Bitter Sanctuary
Venue : Redditch Palace Theatre
Date : June 1991
Genre : Play
Director
Ashleigh Bradford
Director
Angela Smith
Assistant Director
Cast
Jenny Bradford
Una
Roger Warren
Carol
Estelle Shutkever
Mme Kapek
Beryl Linforth
Tanya
Mike Beamish
Stefan
Paul Cherry
Michael
Jenny Turton
Maria
Mark Beavon
Jan Kapek
Val Archer
Miss Carpenter
Crew
Crew
Production Gallery
Production Reviews
Bitter Sweet Tale of Refugees
Imagine sharing a room the size of your lounge with two other families, jostling with them for the bathroom every morning, listening to their rows and love making.
Try putting yourself in this position and you'll be half way to understanding the misery and frustration of the latest production from the Wythall Theatre Company at the Palace Theatre.
Bitter Sanctuary by Rosemary Anne Sisson is set in a refugee camp somewhere in Europe in the 1960s.
The play focuses on one family's attempts to stay together and maintain dignity and pride in the inhuman surroundings.
All this would have been fine except for the fact the families in question were English. I sat through it trying to think of a time in history when the English were driven from their homeland.
In the end I decided it would have been more credible if the cast had donned some sort of mid European accents.
Saying all that, the group made the best of a slow and quite depressing play.
Mike Beamish and Beryl Linforth with Paul Cherry and Jenny Turton as their children gave excellent performances as the main family, struggling through until they could start a new life in Australia.
Also worthy of praise was the set which was cleverly and attractively constructed, despite being on a tight budget.
Jane Tyler, Redditch Advertiser