Our Father premier at Watford Palace Theatre

Anna O'Grady and Faye Winter in Charlotte Keatley's Our Father

Watford Palace Theatre invite Steve and I to all the press nights of shows they have produced.  On Tuesday 21st February we went to see the opening of Charlotte Keatley's new play Our Father.   This was an exciting and ambitious play by the writer of "My Mother Said I Never Should" - produced by Contact Theatre in 1987 directed by Brigid Larmour and 1989 at the Royal Court  - named by the National Theatre as one of the most significant plays of the 20th Century, and translated into 23 languages.  It was good to see Charlotte Keatley back with this harrowing play that takes you down beneath the surface of life.  It was directed beautifully by Brigid Larmour, with delicacy and with a great respect for the writers landscape.

I love what Charlotte said about her writing - that she creates a map with her work and shows it to people.  Lots of producers look at it and just don't believe her but she showed it to Brigid and Brigid not only believed her, she went on the journey with her.

One of the most powerful images from the play was the idea of a drowned village under the reservoir which is slowly emerging as the water dries up.  Water ran through the play and trickled into every crevice - it transformed - gushing, drowning, hiding, nurturing, threatening - a continual presence.

There was a dedicated strong cast:  Paul Greenwood, Chris Kelham, Anna O'Grady, Julia St John and Faye Winter.  Both Anna O'Grady and Chris Kelham had been in Watford's Time of My Life and Family Business, which I had seen last year.

The movement Director Shona Morris had also worked on My Mother Said with Brigid and will be working on the movement for our workshop in March.  There is something stylised about this play and movement was important, Shona did a wonderful job helping to make that happen.  The designer Adam Wiltshire had created something very exciting with the set of this play, as an audience you kept discovering new aspects to it as the play progressed.

If you want to find out more about the production the theatre website has some really interesting information HERE

There is only one more week to see Our Father at Watford Palace Theatre - it runs until 3rd March.  Book tickets through the theatre HERE