Autumn at Liverpool’s Unity

Liverpool’s Unity Theatre has a packed autumn schedule lined up this year with around 30 shows in the pipeline.

The Glass Mountain, which appears at the theatre located in Hope Place on 9-10th October, is a collaboration between Trestle Theatre Company and Polish theatre practitioners formerly of Teatr Piesn Kozla (Song of the Goat) and Gardzienice.

The collaboration brings Eastern and Western European theatre styles together in a production which weaves together the Polish fable of The Glass Mountain with contemporary stories of migration.

While centred on one Polish man’s journey to England, the play is about what it is to journey into the unknown leaving the familiar and loved ones behind. As well as looking at the traditional stereotypes that continue to plague immigrants today, the play also explores what it is to belong and what it means to succeed.

Emily Gray, artistic director at Trestle Theatre Company, said: “Our journey began with my interest in finding a meeting point between the enormously respected theatre made by Grotowski influenced theatre companies in Poland and the struggles experienced by recent Polish migrants to England. It is thrilling to be working with performers who come from the intense physical and vocal training of Polish theatre and together we hope to find humour, playfulness and contemporary relevance in the Polish myth of The Glass Mountain.”

New work from Liverpool playwright Laurence Wilson, who had his play Lost Monsters premiered at the Everyman in May this year, appears at the Unity in the autumn. Blackberry Trout Face is a production by 20 Stories High and explores themes of loyalty, family and ambition. The play will also make an appearance at Manchester’s Contact Theatre on 25-27th November.

Meanwhile, Shameless actress and Celebrity Big Brother contestant Tina Malone heads the cast in RedCape Theatre’s award-winning The Idiot Colony for a one-night only appearance in the autumn at the Unity. Before it visits Liverpool, however, the production appears at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, Cumbria, on 1 October.