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hannah & hanna
Pegasus Theatre, 14-16.11.02
Declared
a must see at the Edinburgh Festival 2001, this play,
written and directed by John Retallack, won the Herald ANGEL
award at the Fringe Festival of that year.
Set in Margate on the south coast of England, the play is a simple
but powerful narrative of the friendship that develops between Hannah,
a 16-year-old teenager who has lived all her life in her seaside town
and Hanna, a 16-year-old asylum seeker arrived from Kosovo. Like the
other local teenagers, Hannah, fed on a wholesome dose of asylum-hating
rhetoric, is at self-declared war with the asylum-seekers. Hanna,
along with her mother and brother, is seeking refuge from a homeland
which turned hostile. Placed in Margate, they are confronted once
again by antagonism from their inhospitable hosts. What unfolds is
an endearing, funny and moving drama, as the two girls come together
to find that they have more in common than just their name.
Hannah and Hanna confronts one of the most controversial issues of
today- the plight of asylum seekers in Britain. But Hannah and Hanna
is telling a bigger story - a story about perceptions, about mindsets
and about the bonds that take birth in human emotion. It is not just
about those who come to seek refuge, but also about those whose sheltered,
routine lives they enter into. It is a story that puts a human face
to what lies behind numerous newspaper reports, government statistics
and other dry accounts of the so called asylum crisis,
or at least a particular point in the story of those seeking asylum
in Britain.
One has to applaud Retallacks intelligent, original, emotional
and penetrative treatment of the issue as the local attitudes of xenophobia
and the asylum seekers desire to belong come together and transform
into a remarkable drama. But what really steals the applause is the
two extremely strong performances by Jenny Plat (Hannah) and Erin
Brodie (Hanna). A two-hander, presented in a vibrantly choreographed
style by the duo, touches the audiences with the very honesty of the
performances, as they juggle different roles to bring the other characters
in the story to life: Hannahs racist boyfriend Bull, her nice-cop
brother Joe, Hannas mother and brother Albin and Hannahs
feisty grandmother.
The sheer energy on stage, accentuated with the brilliant use of pop
chart-hits (from Britney to Abba!) coupled with some great karaoke
singing by the two actresses drives home the tender yet poignant point
of John Retallacks racy but simple story.
Absolutely brilliant!
Gayatri
Singh , 15.11.02
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