WEATHERED ESTATES
"Full of love and loss and lyricism, grit and cups of tea.”
“The most moving theatre I’ve seen in ages.”
- Audiences on Weathered Estates
Images by Neil Holmes
If your home was destroyed, what would you take with you?
If you had to flee, where would you go?
Which memories would you keep alive, which stories would you tell?
The Roaring Girls and acclaimed Leeds-based poet and playwright Zodwa Nyoni weave a beautiful story about being what it means to call a place ‘home’. Based on Euripides’ The Women of Troy, and set across four time zones, Weathered Estates follows four Hull women in the aftermath war, with four stories of conflict, survival, and hope.
Featuring playful scenery, music, and puppetry, these four women reach out through time to share the stories of where they’ve been, and their fears over their uncertain futures, in this provocation about the effects of war and violence.
Created with The University of Hull and Hull City of Culture 2017, Weathered Estates was originally performed at the Donald Roy Theatre in February 2017,and at the Ferens Art Gallery as part of Hull’s Women of the World festival .
The show was created with playwright Zodwa Nyoni and director Amy Skinner, and featured a chorus of Drama students. The show was a cosy, conversational, and tea-infused intimate piece of storytelling, set against a beautiful backdrop of makeshift shelters and paper birds.
The music of Weathered Estates was inspired by women's protests throughout the ages, from the anthems of Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, to the sound of the 2017 Women's March - MILCK's Quiet.
Footage by Shaunagh McClean
Background image by Neil Warhurst