3 Year Acting Training Graduates – The Permanent Way

Italia Conti 3 Year Acting Training Graduates present

The Permanent Way

Written by David Hare 

Directed by Angela Ekaette Michaels

Synopsis

The Permanent Way by David Hare is a stirring and fast-paced drama about the disastrous consequences of the privatisation of British Rail between 1994 and 1997The play exposes the appalling flaws and mismanagement within the new systems that resulted in several fatal train crashes – Southall, September 1997; Ladbroke Grove, October 1999; Hatfield, October 2000 and Potters Bar, May 2002. It is apolitical drama which is relentless in its exposé of those who should be held to account while also giving voice to those whose lives were lost or forever changed.

Director’s Note

In The Permanent Way, we are taken back from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.The Labour party came into power in 1997 with Tony Blair as Prime Minister and John Prescott as Deputy Prime Minister. This play takes us on a journey through the lives of those affected by the fatal rail crashes that happened after the sale of British Rail. The play is verbatim. We enter into a world where the playwright David Hare is collecting testimonies from those involved in the privatisation, as well as those victims of the rail crashes, for the play he wishes to write. Each character has their own distinct truth and it was important to me that they are all represented without bias. Their stories hold us in their grip – at times funny, poignant, sad, bewildering and shocking. I wanted to create something that would really come alive for the audience and capture a sense of the mayhem and loss as well as the resilience of the human spirit. It’s been a rich process in which I hope each cast member feels they’ve had a voice and knows the value of their contribution.

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