TBL & Dukes present Quickand

Later this month sees a world première, set in Cumbria, at The Dukes Lancaster and the Theatre by the Lake. Quicksand by Zosia Wand, tells of a Polish couple’s unconventional love affair that briefly flares in and around Ulverston and on the shores of Morecambe Bay. This joint production by Theatre by the Lake and the Dukes Lancaster is an intense and compelling play with an unexpected and unhappy twist.

The breathtaking landscape and dangerous tides of Morecambe Bay are the setting for this brand new play. A terrible choice made long ago has disastrous implications and one family is left to pick up the pieces. Elka travels to Ulverston with the hope of finding herself and answers to questions from her past. What she finds is a closely guarded secret.  And love…but where she least expects it. Deeply rooted in our local landscape Quicksand is a moving and startling look at relationships, family secrets and expectations. But above all, Quicksand is a love story, albeit not conventional, but a love story all the same. It is ideally suited to the traverse stage of Theatre by the Lake’s Studio, renowned for 11 years as a centre for challenging drama.

All four characters in Quicksand, like Wand herself, have Polish roots.Estimates suggest that there could be two million Polish people now living in the UK, 5,000 of then in Cumbria. Most are in Carlisle (many at the McVities factory) and Penrith, with others working in the hotels and bars of the Lake District. Masses are said in Polish in Carlisle (where the chaplain to the Polish community in Cumbria is based), Kendal, Penrith and Windermere, and on its website Cumbria County Council proclaims “Witamy w Radzie Hrabstwa Cumbria”.

Quicksand runs at the Dukes Theatre from 27 January – 12 February and at the Theatre By The Lake from 16 -26  February.