Political chaos is a crisis for couple
ON Wednesday, October 18, the Curtain Theatre will present Edward and Eliza and the Smashing of the Van.
This brand-new play is written by Eileen Murphy and directed by Chris Honer, who, until its recent closure, was artistic director of Manchester Library Theatre. The play is being toured by Straightforward Theatre and the Curtain Theatre must be congratulated on bringing this theatre opportunity to our town.
Eileen Murphy penned this play to coincide with the 150th anniversary of real events.
Edward and Eliza and the Smashing of the Van is set in 1867. British Army veteran Edward Brett and his Irish wife, Eliza, are struggling to raise their children and make a living from a small shop in Macclesfield.
An event occurs which will have a profound effect on their lives Edward’s brother, police sergeant Charles Brett, is transporting two Irish republican prisoners across Manchester when the van is attacked by a large group of men intent on freeing them.
During the melee Charles is shot and killed.
A huge upsurge of anti-Irish feeling follows across the country and a few months later three Irishmen, Allen, Larkin and O’Brien, are convicted of murder and publicly hanged.
Eileen Murphy has created a moving and dramatic account of the profound personal consequences for the couple. Their marriage is thrown into crisis. They struggle to cope with their personal loss, their loyalty to each other and their different racial backgrounds at a time of national political ferment.
The playwright is a professional theatre writer and director. She’s worked at the Bolton Octagon, the Dukes Lancaster and the Library Theatre in Manchester, but also with numerous touring and community companies.
Most of her work has been in the north west, but she went to India to research her adaptation of the great Ramayana epic.
For five years she was director in residence at M6 Theatre in Rochdale, where the work spanned infants to elderly, small scale touring to middle scale Christmas shows.
She has a great interest in developing new work with other writers and in her own writing she loves story and narrative above all.
She has been delighted to work on this script about the huge story of the smashing of the van.
She is based in Bolton and has two grown children and four grandchildren.
Tickets are available for this one-hour production by contacting the theatre. Call 01706 642008, email curtaintheatrebd@gmail. com.