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Show Information

Standard

£12.00 - £15.00

Under 21

£12.00

Theatre Club

£12.00 - £15.00
Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes (including any intervals)
Produced by: China Plate Theatre
Age Guidance: 14+
Warnings: Strong language, flashing lights, haze & themes of nuclear warfare
Captioned

Spring & Summer Season Sponsor

Drama

A Family Business

Tuesday 27th February

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This show is part of Theatre Club

 

A show about how not to blow up the planet.

Award-winning theatre-maker Chris Thorpe and director Rachel Chavkin reunite for A Family Business, a powerful production that focuses on the human story of the struggle for nuclear disarmament, and the group of people whose business it is to try to stop us from blowing up the planet.

Based on conversations with activists, academics and diplomats, this timely piece of theatre from China Plate and Staatstheater Mainz, about ordinary people who make extraordinarily important decisions, examines what qualifies a person to speak on behalf of huge parts of the global population – and asks why we don’t really talk about nuclear weapons much, even though they accompany us everywhere. 

In partnership with Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. Supported by Warwick Arts Centre and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The Stage
StarStarStarStar Star Outline

A frank, informative dive into the process of nuclear disarmament and international policy-making.

Véronique Christory, Senior Arms Adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross at the United Nations
StarStarStarStarStar

A Family Business is brilliant. A show which encourages us to be part of the urgent conversation and action for the sake of present and future generations. A show full of hope and humanity

Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor
StarStarStarStarStar

If you don’t know the work of Manchester-based playwright Chris Thorpe, you should, because he is one of the UK’s most thoughtful theatre-makers, tackling subjects and issues that others shy away from.

Luxembourg Times
StarStarStarStarStar

It’s empowerment, not fear that Thorpe seeks to give the audience. It is engaging, in some ways mind-blowing, and a reminder that the people who make decisions in the global corridors of power don’t always have the world’s best interest at heart…Delivered with passion and wit, an understanding of the local landscape, and some extremely well-explained details and facts.

Audience Member
StarStarStarStarStar

Cannot recommend it enough. Apart from the subject matter’s urgency, its brilliant use of multi- lingualism, technology and staging has seared it in my brain

Efé Agwele

Layla

Andrea Quirbach

Veronique

Greg Barnett

James

Chris Thorpe

Writer & Performer

Claire O'Reilly

Director

Tim Schmultzer

Assistant Director on Production

Rachel Chavkin

Dramaturg

Jörg Vorhaben

Dramaturg

Christopher Worrall

Casting Director

Eleanor Field

Designer & Costume Designer

Anna Clock

Sound Designer

Arnim Friess

Lighting & AV Designer

Rob Athorn

Production Manager

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