A remote valley. An unspeakable crime. A prominent architect is commissioned to design a memorial to the victims
On the eve of the presentation of the memorial to the public, a blind woman comes out of the rain and into the architect's studio. She is the mother of one of the victims and she demands to be heard.
Over the next hour the two women do battle over what it means to memorialise the dead, what it means to be a mother and what it means to believe. Like A Fishbone is both a psychological thriller and a haunting puzzle about faith, compassion and the danger of telling the truth.
Anthony Weigh's last play, 2,000 Feet Away, received its UK premiere at the Bush Theatre in June 2008.
Josie Rourke is Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre. Her previous directing credits for the Bush Theatre include If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet by Nick Payne and Apologia by Alexi Kaye Campbell. As a freelancer she has also directed productions for the Chicago Shakespeare Company, RSC, Royal Court and Donmar Warehouse.
Post-show Events:
POST SHOW EVENTS:
21st June – Response Plays
Our Resident Company nabokov presents Vs
Four fantastic playwright battle it out in two blistering duologues.
Each duologue is written by two writers. Each writer can only control on character. Anrinze Kene Mokwe and Suzanne Heathcote go head to head over faith vs. reason AND Luke Norris and Michael McClean go toe to toe over fundamentalism in liberal politics.
The stage is set but which side of the argument will you be on?
Join us for a night of combat in response to Like a Fishbone.
28th June – Post-show debate in response to Like a Fishbone
Monday 28th June – Exclusive Post-Show Event: 'Art of Rhetoric' with specialist Benet Brandreth
If we wish to persuade then what things do we need to consider? What do you do if the position you are arguing for runs up against the prejudices of your audience?
In response to Like a Fishbone, director of artofrhetoric.com Benet Brandreth will join the Bush's Artistic Director Josie Rourke to shed some light on the key principles of argument and persuasion. Don't miss this exclusive event with Britain's leading expert on the art of rhetoric.
Events will take place at the end of the show and run for 30-40 minutes. Open to all Like a Fishbone ticket holders. Subject to availability
Emma has been an Associate Artist of the Bush Theatre and her credits here include Three Birds, Where’s My Seat, Like A Fishbone, The Whiskey Taster, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, 2nd May 1997, Apologia, The Contingency Plan, Wrecks, Broken Space Season, 2000 Feet Away, My Romantic History and Tinderbox.
Theatre credits include Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Elizabeth (Royal Opera House), The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep), The Oresteia (Home Theatre, Manchester), Wuthering Heights, The Merchant Of Venice, Consensual (NYT), The Effect (Sheffield Theatres), Henry The Fifth (Unicorn Theatre, Imaginate Festival), All My Sons (Talawa Theatre, UK Tour), Hello/Goodbye, The Blackest Black, #aiww: The Arrest Of Ai Wei Wei, Lay Down Your Cross, Blue Heart Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre), Each His Own Wilderness, Widower’s House (Orange Tree Theatre), Accolade (St James Theatre), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Royal Exchange, Royal And Derngate And Northern Stage), Pitcairn (Out of Joint, Chichester Festival Theatre & UK Tour), Saints (Nuffield), The Colby Sisters Of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Tricycle Theatre), Pests (Clean Break, Royal Exchange & Royal Court), Carthage (Finborough Theatre, Coriolanus, Berenice, The Physicists, Making Noise Quietly, The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse), All My Sons, A Doll’s House, Three Birds, The Accrington Pals, Lady Windermere’s Fan (Royal Exchange), Much Ado About Nothing (Old Vic), Nut (National Theatre), OMG! (Sadlers Wells, The Place & Company Of Angels), There Are Mountains (Clean Break, HMP Askham Grange), The Promise (Donmar Warehouse at Trafalgar Studios), You Can Still Make A Killing (Southwark Playhouse), The Sacred Flame (English Touring Theatre), Black T-Shirt Collection (Fuel UK Tour and National Theatre), Invisible (Transport UK Tour & Luxemborg), Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndhams Theatre, West End), Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios), Charged (Clean Break, Soho Theatre), Men Should Weep (National Theatre), Travels With My Aunt (Northampton Theatre Royal), Sisters (Sheffield Theatres), Pornography (Birmingham Rep/Traverse and Tricycle Theatre), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (National Theatre), Europe (Dundee Rep, Barbican Pit).
Emma is the Associate Sound Designer for the National Theatre’s production of War Horse. She won the Falstaff Award for Best Sound Design/Original Score for her work on Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse in 2014.
Lighting designer
Josie is the Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre.
Josie trained with directors Peter Gill, Michael Grandage, Nicholas Hytner, Phyllida Lloyd and Sam Mendes. Before coming to the Bush she worked for five years as a freelance director and was the Associate Director of Sheffield Theatres and Trainee Associate Director at the Royal Court.
At the Royal Court she directed CRAZYBLACKMUTHFUCKIN'SELF by Deobia Oparei and LOYAL WOMEN by Gary Mitchell. At Sheffield, she directed WORLD MUSIC and THE UNTHINKABLE by Steve Waters; MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL by Willis Hall and KICK FOR TOUCH by Peter Gill. She was the tour director of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by Eve Ensler. At the Young Vic, she directed MY DAD'S A BIRDMAN by David Almond. For the Royal Shakespeare Company she directed BELIEVE WHAT YOU WILL and KING JOHN (RSC Complete Works). She has directed the 24HOUR PLAYS at The Old Vic Theatre and in New York. For the Donmar Warehouse Josie has directed FRAME 312 by Keith Reddin, WORLD MUSIC by Steve Waters and THE CRYPTOGRAM by David Mamet. For The Bush, Josie has directed HOW TO CURSE by Ian McHugh, TINDERBOX by Lucy Kirkwood, APOLOGIA by Alexi Kaye Campbell, 2,000 FEET AWAY and LIKE A FISHBONE by Anthony Weigh. Recent work outside the Bush includes TWELFTH NIGHT and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW for Chicago Shakespeare Company and MEN SHOULD WEEP at the National Theatre. Forthcoming work includes MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at the Wyndham’s Theatre.
