Borrowing its title from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, this highly celebrated work from one of the UK’s foremost contemporary theatre companies, Greyscale, explores a moment of realisation universal to all; a child’s eventual recognition of their parents as a fellow human being.

The show, performed by an all-male cast, presents a lifetime of conversations all condensed into an hour of subtle and intimate performance, observed live by a real life mother and daughter from theatre’s local community.

Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone features Scott Turnbull and Sean Campion (Mr Selfridge, ITV) and plays out the story of a 30-something daughter visiting her ageing mother, depicting the most simple of conversations from baths, to tea, boyfriends and the weather. Using repetition with subtle developments and changes, the piece produces a dynamic analysis of a lifetime of interactions between the two, gently pulling apart an ever-evolving relationship with a distinctly inevitable end.

Director Selma Dimitrijevic takes the helm and it seems that she knew as soon as the opportunity to develop a new project arose that she wanted to do her own version of Gods.  “I also knew that Scott and Sean, would be perfect for it” she says, “and the fact that they weren’t the “right” gender didn’t make any difference. Making of the show turned out to be the defining point for the company. It was at the same time the easiest and the most difficult thing we did as a team. We stripped it down to basics, two actors, two guests and the audience; so there is nowhere to hide. Every time we do it, we basically say: “here, this is who we are, this is what we feel”, and our fantastic audiences seem to be ready to do the same.’

Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone is presented by Greyscale, the newcastle based international theatre company formed by a group of established directors, writers, actors and designers to explore the thringes and gaps of the theatrical process.

Gods Are Fallen And All Safety Gone will be performed in The Studio at The Royal Exchange Theatre on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 June 2015 at 7.30pm (running time 55 minutes).  Tickets £12/£10.


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Royal Exchange Theatre.  image credit University of Salford Press Office/flickr under creative commons licence.