Lockerbie: Lost Voices

[This is the title of a play to be performed by The Elements World Theatre on the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Contributions to help defray the costs of the production are being solicited.  The following are excerpts from the website through which donations can be made:]

THE PLAY

For the 25th anniversary of the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21st December 1988, this new controversial play gives voice to six hypothetical passengers before and after the  event. A US intelligence agent, a Scottish investigative journalist, a retired couple and a mother and her stepdaughter challenge each other with humour, love and courage to either accept the unacceptable or stand up for their personal truth. In poetic language and with original choral music and soundtrack, they speak from the neutrality of death as they report the investigation unfolding on the ground and shed new light on the worst terrorist attack in the UK.

BACKGROUND

A Scottish investigative journalist invited Lee Gershuny to write a play about Lockerbie for the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. His passion for truth, his courage to question and not accept the unacceptable and his commitment to freedom of the press in a just society inspired Lee to write Lockerbie: Lost Voices.

THE ELEMENTS WORLD THEATRE (EWT)

Presented by The Elements World Theatre, a professional new writing company, in association with SWAN productions, the play is written by Lee Gershuny, an award-winning playwright in both the US and UK and directed by Corinne Harris with a cast of leading actors of stage, film, radio and tv: James Bryce, Isabella Jarrett, Hannah Jarrett-Scott, Tim Licata and Doreen McGillivray.

After seeing a rehearsed reading of the play, Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, invited EWT to have a 3-week run in his venue, one of the most accessible, popular year-round venues on the Edinburgh Fringe.

"The Elements World Theatre is an experience as much as a show, though performed with great skill. It's challenging conventional ideas of theatre and opening up stories and big ideas." Donald Smith, Director, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh.

WHY WE’RE BRINGING LOCKERBIE: LOST VOICES to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival:

1. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is a unique international arts platform for introducing provocative ideas in theatre to a world audience.
2. The play allows the Lockerbie victims to exist as more than just “victims” by revealing their courage, love and humour.
3. Many questions about the initial criminal investigation and the trial and conviction of Megrahi as the lone bomber of Pan Am 103 are still hotly debated nationally and internationally, making it difficult for so many to have closure on this international tragedy. What is the truth? “Who did it and why?”

In speaking after the explosion from the neutrality of death, our hypothetical passengers continue to ask tough questions about the initial investigation on the ground -- keeping the debate and the need for closure very much alive.

WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP

Having the opportunity to reach the huge audiences that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival attracts requires a considerable investment from the participants. As a non-profit Scottish charity, EWT has budgeted for excellence while keeping our minimalist style intact. We are asking for your help toward meeting expenses for a quality production and Fringe essentials:

1. Stage designer’s fees, materials, costumes, props
2. Lighting designer and operator’s fees to create minimalist special effects.
3. Creation of powerful eye catching images to represent the show, printing and distribution of leaflets and posters, production photos to promote wider press coverage and a trailer to give potential audiences a flavour of the show.
4. Rental of rehearsal venue
5. Insurance required to present work on the Edinburgh Fringe
6. All funds raised will go exclusively for our Fringe production

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

Please spread the word about our campaign and production by sending this link http://igg.me/at/Lockerbie-Lost-Voices/x/3643829 to your family and friends.

Keep up-to-date with us on our website.

“Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter where we will be quoting startling facts and theories about Lockerbie.

Come to see Lockerbie: Lost Voices:

Scottish Storytelling Centre: Venue 30a

43-45 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR

Previews: Wed 31 July & Thurs 1 August 7pm (1 hour) £5

2-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-26 August, 7pm (1 hour) £10 (£8)

Venue Box Office: 0131 556 9579

Fringe Box Office: 0131 226 0000 | www.edfringe.com

We are hugely grateful for whatever way you can contribute to our campaign. We are a very small company with a big passion for artistic excellence and dramatising new ways of looking at cultural conflict.

[Details of another Lockerbie play being performed on the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe can be found here.]