NOW IS THE TIME TO SAY NOTHING

Saturday, 4 May 2019

Event Details

Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an interactive sound and video installation exploring the role of screens in observing global conflicts.

The show is a provocation against armchair passivity.

 

Using stunning video and immersive sound, it follows the real story of Syrian artist Reem Karssli as she captures her daily experience of the Syrian conflict on camera.

We see what emerges when she is contacted by a group of teenagers from the UK who want to see beyond the footage they’ve watched on their TVs.

Together they co-author an experience which attempts to connect a UK audience to the human story behind the news. Created over four years, following Reem into an exile which forces her to leave her camera behind, Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an intimate exploration of what it means to stay connected to each other and of what happens when war and the need for survival gets in the way.

“Exquisitely simple and moving. This is a cunningly constructed and heartfelt piece that acknowledges the complexities of what is happening in Syria, reminds how sitting in the dark watching a screen only distances us, and actively tries to bring us together to reach out to the real people, just like us, whose lives are blighted by war.”

— Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

“Now Is The Time To Say Nothing by is one of the most powerful and beautiful pieces I’ve seen in a long time.”

— Mike Tweddle Tobacco Factory

“If the essence of theatre is an invitation to imagine that we are someone else and for a moment to see the world through their eyes, then this is truly theatre at its most essential.”

— Tom Morris Bristol Old Vic

 

COMPANY INFORMATION

Credits

LEAD ARTISTS

Caroline Williams is an award-winning artist working in multi-disciplinary participatory performance. She represented the UK at the Prague Quadrennial with her performance installation for the V&A Museum Shakespeare’s Fools. Other projects include Can You Hear Me Now (MAYK), Make Yourself At Home (Nuit Blanche Brussels), Millions of Years (English National Opera), Dad Dancing with Second Hand Dance, Shadwell’s Tempest and Le Malade Imaginaire (Shakespeare’s Globe).

Reem Karssli is a Syrian film-maker and researcher now living in Berlin. Reem Karssli made her first film Everyday Everyday with independant film producers Hakawti. It is an intimate and honest portrayal of her family, as they become internally displaced in Damascus.

THE TEAM

Video design by Christina Hardinge

Sound design by Lewis Gibson

Produced by MAYK

Original sound by Keir Vine and Tom Parkinson

Original video by May Abdalla

 

This show is billed as part of Paint The Town Festival in conjunction with Battersea Arts Centre and The Collaborative Touring Network.