A WORCESTER theatre company is getting set to the hit the road to unmask the truth of the swinging sixties without words.
The UK’s leading full mask theatre company Vamos will be opening their latest tour of The Best Thing at Malvern Theatres next Friday (February 10) and Saturday (February 11).
The show explores the moral clashes brought about by the 1960s sexual revolution and is based on true experiences of women who had to give up their babies and of those children who were given away in decade when being an unmarried mother was seen as morally suspect.
As with all Vamos shows, The Best Thing has been created from interviews, conversations, stories and research with real people.
Writer and director Rachael Savage’s research was particularly inspired by an article from journalist Yvonne Roberts which discussed forced adoptions in the 1960s.
“We were initially drawn to discovering more about children who had been separated from their parents,” she said.
“Along the way, the theme kept arising of children being taken away from young mothers who actually would have wanted to keep them.
“Some of the stories were truly heart-breaking and it seemed like a story that needed telling,” Rachel added.
Co-commissioned by London International Mime Festival, The Best Thing is a bitter-sweet story of mistaken morals and broken hearts, 45s and beehives.
It’s 1966. The record player’s on, her hair’s bobbed and eye-lashes curled, for seventeen year old Susan, life is an adventure waiting to begin.
But what happens next turns everything upside down, and its repercussions will last for decades to come.
“Mask theatre is wordless – it focuses not on what we say, but on our physical connections with each other,” Rachel said.
“I felt it hugely important to show some of these processes in the show, and to propose that with empathy and sensitivity, we can connect better as humans, and even start the healing process.”
The poignant and human showed toured extensively throughout the UK last year and won praise for a ‘funny and fearless’ production which told an important story in such an accessible way.
Following shows in the county, Vamos will once again take the show on the road for a tour of the UK and Belgium.
Tickets for shows are available online at www.malvern-theatres.co.uk
Visit www.vamostheatre.co.uk for a full list of tour dates for The Best Thing.
