PILOT Theatre, company in residence at York Theatre Royal, are taking temporary residence instead in the cells of York Castle Museum.

Working in association with York Museums Trust, Pilot will present associate director Katie Posner's premiere of Juliana Mensah's A Restless Place from tomorrow until Saturday, except Wednesday. Tickets will be limited to 30 per 6.30pm and 8pm performance each night and are expected to be "like gold dust".

Following in the footsteps of Pilot's co-productions of In Fog And Falling Snow at the National Railway Museum and Blood + Chocolate on the city streets, and the company's presentation of Clocking In at York Cocoa House, A Restless Place will provide another opportunity to experience a York site in an unexpected way.

This time, audience members will enter through the Castle Museum's locked doors into corridors and cells housing lost voices and found stories, tales of home and the search for belonging.

"Verbatim testimonies will blend with folk tales as you meet characters drawn from both reality and myth on their journeys into the unknown," says Katie, whose cast is drawn from professional, community and university ranks.

Writer Juliana Mensah works at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, where she is a research and teaching fellow. "Juliana is also a creative writer, who's written radio plays," says Katie. "We met for coffee, looked at her work and she's a fantastic writer; so we decided to gather verbatim stories of people who come to live in York: stories of coming here for reasons of work, love or something else."

The "something else" chimes with current times. "Given what's happening politically and socially, we wanted to tell stories of the world we live in, so it felt right that we should look at stories of refugees, both those who come to York and wider than that," says Katie, who goes on to explain the play's title.

"We look at the relationships people make with this city but how some never get to settle where they're living because there's no safe place for them, so migration continues."

Katie's production also forms part of Pilot's Boomerang project. "We're documenting poverty and hope and so it's important to tell stories that are real," she says.

The choice of the Castle Museum's cells was ideal for Juliana's play. "I realised they would suit a performance that would be experimental as well as a piece of theatre, as I want the audience to have a feeling of oppression, disruption and being uncomfortable, so a prison cell felt the perfect place," says Katie. "I really didn't want to do verbatim stories on a stage but in a 'real' place like these cells."

Sara Sadeghi leads the show in the role of story collector Anansi, joined by fellow professionals Lou Broadbent, Luke James and Lucas Smith, community players Mandy Newby, Mustafa Shareef and Matthew Evans and university performer Falmata Lawan.

Tickets can be booked on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

 

IMPORTANT AUDIENCE INFORMATION FROM YORK CASTLE MUSEUM
 
A Restless Place is a promenade production where you will be led around the cells at the museum dating back to the 18th century.

The floor surface in the cells is uneven, doorways low and there may be limited light at times. Please wear suitable footwear and clothing as you will be on your feet for quite a lot of the performance. However, there are also sections where there is limited seating available to watch the scenes, so for anyone with access requirements, please let one of the ushers know before the start of the show.
 
The performance includes high-volume sound and some flashing light. A Restless Place runs for approximately 50 minutes with no interval.
 
Please note that for the 6.30pm performance doors will open at 6.15pm; for the 8pm performance, doors will open at 7:45pm. 
 
Latecomers will not be admitted.