Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland

(Paperback)

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..A Story of Friendship, Migration and Karaoke. Summer 1999. Margates beaches are packed with day-trippers. and its hotels filled with Kosovan asylum seekers including Hanna (Celia Meiras), a survivor of Europes most recent genocide. Hannah (Lisa Payne) is from Margate and bored with life in the rundown seaside town - hanging out with her boyfriend Bull and his prejudiced mates. The only things the two sixteen year olds have in common are their names and their love of singing along to their favourite pop songs. Sixteen years later, Hanna returns to Margate - this time in search of a Syrian girl she befriended in Kosovo and who may have succeeded in getting across the Channel. The Calais Jungle is close and attempts by its residents to reach England fill the local media. Hanna hopes her young friend will be welcome in Margate, but although the town has changed, alongside the coffee bars and vintage shops, there is still an undercurrent of hostility towards the migrants and refugees who are so desperate to enter the UK. Just as in 1999, when Hannas arrival turned Hannahs life upside down, so her return takes the friends on a journey which Hannah from Margate would not have thought possible. Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland builds on John Retallacks award winning earlier play, Hannah and Hanna, which has been performed extensively both nationally and internationally.

Reviews

An outstanding piece of honest, inspiring theatre. -- Mary Brennan * The Herald *
a moving, gripping and very well-acted piece of theatre. -- Heather Neill * The Times Educational Supplement *
Retallacks script, bold, politically committed and brilliantly aware of popular culture, rings as true and sonorous as a bell. Outstanding in all departments, vital in its social commentary, Hannah and Hanna demands the broadest possible audience. Its a great little showcomes as a reminder that the fight against fascism and racism is fundamentally a good one to be in, liberating, life-changing, even fun. Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman -- Mark Brown * Scotland on Sunday *

Author Bio

JOHN RETALLACK is the author of twelve plays for young people and has adapted numerous texts for the stage and radio. He was the founding director of ATC Theatre, director of Oldham Coliseum, director of Oxford Stage Company, and the founding director of Company of Angels. From 2010 - 2013, he was Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic where he directed Owen Sheers play Pink Mist. Prior to setting up the Oxford Playwriting Course, he was Tutor in Writing for Performance at Ruskin College in Oxford.