The Free Island
VAULTS Festival 2022
Theatre poster for exciting premiere of new play The Free Island by acclaimed British writer Tom Brennan and directed by Jessica Lazar.
On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom leaves the EU and a Kent fisherman called Noah finds an uncharted but inhabited island halfway across the Channel. The Islanders are friendly. They even speak English. (Sort-of.) The Island remains a state secret for almost a decade (under the guardianship of Britain and France) but eventually several Islanders travel to London to learn ‘real’ English and prepare for the Island to join the wider world. At first, everything goes well — the enamoured world has much to learn from the Island — but soon things start to go very wrong.
Using recordings, relics, and her grandmother’s diary, Jacqueline leads her 22nd Century New Colonies off-world audience through the dark history of Landmass C-743. For Jacqueline, the legacy of what happened isn’t stuck in the past. It’s very much alive.
Producers - Atticist & Ellie Keel Productions
Writer - Tom Brennan
Director - Jessica Lazar
Top: final poster
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloth Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats, 1899