Forbidden Stories

Genre 
Drama
Venue 
Auditorium
Ticket prices 
£15 Full
£12 Concession
*subject to booking fees (except at theatre box office)
Mar 2019 16 Sat 7:30pm (doors: 7:00pm)

Forbidden Stories is the third part of a trilogy on the themes of “Power and Collective Memory” created by the theatre group “Ludens Ensemble” and included in the programme of events of the European Capital of Culture Pafos 2017.

Forbidden Stories is a multimedia theatre performance that explores the theme of borders through true stories of solidarity that took place in the separated island of Cyprus. Cyprus is an island country that remains de facto partitioned in two. The intercommunal violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots that followed independence in 1960 culminated in 1974 with a failed coup de ta organized by Greek Nationalists who sought union with Greece and the subsequent intervention of the Turkish State which occupied the north part of the island. Since then the two communities remain separated.

Drawing from interviews we conducted with members of both the Turkish and Greek communities in the past two years, we have developed a theatre performance based on stories of solidarity, mutual aid and friendship that aim at transcending the current state of division in Cyprus. Six performers bring the voices of different characters on stage in a performance that incorporates storytelling with video mapping projections, live camera snippets and music. This performance makes little use of dominant historical perspectives and rather focuses on the lived experiences of the local populace. The performance aims at creating a platform that will function as a bridge between the two communities to gradually form a common narrative about ‘life’ in "Cyprus.

Ludens Ensemble is an Edinburgh-based theatre group that works with new media creating performances that ebb and flow between the aesthetics of critical distance and immersive experience.