Going Through
By Estelle Savasta
Translated by Kirsten Hazel Smith
Themes: Hope, Female identity, Ancestral lineage & Language
Genre: Fantasy / Magic Realism
Key scenes: Part I / Scene 11; Part II / Scene 5; Monologue: Part III / Scene 12 (pp. 42-44)
Number of characters: 2 (2F)
Age recommendation: 14+ (might have trigger warnings for sensitive students)
Country: France
Original language: French, BSL
Description:
“It’s not always children’s stories that happen to children.”
In a poverty stricken land, Youmna, who is deaf and communicates non-verbally, is caring for Nour, until Nour is able to join her mother in Europe. One day, Nour has to make this perilous journey to the land of opportunity alone. She conjures the image of Youmna to help her through this journey’s terrible ordeals. By any means necessary, she manages to travel across borders accompanied by the sound of gunfire. As Nour navigates adolescence, she discovers the woman she wants to be as she remembers the women who have come before her.
Any production should be accessible to hearing and deaf audiences, combining verbal and non-verbal communication media.
Going Through is the English premiere of Estelle Savasta‘s critically acclaimed French play Traversée (2011) and is translated by Kirsten Hazel Smith.
+ DETAILS
Author: Estelle Savasta
English translation: Kirsten Hazel Smith
Original language: French, BSL
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2019
World Premiere (in the Engl. lang.): The Bush Theatre, London, 2019
Education Pack Resource Writer: Almiro Andrade
+ CHARACTERS
YOUMNA, adult, age not specified, deaf and communicates through sign language.
NOUR, early teens and then young adult, verbal.
+ PLAY TEXT BLURB
“It's not always children's stories that happen to children.”
When the men come to drive her away, Youmna cuts off Nour's hair. And so begins one girl's journey. By bus, by lorry, into the sound of gun-shots, through adolescence and across borders.
The UK premiere of Estelle Savasta's critically acclaimed French play Traversée, Going Through is a bold play about the realities of child migration, combining English, BSL and Creative Captioning.
Buy play text here
