HANNAH & HANNA IN DREAMLAND, A Story About Friendship, Migration And Karaoke, Opens Its Tour In Canterbury Next Month

This new play by award-winning writer/director John Retallack builds on the success of his 2001 piece Hannah & Hanna, which has been performed nationally and internationally.

It's summer 1999. Margate's beaches are packed with day-trippers - and its hotels filled with Kosovan asylum seekers - including Hanna (played by Celia Meiras), a survivor of Europe's 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 16 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.

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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 Hanna's arrival turned Hannah's 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 will be visiting seven towns around the south east: Canterbury, Folkestone, Gravesend, Woolwich, Margate, Poole and Portsmouth. Topics of friendship, migration and integration will be explored through workshops with school and community groups, and statements from participants on how migration has impacted on their lives will be incorporated into a short film which will be screened at the end of selected performances in each location.

It is at The Marlowe Studio from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 October (various performance times). Tickets, priced £13.75 (concessions available) are from marlowetheatre.com or 01227 787787.

Hannah And Hanna In Dreamland is a co-production between UK Arts International, The Marlowe, Canterbury, and the Lighthouse, Poole, and supported by Quarterhouse, Folkestone, Theatre Royal Margate, and Looping the Loop. Its development has been funded by Arts Council England, House and Thanet Council. The 2018 production is supported by Arts Council England and Kent County Council.