A multi-award-winning short film has been adapted into a play, which sets off on a 25-venue northern tour in March and features a guest cameo from a Bridgerton star.
The Moth was originally a 10 minute film, part of a series of shorts from Durham/Manchester-based Elysium Theatre Company, each one written, rehearsed and filmed in lockdown during the pandemic. The series was seen at 26 film festivals around the world and won several prizes, including an Olwen Wymark award from the Writers Guild of Great Britain, and best monologue at the Kwanzaa Film Festival in Harlem, New York.
Thanks to this success, Elysium writer Paul Herzberg has adapted it for the stage and the voice of actress Adjoah Andoah – who plays Lady Danbury in hit Netflix series Bridgerton – features as unseen character Joy.
Based on a true story, The Moth focuses on the tense relationship between black British activist Mariu, and John, a white South African ex-soldier, when a chance encounter on a train in the 1990s changes their lives forever.
Elysium artistic director Jake Murray said: “When we launched the Covid-19 Monologues we had no idea they would be so successful. We were looking for a way to stay creative during lockdown and we never dreamed they would be seen all over the world.
"The Moth is a stunning play, written like a thriller, that gets to the heart of the world we live in today with all its tensions and divisions, but holds out hope for the future."
The tour kicks off at Queens Hall Arts Centre in Hexham (February 27), and ends on April 10-12 at the Lowry in Salford. Venues between include the Shakespeare North Playhouse (March 18); Dukes Lancaster (March 25) and Hull Truck (April 2).
More info and tickets here