Description
Book SynopsisIn September 2004, a group of terrorists stormed School Number One in Beslan, Russia, taking hundreds of children, their parents and teachers hostage. The ensuing siege lasted three days and left many dead.
Us/Them is not a straightforward account of this terrible tragedy, but an exploration of the entirely individual way children cope with traumatic situations.
Originally created for BRONKS, a theatre company for young audiences, Us/Them had a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016, winning a Scotsman Fringe First Award, and transferred to the National Theatre, London, in 2017. It was co-produced by BRONKS and Richard Jordan Productions, with Theatre Royal Plymouth and Big in Belgium, in association with Summerhall.
Trade Review'Startlingly powerful… the playfulness has a terrible poignancy... a remarkable, harrowing piece of theatre'
* Independent *
'While this is an unflinching show, it draws its vitality from curious details rather than graphic confrontation… an intriguing, offbeat look at how young people deal with trauma'
* Evening Standard *
'Becomes progressively more heart-rending… makes a deep and moving comment about our reductive assumptions regarding childhood innocence
* Financial Times *
'In its intricate weave of frontline semi-reportage and slyly subversive comedy, writer-director Carly Wijs allows a sense of play to inform at every turn… a shape-shifting, even ticklish piece that suggests what trauma might look like as it is both experienced and recollected from the inside looking out'
* The Arts Desk *
'Funny, devastating… a heartbreaking story about the indomitability of childhood spirit'
* Time Out *
'An extraordinarily thoughtful and compassionate play about the way in which the young process trauma and the different filters that children and adults place over the truth… shimmers with a strange double emotional reality, which makes it very funny at times – and awfully painful at others'
* Exeunt Magazine *
'A remarkable piece of theatre – playful, surprisingly and painfully funny as well as moving'
* Guardian *
'A truly outstanding piece of theatre for all ages… [makes] an inhuman ordeal somehow understandable, filtered through this very modern, accessible retelling'
* The Stage *
'Haunting, unforgettable… the highlight of the Fringe'
* Telegraph *
'Dazzlingly confident and utterly absorbing… presents [its] story masterfully'
* Scotsman *
'An innovative piece of theatrical storytelling… the bare facts of this terrible episode are well known, but the story is given such bold, off-centre treatment in [Us/Them] that it inspires a much deeper consideration of the massacre, its context and implications, than a simple dramatisation could hope to achieve'
* The Times *
'Remarkable – powerful and quietly shocking, certainly, but also one that dares to be entertaining and absurd, even playful'
* The List *
