Brother Tongue presentsthe UK premiere of
About Tommy
by Thor Bjørn Krebs
Translation by David Duchin
March 31st 2009 - April 25th 2009
Show starts: 7.30pm (3pm matinees)
Running time: 80 mins
What price would you pay for peace? Could you tell a soldier not to fight? Even when he’s staring down the barrel of a gun?
When Tommy joins the Danish army, he is looking for a way to make a difference. Posted to Croatia as part of the UN’s peace-keeping mission during the early 90s, he is under strict instructions not to shoot. But when he and his comrades find themselves in the firing line, Tommy begins to fight back.
About Tommy tells the absurd and tragicomic story of a young soldier trying to preserve his humanity against all the odds. Based on real accounts of the recent war in the former Yugoslavia, it is a wonderfully irreverent exploration of how far we will go to make peace – when everyone else is determined to do the opposite.
“There’s always some jerk with a gun that spoils it all….”
After critical success in Copenhagen and Berlin, this vivid new Danish play is now brought to London by Brother Tongue.
"This is ironic, raw theatre, smack bang in the middle of the political debate."
Ekstrabladet, DK
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Creative Team
Directed by |
- Elly Green |
Designed by |
- Signe Beckmann |
Lighting Design by |
- Anna Watson |
Sound Design by |
- Matt Downing |
Video Design by |
- Hywel Morgan |
Cast
- Beatrice Curnew |
|
- Gwilym Lee |
|
- Hywel Morgan |
|
- Rachel Atkins |
|
- Richard Ringrose |
Reviews
“We are transported from the boozy camaraderie of the saloon bar to the twitchy boredom of surveillance and the bloody thick of the fighting.”
*** The Times
“Thor Bjorn Krebs paints a discomfiting portrait of a young man pushed to the limit by the impotence of life in the UN."
*** Time Out
“In one of the most powerful scenes of Elly Green’s visually eloquent production, the audiences watch a live nightcam recording of Tommy (Gwilym Lee) as he recounts the story of how he was attacked by a sounder of starving pigs. The look in his dilated pupils speaks volumes of horrors he has seen.”
*** Time Out
“The audience feels fully drawn in as Gwilym Lee is joined by just two other actors: Hywel Morgan as comrade-in-arms Niels and Beatrice Curnew as a brisk captain, a chaplain and a relatively raunchy nurse.”
The Stage