Mother Maria

We are now day 3 into rehearsals for our plays of new writing,  it has been really exciting to finally get started on them after such a long development process.  Over the next few days we shall be looking at each play and letting you know a little bit more about them.  To start us off we have 'Mother Maria', written by Ann Marie Di Mambro and directed by Andrew McGregor.

First of all, this has nothing to do with the Sound of Music, but it is about a nun!  An amazing nun. A nun who's story is so extraordinary that it sounds like the work of a hollywood script writer, but the story that we tell in this play is all based on the life and times of Maria Skobtsova (read her story here).  She is a fantastic character, not only in her achievements but also in her idiosyncrasies; she would regularly be spotted sitting outside Paris cafes smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer!

The play is set in France in the late 1930's and ends in 1944.  It follows a few individuals and their particular circumstances during the earth-shattering events of that troubled time. Di Mambro has mainly focused on the family life of Maria and the sacrifices that she makes.  She is an incredibly strong woman and will not allow anything to stop her following the path that she believes she has to go down, despite her husband, Daniel's best efforts.

The play features India Crawford as Mother Maria and Pola Anton as her care-free sister Sasha - there are some lovely scenes between the two sisters where it seems, just for a little moment, the troubles of the world are forgotten.  Andy Patterson plays Daniel Skobtsova and Kevin Leask plays his son Yuri as well as Mother Maria's confidant Father Demitri.  He's not the only actor who will have to portray two characters with Pamela Reid facing the challenge of playing the 16 year old Gaina, daughter of Maria and Daniel, as well as the constantly put-upon nun Sister Veronica.

'Mother Maria' is an exceptionally dramatic story and we can't wait to keep on working at it and discover more about this fantastic woman and those that surrounded her.  The group have been keeping their own blog which you can find here and you can see photos from their rehearsals here.