powerful puppet show to Macclesfield.
Music Action International, whose founder and creative director Lis Murphy grew up in Macclesfield and attended All Hallows School, won the Guardian Charity Award and Southbank ChangeMakers Award in 2016.
The group works with people from across the world using the power of creativity to overcome the effects and causes of war, torture and armed conflict.
They start their UK tour of their latest production, Gone, at the Old Sunday School, Macclesfield on Sunday, July 16 at 12.30pm.
A fictional fantasy about the realities of hope and survival, Gone is told with handmade puppetry and inspired by the true stories of people affected by war, interwoven with a vivid, atmospheric score by Stone Flowers, a refugee collective who create music together as a way to reduce the effects of trauma, isolation, and torture.
Lis said: “I am so pleased to be sharing this show with people back in my home town. Maccles- field is a warm and welcoming town and we are delighted to bring this unique and important show here.
“Each member of Stone Flowers has something so important to say and to share with their new communities.”
Lis was inspired to set up Music Action International after living in post- war Bosnia and seeing first-hand the devastating effects of conflict on ordinary people.
The organisation, founded in 2010, has helped over 4,000 refugees and asylum seekers including children, young people who have arrived in the UK alone, and adult refugees affected by war and torture.
Their specialist music programmes support people affected by conflict to overcome trauma and connect with communities through a shared creative experience.
Music Action International design and deliver music programmes that aim to reach individuals and communities devastated by war, armed conflict and torture and to use music as a means to reduce the effects of trauma, raise awareness of human rights abuses and develop connections between divided communities.
There will be one performance only of the show. Entry is £10 for adults, £6 for adult concessions and £5 for under18s. Some of the themes explored in this piece mean that it is not suitable for children under 12 years.