Mouthpiece

15th May 2018
Aldeburgh 2018
Readings

Traverse Theatre Company in association with HighTide present

Mouthpiece by Kieran Hurley

“Cause it’s all very well wanting to be a voice for the voiceless eh. Until you find oot the voiceless have a fucking voice and mibbe they might want tay use it.”

Salisbury Crags. Twilight. A woman takes a step forward into the air. A teenage boy pulls her back. Two lives are changed forever.

Libby whiles away her days in New Town cafes and still calls herself a writer – but she’s not put pen to page for years. Declan is a talented young artist struggling with a volatile home life in Pilton. As they form an uneasy friendship, complicated by class and culture, Libby spots an opportunity to put herself back on track, and really make a difference.

She needs Declan’s story. In all its messy, painful detail.

But does she have the right to it?

When does poverty portrayal become poverty porn?

Often startling, sometimes shocking and threaded with unexpected humour, Mouthpiece takes a frank and unflinching look at the different Edinburghs which often exist in ignorance of one another, and examines whether it’s possible to tell someone else’s story without exploiting them along the way.

Written by Fringe First winner Kieran Hurley and directed by the Traverse’s award-winning Artistic Director Orla O’Loughlin.

Age recommendation: 16+

  

Image by Stewart Armstrong

‘A writer at the top of his game.’
The National
"Mouthpiece is heart-in-mouth moving, grimly exhilarating"
Time Out
'Both actors are excellent – McIntosh empathetic and exploitative, Macdonald defensive and wise – in a play that needles and twists.'
Guardian
‘Wrestles fiercely and brilliantly with the dilemmas faced by serious artists in a bitterly divided society.’
The Scotsman
"Kieran Hurley makes theatre like a magic trick – spellbinding, full of misdirection, and blindsiding audiences with his final reveal."
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