“Profoundly honest and at the same time joyfully entertaining” Independent on Sunday

At the centre of Martin Figura’s Whistle is the mother’s death at the hands of his father when he was nine years old. The work goes beyond this shocking central event to present us with a tender, beautiful, funny and moving coming-of-age story. Figura uses gentle humour and insight to give the reader and audience a profound and uplifting experience.

The Book

Whistle was published by Arrowhead Press in 2010. The poem Victor was awarded the Poetry Society’s 2010 Hamish Canham Prize and the collection has received a clutch of rave reviews.

The Show

Produced by Sarah Ellis of Apples and Snakes and performed at North Devon, Ledbury and Freeword Flow Festivals in 2010. An extract was performed for the Norfolk Conference for Looked after Children. You can read some of the responses to those performances here and view excerpts here. It has now received major Arts Council funding and Martin is currently working on the show with Francesca Beard and Director James Grieve.

The uses family image, archive and original materials in beautiful and imaginative visuals created by Visual Creator Andre Barreau and Animator and Technical Designer Karen Hall.

The show will be at home, and is adaptable to, both small intimate venues and larger theatres with minimal technical support. Technical information can be sourced from here along with downloadable show proposals (full and summary versions).

The full version is 60 minutes in length, and can presented with a mid-point interval if required. Shorter versions to a minimum of 20 minutes can be devised to fit programme requirements and specialist audiences. It sensitively covers issues of loss, abandonment, history, mental health, exile, family and grief that make it accessible and adaptable to a range of specialist issue audiences.