Out of Joint Premieres Edgar’s Testing the Echo

Testing the Echo, the latest play by David Edgar, receives its world premiere this week, care of Out of Joint. The production opens on 17 January 2008 at Salisbury Playhouse before continuing on tour to ten further venues, including a month, from 1 April to 3 May 2008, at London’s Tricycle Theatre.

Described as “a fascinating tapestry about the twisting road to becoming British”, Testing the Echo centres on a group of immigrants to the UK. Secretly, Tetyana wants to escape her marriage. Mahmood gets kidnapped for his own good. And the motley crew in Emma’s English class are all looking for something, whether it’s a passport – or a fight. As the day of their ceremony approaches, Emma’s students begin to challenge some of her dearest-held beliefs.

Edgar’s other plays include Pentecost, Playing with Fire, Destiny, Continental Divide, Albert Speer, The Prisoner’s Dilemma and, perhaps most famously for the Royal Shakespeare, his two-part adaptation of Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, which is currently revived in the West End care of Chichester Festival Theatre.

The cast for Testing the Echo are Teresa Banham, Kirsty Bushell, Sushil Chudasama, Farzana Dua Elahe, Ian Dunn, Robert Gwilym, Syrus Lowe and Sirine Saba. The premiere production is directed by Young Vic associate director Matthew Dunster and designed by Paul Wills.

Following Salisbury, the play will spend a week at the Royal Theatre of the Hague before returning to the UK to visit Edinburgh, Liverpool, Warwick, Guildford, Manchester, Oxford, Bury St Edmunds, London’s Tricycle and Birmingham, where its tour concludes on 10 May 2008.

– by Terri Paddock