Us/Them (NHB Modern Plays)

By Carly Wijs

In September 2004, a group of terrorists stormed School Number One in Beslan, Russia, taking hundreds of children, their parents and teachers hostage. The ensuing siege lasted three days and left many dead.
Us/Them is not a straightforward account of this terrible tragedy, but an exploration of the entirely individual way children cope with traumatic situations.
Originally created for BRONKS, a theatre company for young audiences, Us/Them had a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016, winning a Scotsman Fringe First Award, and transferred to the National Theatre, London, in 2017. It was co-produced by BRONKS and Richard Jordan Productions, with Theatre Royal Plymouth and Big in Belgium, in association with Summerhall.
'A remarkable piece of theatre – playful, surprisingly and painfully funny as well as moving' - Guardian
'A truly outstanding piece of theatre for all ages… [makes] an inhuman ordeal somehow understandable, filtered through this very modern, accessible retelling' - The Stage
'Haunting, unforgettable… the highlight of the Fringe' - Telegraph
'Dazzlingly confident and utterly absorbing… presents [its] story masterfully' - Scotsman
'An innovative piece of theatrical storytelling… the bare facts of this terrible episode are well known, but the story is given such bold, off-centre treatment in [Us/Them] that it inspires a much deeper consideration of the massacre, its context and implications, than a simple dramatisation could hope to achieve' - The Times
'Remarkable – powerful and quietly shocking, certainly, but also one that dares to be entertaining and absurd, even playful' - The List

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jan 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780018485

Carly Wijs

Carly Wijs has written and created plays, and has performed as a film and theatre actress with Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez, Guy Cassiers, Josse De Pauw, De Roovers, KOPERGIETERY, Muziektheater Transparant et al. Her productions have toured internationally. She is regularly invited to be a guest lecturer at the RITS and P.A.R.T.S. (both in Brussels). Her first novel The Doubtexperiment was published in May 2016 and nominated for the Flemish debut prize: The Bronze Owl. Us/Them won her an Edinburgh Fringe First at the 2016 Festival.

Book preview

Epub cover

Carly Wijs

US/THEM

art

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Introduction

Characters

Us/Them

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Us/Them was produced by BRONKS and Richard Jordan Productions with Theatre Royal Plymouth and Big in Belgium in association with Summerhall. It premiered in Dutch at BRONKS Theatre in Brussels on 27 September, 2014. The production received its UK premiere in English at Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 3 August 2016. It subsequently transferred to the Dorfman auditorium of the National Theatre, London, on 16 January 2017. The cast was as follows:

Introduction

Carly Wijs

BRONKS are a theatre company for young audiences based in Brussels, Belgium. When they asked me if I was interested in creating a performance for them, in 2013, the terrorist attack in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, had just occurred. I had read about it in the newspapers and watched footage of it on television, but I had not discussed it with my then eight-year-old son.

But he had seen it for himself on the news and he came to tell me. The way he talked about the attack was very specific: objective, aloof, with the ability to overlook the emotional implications. He handled the news factually, as a sequence of events, and without having to connect it to a judgement. It was as if the horror for him as an eight-year-old child had a completely different meaning because it was not possible to relate it to his own life. A child, unlike an adult, does not think: ‘That could have been me.’

I started to think about another horrifying act of unspeakable violence – the Beslan school siege of September 2004 – and how this dark episode in history could combine with the thoughts and impressions of children about such acts, to make a piece of theatre for young people. I subsequently managed to persuade Oda Van Neygen, who was at the time artistic director of BRONKS, and to this day I thank her for her courage in allowing me do it.

If you type ‘Beslan’ into Google and look at the pictures, it is riveting. You cannot let go of the horror. The fact that it involves children makes that feeling even stronger. It is an abomination in the extreme. But how can we put such