The impact of returning from war for young men is to be explored by one of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies, as Frantic Assembly’s The Unreturning visits the Everyman for four nights from 16th-20th October.
In a British northern coastal town, three young men are coming home. In 1918 George returns from the Western Front; in 2013 Frankie is back from his final tour of Afghanistan; and sometime in the not-too-distant future, Nat returns from an overseas refugee camp to what was his hometown.
Through Frantic Assembly’s celebrated physicality, The Unreturning explores the profound effect that war has on young lives, and asks – what does coming home really mean? What is home? And when experience has shattered you into a million pieces, will home help to put you together again, or treat you as an ugly truth it does not want to confront?
A new play by Bruntwood prize-winning writer Anna Jordan, The Unreturning is directed by Neil Bettles and showcases movement by actors from the theatre company’s Ignition programme – a free national training programme for young men aged 16-20.
Co-founded by Man to Man and Things I Know to be True co-director Scott Graham, Frantic Assembly’s style of theatre has been studied as a leading contemporary theatre practitioner from GCSE to post-graduate courses.
Their works have toured internationally, and the company have advised on huge West End production The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and BAFTA award-winning TV series Humans.
Anna Jordan, creator of The Unreturning, said, “The idea was born out of lots of exciting discussions with Neil and Scott and the team at Frantic. We were interested in exploring how it feels to come home after a transformative experience; particularly through the eyes of a young man – as this project was inspired by Frantic’s Ignition scheme, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year.”
Tickets for all performances of The Unreturning are on sale now and available at: www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on; or by calling Box Office on 0151 709 4776.