Another Kind of Silence
took place on
Thursday 4 September 2008 at 7.30pm
in front of an audience of over 80 people
The chemical war is never won and all life is caught in its violent crossfire.*
Resonant, shocking, beautiful - a story of love, the ocean, politics and birdsong.
Meet Rachel Carson, whose scientific and poetic selves met in her extraordinary writings, but brought her into sharp conflict with vested commercial and state interests in 1960s America.
She died in 1964, but come 2007 - the centenary year of Rachel Carson’s birth - The Environment Agency still found her to be “the top international environmentalist ever”.
Another Kind of Silence, written and performed by Liz Rothschild, is a one-person show described as "A poetic tour-de-force" by the Newbury Weekly News. Simply and powerfully performed, this is a show of beauty and authority. Rachel Carson’s discoveries remain as relevant and urgent as they were in 1962 and her personal and professional struggles to finish her research make a compelling narrative. In this piece she tells stories she deliberately kept hidden in her lifetime.
Liz Rothschild performs Another Kind of Silence
Stories that highlight her 12-year relationship with Dorothy Freeman, her breast cancer, her high standing in scientific circles - and the patronising trial-by-humiliation lavished upon her by the multi-million dollar chemical industry.
"The show is not a history lesson," Liz Rothschild says, "Nor is it about fear and despair; it's a love story. Through it you meet this remarkable woman, and experience the natural world as she felt and saw it. You will hear stories she never told in her lifetime, and how they reverberate today."
Director of the play, Sue Mayo, adds, "I often hear people remark on how they’d forgotten just how important ‘Silent Spring’ was to them, and how emotionally powerful Liz’s telling of Rachel’s story is.
“It’s powerful partly because Liz spent five years researching Rachel and reading everything there was to read, from books and public statements to hundreds and hundreds of private letters.
“So this isn’t just about the issue of environmental protection – though like Rachel, Liz is passionate about that too. It’s also about respect for Rachel and her supporters, and about highlighting one woman’s struggle to get her voice heard.”
* Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, 1962 (quoted by permission of Frances Collin, Trustee.)
Another Kind of Silence is being performed at:
- Edinburgh Festival, Hill Street Theatre 1-24 August 2008
- St Andrew's Methodist Church, Worcester, Thursday 4 September 2008 – 7.30pm
- Various venues around the UK, including arts centres, farms, village halls, colleges and conferences.
The performance at St Andrew's was followed by an after-show talk with writer/performer Liz Rothschild.
Another Kind of Silence is directed by Sue Mayo, designed by Sue Condie, and performed to a specially commissioned soundscape by Joseph Young, inspired by the sounds of the natural world.
The play has been invited to come to St. Andrew’s by the Church Council, as part of the church’s commitment to following the ‘Eco-Congregation’ environmental programme organised by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. For further information about the show at St. Andrews, contact Robert Lewin-Jones, e-mail: Robert@lewin-jones.net
Liz Rothschild is a performer, director, writer and workshop leader. She trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic, worked at Derby Playhouse, Oldham Coliseum, the Sherman Theatre and Theatr Clwyd, and has toured with Northern Studio Theatre Company, Riff-Raff Company and the young National Trust theatre company.
In the last 10 years, she has also written, produced and directed three large-scale community theatre productions, working with adults and schools.
She currently runs an inter-generational arts project, Bridging the Gap, in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, and directs a theatre company for people with learning disabilities for Reach Inclusive Arts in Swindon, which includes a mid-autumn tour of a show on homophobic bullying.
Deeply involved in environmental issues, this is her first one-person show, which was inspired by Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 book, ‘Silent Spring’.
For more information, see: www.anotherkindofsilence.co.uk
Further quote from Georgina Downs, Daily Mail Inspirational Eco Woman Of The Year (2008):
"A thoroughly engaging performance that highlights the exhausting battle to get protection from the toxic pesticides sprayed into our environment. I can completely identify with Rachel's struggles as for the last 7 years I have come up against the might of the multi-billion pound agro-chemical industry and a Government here in the UK that appear determined to protect industry interests rather than what they should be protecting - people's health and the environment. It is definitely one of the biggest public health scandals of our time. This powerful new production is not to be missed."
