Season 2008

29 August -
13 September

Edith Stein

by Arthur Giron

Directed by Brian Cannon

Edith Stein was a German philosopher, who was born a Jew, became a Catholic in 1922 and then a Carmelite nun in 1934. She was rounded up with other Jews under the Nazi holocaust and died at Auschwitz in 1942. 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of her canonisation.

The play traces Edith's journey from the university, to the convent and eventually to the gas chamber. Girón also dramatises the tensions between Christians and Jews that have developed around a woman that incarnates both identities.

21 November -
6 December

Enchanted April

by Matthew Barber
adapted from novel by Elizabeth von Arnim

Directed by Alison Kerr

The story of four very different women who leave damp and rainy post-World War I London to go on a holiday to a secluded coastal villa in Italy.

Two housewives meet, each in her own way suffering through an empty marriage and facing the prospect of a lonely and isolated middle age. After seeing an ad for an Italian villa for rent, they set about finding two other ladies to share expenses. Joined by a beautiful young socialite and an elderly dowager, the four find rejuvenation in the tranquil beauty of their surroundings.