Target reached!
Any extra money will go towards expanding the programme of workshops and panel discu...
Any extra money will go towards expanding the programme of workshops and panel discu...
In April 2020 we will present the premiere of the play BROKEN WATER alongside a Festival of Motherhood at acclaimed London venue the Arcola.
Hello! We are Lightbox Theatre; playwright Michèle Winstanley, Director Emma Faulkner and Producer Emma Sampson. We are all mothers to real-life humans and in-between that mothering, we have been trying to "conceive" and "give birth" to a beautiful play written by Michèle called BROKEN WATER (more info & tickets).
BROKEN WATER is a moving story about life, love and loss. Living on the same London street three ordinary women with three different perspectives tell a similar story. Between the ‘rock’ of having children and the ‘hard place’ of not having them, lies a kind of love that can make you lose your bearings. Like water, children are precious, burdensome, impossible to hold on to, and difficult to live without.
Producing this show has been a labour of love and at times an epidural would have been much appreciated but we are nearly there. We are literally at the pushing stage and we just need some hand-holding and the occasional reminder to "BREATHE!" to get us over the line.
We hope to be staging this play alongside a festival of motherhood with panel discussions and workshops with experts and artists that explore a wide range of parenting issues including mental health, infertility, adoption, step-parenting, post-natal depression, career-change, childlessness, bereavement and empty nest syndrome. We will also have babes in arms performances so that parents can attend the show with their baby. We want this to be an opportunity for parents to connect with each other and perhaps combat some of the isolation people feel at different stages of their parenting journey.
We will be broadcasting many of our activities online and creating a podcast of our panel discussions. So if you can't make it to these events in person, you can still benefit from it.
BROKEN WATER is a truly wonderful play which was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award in 2014 (placing it in the top 25 out of over 800 submissions) and for the Nick Darke Award in 2017 (placing it in the top 6 out of over 950 submissions).
Please help us bring this baby to the stage! (with as little pain as possible)
Thank you from Michèle, Emma & Emma
"A really terrific play!"
Paul Sirett (Olivier-nominated playwright and dramaturg)
“I don’t think I have laughed and cried within minutes of each other for a while"
Rebecca O’Brien (Audience Member)
"Thought-provoking, moving and poignant"
Josette Simon OBE
This project successfully funded on 25th February 2020