Meet Me At Dawn at Hope Mill Theatre
Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor
Following seven months of closure, Hope Mill Theatre will once again spring to life with HER Productions’ version of Meet Me at Dawn, a modern-day fable by award-winning writer Zinnie Harris.
One of the first plays in England to be performed in front of a live audience after lockdown, the 80-minute show will run for five nights and will also be live-streamed on 26 May for those who cannot attend in person.
A celebration of everyday love and the perplexity of grief.
Starring local actors Helen O’Hara and Susan Jayne Robinson, the all-female play centres around a couple who wash up on a distant shore after a boating accident. Disorientated by their experience and completely cut off from the rest of the world, they try to find a way home. It’s a celebration of everyday love and the perplexity of grief, and the temptation to hold on to a future that can never be realised.
We applauded Hope Mill Theatre when they managed to stay ahead of the game – in staging a socially distanced production of Rent in October 2020 – just before Manchester was put into Tier 3 restrictions. Now, Meet Me at Dawn seems a fitting work to reopen the theatre. Featuring just two characters, in an intimate setting, the piece will resonate with so many people’s experiences of the last year.
Of course, the play will be performed in a Covid-safe environment; in addition to temperature checks and masks, audience members will sit in family bubbles, with perspex screens separating groups.
Unflinchingly honest and brilliantly written.
Harris’ play is unflinchingly honest and brilliantly written. And while the subject matter explored doesn’t offer a lighthearted fun night at the theatre, Meet Me at Dawn presents an intelligent examination of love and grief.
