Edinburgh Meeting hosts new play on Hiroshima
‘The subject matter has always felt so important but with the tragic events in the world it seems more urgent and relevant than ever.’
Edinburgh Meeting House will host a new play by the Quaker playwright Michael Mears when it transforms into ‘Venue 40’ for the city’s famous festival this summer.
The play, The Mistake, will explore the events leading up to the dropping of the first atomic bomb and its disastrous consequences. Michael Mears told the Friend: ‘The subject matter has always felt so important but with the tragic events in the world it seems more urgent and relevant than ever.’
Using verbatim testimonies and quotes from eye-witnesses, The Mistake interweaves stories of survivors, scientists and soldiers to explore what happens ‘when scientific discoveries unlock the awesome power of nature, and “the genie is let out of the bottle”’.
The play will be performed by Michael Mears (he has worked for the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Peter Hall Company) and a soon-to-be-announced female Japanese performer. The playwright intends to tour more widely in the UK in 2023 ‘making a concerted effort to get it into schools wherever I can’. He added: ‘It seems to me that the two words “peace education” are probably as important as those other two words, “climate crisis”.’
There will also be two preview performances of The Mistake in London in late July.
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