As Loud As Silence.

The ever wonderful Lost Banditos returned to Drama St Mary's on Friday evening with their new show As Loud As Silence. Kasia has been in Portugal for the last few weeks with the company devising the work and this was it's first play in the UK.

As with the previous Destination GB the work was full of beautiful images and charming moments of surprise and humour.

Set in post-war Ukraine a troop of gypsy musicians, the band of champions, travel the countryside playing wherever they are welcomed. One of them, Pushka, curious to write new songs, goes on a voyage of discovery to learn how to read and write. A journey that leads her to the west, away from all that she's known.

In Paris she falls in love with a German librarian, who slowly helps her to achieve her dreams and when Pushka returns to her village for her grandmother's funeral, the librarian follows, bringing with him a French record producer who wants to record the unique sound of the band and share it with the world.

...and then the story abruptly ends. A narrator, desperate for a fun filled ending, quickly tells us that the communists used the recording to help identify the gypsies and eradicate them. He wonders whether we really want to come to the theatre to hear about that and wouldn't we prefer just to resurrect the band and dance? It's a heart breaking question. Sometimes things are safer kept in the memory.

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