Photo Flash: Inside Rehearsal for PIECES OF STRING at Mercury Theatre Colchester

Mercury Theatre Colchester and TBO Productions present the world première of their brand-new musical - Pieces of String, with book, music and lyrics by Gus Gowland. Ryan McBryde directs Carol Starks (Jane), Andy Coxon (Ed), Marilyn Cutts (Rose), Ella Dunlop (Gemma), Lauren Hall (Anna), Joel Harper-Jackson (Tom), Craig Mather (Edward) and Gary Wood (Harry). Open auditions were held in Colchester to cast Young Rose, and the part will be alternated by three young people local to the theatre. Pieces of String, designed by 2017 Linbury Prize Finalist Fin Redshaw, opens on 27 April at the Mercury, with previews from 20 April and runs until 5 May.

When Jane returns from her father's funeral to start clearing the house she grew up in - packing away the family photographs, closing a chapter - she isn't prepared for the untold story she's about to discover threaded through her past, a story that threatens to unravel her relationship with her own children and shake her understanding of who she is.

A new musical set simultaneously in the 1940s and in the present day, Pieces Of String tells how Jane's father, Edward, came back from the Second World War with a secret that would change his life forever - a secret that he would carry until the day he died.

With hauntingly beautiful music and a heart-rending human story, Pieces Of String is a tender, funny, emotionally-charged exploration of how three generations of one family learn to deal with a story that nobody's been brave enough to tell until today. Times may have changed but some battles still need to be fought.

Tickets are £12 - £27 from www.mercurytheatre.co.uk.

Photo Credit: Robert Workman