This world premiere production directed by Sasha McMurray will play at the White Bear Theatre from the 25th April until the 20th May.
Divine Chaos of Starry Things is the debut play written by journalist Paul Mason, exploring the defeat and exile of Parisian women revolutionaries deported to the remote Pacific island of New Caledonia – based on the memoirs of 19th century feminist icon and revolutionary Louise Michel.
Paris 1871: A revolt takes control of a global city. In the final days, working class women – from seamstresses to teachers to sex workers – choose to take up arms, desperate to defend the freedoms they have won. Their attempt fails and these female revolutionaries are exiled to remote New Caledonia.
As hopes of escape fade, their fate collides with that of the island’s indigenous people, also simmering with revolt. Some women will compromise with their new reality, but one is determined to resist to the bitter end.
Talking about the play Paul Mason said: “After the miners’ strike, in 1984, I saw a whole generation of people struggle with the psychological impact of defeat. It made me want to discover how people survive. When I started writing this play, during the mass upsurge of revolt and optimism we call the Arab Spring and Occupy, these problems – of despair in the face of injustice – seemed very distant. They seem totally relevant now. Hundreds of thousands of people have experienced the exhilaration of revolt, followed by the reality of defeat.”
This world premiere production will star Jerome Ngonadi, David Rawlins, Lisa Moorish, Robyn Hoedemaker, Ottilie Mackintosh and Jane MacFarlane.
Meanwhile, the creative team for the production includes set designs by Anna Orton, costume designs by Fiona Rigler and is produced by Steve Hennessy, Sara Langridge and Michael Kingsbury.
Divine Chaos of Starry Things will play at the White Bear Theatre from the 25th April until the 20th May. For more information and to book tickets visit: http://whitebeartheatre.co.uk/play/divine-chaos-of-starry-things/.