Photo Flash: Inside Rehearsal For POISONED POLLUTED at the Old Red Lion Theatre

Rehearsals are underway for Kathryn O'Reilly's bold new play Poisoned Polluted, which opens at The Old Red Lion Theatre this November (5th - 30th).

Kathryn (Call The Midwife, BBC; Skin in the Game, Old Red Lion, Birmingham Fest - Best Performer Award) will also take to the stage alongside Anna Doolan (Bluebird, The Space Theatre; Mighty Atoms, Hull Truck Theatre) to breathe life into her storytelling. The complexities of childhood trauma, drug addiction and shame are brought to the forefront in this daring production about sisterhood - taking the audience on a brutal journey as they face the devastating reality of the impact and strain of addiction within a family.

Poisoned Polluted tackles uncompromising social issues and shines a light on the direct correlation between addicts, abuse and the suffering which is carried within our bodies. Two sisters are desperately trying to endure the scars of their past. All they have is each other, but unfortunately the sisterly ties that bind them are also what constricts them.

Writer Kathryn O'Reilly comments, Poisoned Polluted began as a poem inspired by real life experiences. As a playwright I am constantly exploring what it is to be human, our interactions, transactions and coping mechanisms. I am fascinated with learning more about the nature of addiction, as we all have the capacity to become addicts. Drugs don't discriminate, but affect every walk of life, age, class, gender, culture. Why are some people's lives destroyed by it, and others are not? It's important to create female-led stories with new and varied characters for women, focusing on issues in society that affects us all and to raise awareness.

Photo credit: Robert Workman