A PLAY looking at the chilling impact of Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech is running at Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
What Shadows by Chris Hannan, directed by The Reo's artistic director Roxana Silbert, tells the story of Powell’s explosive speech, bringing to life the community that inspired it and its effects on a woman trying to make sense of her life after her childhood was shattered by the toxic situation that followed.
Olivier and Tony award-winning actor Ian McDiarmid, best-known for his role as Darth Sidious in the Star Wars films, plays MP Enoch Powell in the world premiere production - making a welcome return to The REP following his appearance in Roxana Silbert’s 2014 RSC production of A Life of Galileo.
Meanwhile - Rebecca Scroggs, who most recently played Maya in The Suicide at the National Theatre and Tosh in BBC’s EastEnders, stars as Oxford academic and daughter of a Caribbean immigrant, Rose Cruickshank, who wants answers - 30 years on - about what led Powell to say what he did back in 1968.
Director Roxana Silbert said: “As we near the 50th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s explosive Rivers of Blood speech, I’m excited to be working once again with the brilliant Ian McDiarmid for Chris Hannan’s What Shadows.
"Powell’s provocative speech was made less than half a mile away from The REP and Chris’s powerful new play is a scorching interrogation of how a divided nation can learn to speak across the divide.”
Tickets, priced from £15, are available from the box office on 0121 236 4455 or online at www.birmingham-rep.co.uk
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