Cockpit
by Bridget Boland
directed by Wils Wilson
“West Bound in the Dress Circle. East Bound in the Stalls.”
The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh presents its Scottish Premier of Bridget Boland’s, Cockpit, Directed by Associate Artist, Wils Wilson, whose work includes Wind Resistance (The Lyceum in association with Edinburgh International Festival). This will be the Scottish Premiere, and first revival, of Cockpit, which held its first performance in 1948.
Enter The Lyceum, but take your seats in Germany, 1945, in a provincial playhouse currently being used as a makeshift transit camp for a bedraggled collection of displaced persons from across the continent. The Lyceum’s auditorium will become home to antagonistic enemies, stateless civilians, peacekeepers, an opera singer, and a theatre manager alike, in this 1948 production that explores what can grow from the ashes of war. Echoes of David Grieg’s 2016 dynamic adaptation of Aeschylus’ The Suppliant Women will resonate with many during these performances. The diaspora of the dispossessed, the exploited, the brutalised – even possibly part tainted by complicity.
Convoys are ready for repatriation and, as the play unfolds around you, British officers give the orders from the stage to this microcosm of a new, emerging Europe.
The Lyceum will provide a comic glimpse into a disrupted Europe, this October, as Bridget Boland’s rarely performed play, Cockpit, takes over the entire auditorium in this musical, moving, and manic story of communities and identities, and the challenges that can strengthen or weaken them. The production will allow for special on-stage seating for audience members keen to get close to the action in this sprawling, site specific production.
Definitely one for the meta-theatre, immersive Bravehearts.
Performance Dates: Preview: 6, 7 & 9 October, 7:30pm. Opening Night: 12 October, 7:30pm. Prices: £10 – £32
