We had a wonderful time performing THE MISTAKE twice at Greenbelt Festival this weekend – in a big-top tent! About 400 people crammed in on each day, spilling outside as well…and despite some of the tent sides being left open to help cool everyone down, and despite noise coming in from music tents and from kids playing and shouting, the audience was so concentrated – pin-drop attention they gave us. Huge thanks to all who came and sat on the ground or propped themselves up on small portable seats or just stood at the back … and huge thanks to everyone at Greenbelt Festival who makes this unique annual event possible. I managed to speak to a few people afterwards and one older Japanese woman said – ‘It was so moving to see 400 British people sitting down to watch this story about Hiroshima.’ That comment really makes all the effort worthwhile…this is why we do it…

And now, two weeks today, it’s next stop Japan!! Tokyo – Saturday Sept. 13th to Sunday Sept. 21st.  (Not September 16th or 18th)   https://ayamachi.peatix.com/

(Photos of Riko Nakazono onstage, practising before the show – and of some of our audience on Saturday night…)

So, it’s actually happening – we are going to Japan…with THE MISTAKE…in September.  Performing a bilingual version – with surtitles.  For about 12 performances, in Tokyo, Tottori and with one in Hiroshima itself.  That’s going to be quite a powerful and emotional experience, I’m predicting.  It’s not been at all easy getting venues and performances set up in Japan.  In the UK I know all about the touring circuit, in the US I had a number of contacts from my previous visit there, but for Japan I was pretty much starting from scratch.  And of course for this 80^th anniversary year there were many events already being organised there – especially in Hiroshima itself.  But we have a tour in place now and we’ll be there for almost a month.  However, guess what? – we also need a little bit more money to get us over the line, so I have set up one more Crowdfunding page.  If you could share it with anyone you think would be interested in contributing, I’d be so grateful.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/taking-my-play-the-mistake-to-japan-in-september

I’m sincerely hoping that this will be the last appeal I need to make for the foreseeable future!  Thank you, as ever…

(Photo of Riko Nakazono by Simon Richardson – image by Jerry Williams)

(Photo of Riko Nakazono by Simon Richardson)

There will be one last opportunity – well, one last week of opportunities – to see THE MISTAKE in London from October 14th to October 18th at the Arcola Theatre, Dalston. The play will then be put to bed – for who knows how long.  Emiko Ishii performed with me in London in 2023, but now Riko Nakazono has taken over the role of Shigeko, in my play about Hiroshima and the first atomic bomb.  Riko has committed herself to the project in this 80th anniversary year of the atomic bombings and has already been to the USA with me earlier this year, and travels to Japan with me in September to give some bilingual performances of the play.  (More about that soon…)  We then return from Japan to the Arcola to perform the play wholly in English again.  Riko gives a remarkable performance, powerful, moving, utterly captivating.  Do come and see the play – and/or please tell friends, colleagues, strangers – this could be their last chance.  Thank you! http://www.arcolatheatre.com

So it’s actually happening – and I can reveal where it’s actually happening…we are honoured to have been invited to perform THE MISTAKE in New York City at 59E59 Theaters as part of their annual Brits off Broadway season…we’ll be there from April 24^th to May 11^th (not Mondays), with post-show talkbacks after each Friday show.  I’d be so grateful if friends could spread the word, particularly to anyone you know Stateside. 

Here’s the link to our showpage…  https://www.59e59.org/shows/show-detail/the-mistake/ (photos by Simon Richardson)

We’ll arrive in New York City after half a dozen performances in other towns and in two universities. What a time to be in the States with this play – a play about the suffering caused to innocent lives by the devastation of war, about the dangers nuclear weapons pose to the world… 

In these ever more fragile times I cling to any rays of hope that I find.  Leo Szilard in THE MISTAKE has as his mantra, ‘the narrow margin of hope’ we must all maintain and believe in, and I think of Leonard Cohen’s ‘there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in…’  

It’s 80 years since American atomic bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities.  As I write this, a new US President will be taking their seat in the White House.  And in early April we will be bringing my play THE MISTAKE, about the terrifying dangers of nuclear weapons, to the USA.  

We will be touring there for six weeks from the start of April, and it’s an expensive undertaking, though in order to help the tour proceed, I have chosen once again to be unpaid myself.

Potential sympathetic funding bodies in the UK won’t fund a project that goes abroad and I hesitated to reach out to friends and supporters one more time, but I’m going to do so – and ask if you can help us get the play to the USA, to share the urgent themes and message of the play with a wider, American, audience?  Join us in our efforts to enlighten, to illuminate, to change hearts and minds, through the emotional power of theatrical storytelling?   

Any donation however small will make a difference. Or even just sharing the appeal with anyone you think might be able to help.  Here’s the Crowdfunding link for donations which gives a lot more information.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/taking-the-mistake-to-the-usa

With many thanks to everyone for taking the time to consider this.  

(Photos by Simon Richardson and poster design by Jerry Williams.)

‘The whole way I am oppressed by the thought that all the damage I see was done in one instant by one bomb.’  Father Wilhelm in THE PRIEST’S TALE. 

I’m giving two more performances of this piece in early November.  Based on an account in John Hersey’s brilliant book ‘Hiroshima’, it’s the compelling story of a German priest who survived the first atomic bomb. 

On Sunday November 3^rd, 1.30pm at Hammersmith Quaker Meeting House, London, W6 0DT, nearest tube – Ravenscourt Park.  The Priest’s Tale – a story for our times | Hammersmith Quaker Meeting (hammersmithquakers.org.uk)

And on Thursday 7th November, 7pm, at Edinburgh Quaker Meeting House, EH1 2JL.  quakerscotland.org

Photograph by Simon Richardson.