All 1500 tickets for the November run of the play sold out in early August. But thanks to support from local sponsors it’s been announced that the show is to be performed again in March.
“We’ve been rather bowled over by demand” said author Chris Eldon Lee of Love Lee Productions. “This is the first community-based, local-interest play to be performed at Theatre Severn and we didn’t know what response we’d get. But the name ‘Silhouette’ is clearly held in great affection, even three decades after the company closed.”
“We increased the number of Shrewsbury performances and scheduled two previews in Market Drayton”, says Chris, “but tickets became a bit like gold dust. We were facing hundreds of disappointed people, until our sponsors came to the rescue.”
So now the show is to be revived for three nights only on March 1st, 2nd and 3rd next year and 700 new tickets have just gone on sale.
Nigel Hinton of the research group ‘Made in Shrewsbury’ says the re-run is being funded by local companies.
“The Arts Council supported our first run. And we’ve only been able to re-book Theatre Severn thanks to support from local businesses Wace Morgan, Marches Care, Darwin Direct and Andrews Orme & Hinton….all of whom have enabled us to keep ticket prices down.”
The show tells the story of Silhouette in the Sixties, as seen through the eyes of four shop floor machinist. The dialogue is drawn from interviews with sixty Silhouette workers and members of the Lobbenburg and Blumenau families who established the first factory during the war. The Shrewsbury Chronicle has also made its archives available to the project researchers.
“It’s the most exciting play I’ve worked on so far,” says Chris Eldon Lee, “because ‘Silhouette’ meant so much to so many Shrewsbury people. I understand a lot of local women are bringing their daughters along to show them what their working lives were like. I just hope we do them justice. And our research has turned up several very surprising stories.”
Tickets for “Silhouette” performances in March are available from Theatre Severn on 01743 281 281 www.theatresevern.co.uk
