Silence

Silence is a work which combines narrative impetus with astounding, original ideas and theatrical presentation.

Using unusual narrative techniques to examine personal and political stories, Silence weaves together multiple storylines to raise questions of absence and loss; silence and noise; past and present; home and abroad, as the narrative switches between the 1990s and the present, and between Britain and Russia.Left alone in an unfamiliar land, Kate struggles to silence the noises inside her head and begins to question her own sanity. In London, Michael listens carefully to a conversation recorded twenty years ago. Can he hear a third silent person on the tape? In a small Russian town, Irina searches desperately for her missing friend, piecing together fragments from his life. From urban noise to rural emptiness, through rationalism to spirituality, from Russia to the UK, Silence is the latest collaboration between the celebrated theatre company Filter and RSC Associate Director David Farr. Silence premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, on 12 May 2011, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company.