Lucy has previously designed Wrecks, Broken Space Festival, 2,000 Feet Away, Tinderbox and The dYsFUnCKshOnalZ for the Bush Theatre (with whom she is a former Associate Artist).
Recent theatre credits include Twelfth Night for the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Dreams of Violence (Out of Joint); Shades for the Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival; Macbeth (Edinburgh Lyceum/Nottingham Playhouse); Nina and Gas Station Angel (repertoire, LAMDA); Timing (Kings Head) and When Romeo Met Juliet (BBC)
She designed Artefacts (Nabakov Theatre Company / Bush Theatre) and Some Kind of Bliss (Trafalgar Studios), both of which transferred to the 2008 ‘Brits off Broadway Festival’ in New York and other theatre credits include Be My Baby (New Vic Theatre); Rope (Watermill Theatre); Closer (Theatre Royal Northampton); The Long and the Short and The Tall (Sheffield Lyceum); The Prayer Room (Birmingham Rep/Edinburgh Festival); Ship of Fools (set, Theatre 503); The Tempest (set, Box Clever National Tour); The Unthinkable (Sheffield Crucible Studio); Almost Blue (Riverside Studios, winner of Oxford Samuel Beckett Trust Award); Dr Faustus (The Place); Touch Wood (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Breaker Morant (Edinburgh Festival); Richard III (Cambridge Arts); Flight Without End, Lysistrata, Othello (LAMDA); Generation (Gate Theatre) and Season of Migration to the North (RSC New Writing Season).
Lucy graduated from Motley Theatre Design School in 2003, having also gained a BA in Fine Art from the University of Newcastle.
Theatre for the Bush includes: Keyboard Skills, Commitments.
Other theatre includes; Separate Tables (Chichester Festival Theatre); Madame De Sade, John Gabriel Borkman, The Cut, The Vortex (Donmar Warehouse); The House of Bernarda, Alba, The Mandate, Mother Claps Molly House,The Winter's Tale, Once In A While (National Theatre); The Threesome, Cinderella And Her Sisters (Lyric, Hammersmith); Vincent River (59e59 Theater, New York); The School For Scandal, Merchant Of Venice, Twelfth Night, The New Inn, Three Sisters (RSC); The Crucible, Child's Play (Crucible, Sheffield); Tongue Of A Bird, Hedda Gabler (Almeida); The Overgrown Path, Tom And Viv (Royal Court); Top Girls (Royal Court/New York); Artists And Admirers (Riverside Studios); As You Like It, King Lear (Oxford Stage Company); Macbeth (Nuffield, Southampton); Stanley (National Theatre / Circle In The Sq. NY); The Seagull (Thelma Holt/Tour); The New Menosa (The Gate Theatre); The Clandestine Marriage (Thelma Holt/ West End); The House of Bernada Alba (West End); The Beaux Stratagem (Tour/Richmond).
Television includes: Poirot, Silent Witness, Torchwood, Gunrush, Lewis, Cranford, Thin Ice, The Family Man, Foyle's War, State Of Play, Saving Grace, Anna Karenina, Midsomer Murders, Wives And Daughters, Heat Of The Sun, Kavanagh QC, Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes, Maigret, Natural Lies, Anglo Saxon Attitudes, House Of Bernarda Alba, Top Girls, First And Last, What If It's Raining.
Film includes: Summer, Vanity Fair, Me Without You, The End Of The Affair, Jack And Sarah, Truly Madly Deeply.
Theatre includes: The Line (Arcola); Ghosts (The Gate
Theatre).
Television includes: Wallander (Series 1 & 2), Identity,
Casualty 1909, Miss Marple, Poirot, City Of Vice,
Billy Goats Gruff, Whistleblowers, Yellow House, Five
Days, Funland, Murder Prevention, Jane Hall, Love
Again, Sparkhouse, At Home With The Braithwaites
(4 series), Safe House, Sweet Revenge, Dalziel and
Pascoe, The Bill, Soldier, Bliss (1& 2 Series), The
Locksmith, A Touch Of Frost, Chase The Fade, Woof.
TV Film includes: David Copperfield, Wuthering Heights, Deadly Summer, Ball Trap On The Cote Sauvage.
Radio includes: Blood Wedding, Safety Catch, Martha's Metamorphosis, Madame Bovary, Strike, Miscreant Mothers, The Living And The Dead, The Provoked Wife, Another Big Day, The Beehive, Shubbery, Skullduggery.
Theatre for the Bush includes: 2nd May 1997.
Other theatre includes: Rope (Almedia and Sonia
Friedman); Roaring Trade (Soho Theatre); Twelfth
Night (Sprite Productions); Crazy Love (Paines
Plough); Is Everyone OK? (Latitude Festival).
Television includes: Doctors.
Film includes: The Reward.
Phoebe is the Co-Artistic Director of DryWrite.
