https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/arts-and-culture/theatre-and-stage/exploring-the-loss-left-by-forced-adoption-4342006Exploring the loss left by forced adoption
You an award-winning play by Sussex-based writer Mark Wilson, who lives near Horsham, about a mother reunited with the son she gave up for adoption more than 30 years before is set for a revival at Brighton’s New Venture Theatre this October.
By Phil Hewitt
Published 23rd Sep 2023, 08:05 BST
The play, telling the story of Kathleen who as a teenage mother was forced to give up her baby for adoption, is a tender and deeply moving look at love, loss and the invisible ties that bind us. You by Mark Wilson opens at the New Venture Theatre, Brighton on Friday, October 6 and runs until Saturday, October 14 (no performance Monday 9). Running time: one hour (no interval). Ticket price £12 on
www.newventure.org.uk. The play was inspired by the writer Mark’s own story as one of the half a million babies forcibly given up for adoption in 1950s-1970s Britain. Many of the mothers were unmarried teenagers and gave birth in church-run mother and baby homes. Now in her mid-40s, Kathleen sits anxiously awaiting the arrival of the man she gave up for adoption more than 30 years ago. As she finally allows herself to remember the events of that time, each of her story’s characters are brought to life by two actors on stage in front of us. Mark said: “I see You as having come from a need to hear my own mother, hear her story; a need to conjure her as a way of managing the loss I realised I was feeling. It would have been so obvious for me to have told my story. But from the beginning it was her story that started to be told.”
The play was first performed at the Brighton Festival in 2015, where it received five-star reviews and went on to win several awards. It’s since been produced in the UK and internationally to great acclaim. Its revival at the New Venture Theatre is a particularly special one for You writer Mark as it’s a community theatre he has close ties to, having directed several productions and mentored new directors and writers there. Mark said: “I’m excited that NVT have chosen to stage You within the close intimacy of their studio space. It’s one I’ve worked in a number of times because of its potential to give the audience an experience of being drawn into the lives of the characters in front of them.”
