Grit follows the story of Amy, an independent-minded teenager that she seeks to find out more about her late father, a man she barely knew. She explores his old office and searches through the images he had taken as a photojournalist in conflicts throughout the world. Amy hopes to catch glimpses of the man behind the lens and, in turn, learn more about the wars he experienced and the people he met.
Conflict
When we first began devising our visual puppetry show Grit, it started out simply as a ten minute piece exploring the theme of child soldiers. But as we researched we became more aware the different ways in which war can affect children throughout the world.
We began to expand the show as we realised just how many stories there were to tell. It led us to researching global conflicts and the stories of children in war from the last three decades.
Visuals
Tortoise in a Nutshell teamed with the charity War Child to develop the show and we were given access to a lot of incredibly personal and detailed stories. We were also given access to reports and surveys that made for terrifying reading.
But we never wanted to create a show about statistics. They can be shocking and powerful in their own right, but we wanted to really examine the emotions behind the figures that we came across.
All our work is really visual and we were instantly drawn to the images that we discovered. They were so impactful and captured the atmosphere of a conflict incredibly succinctly. We realised the importance of photojournalism in allowing us to see the horrors of conflict brutally and honestly. We realised they were the gatekeepers of these stories. They alerted us to the innocence of children in war.
We hope our show in some way pays tribute to the photojournalists and their families. We owe them.
Described by Total Theatre as “a truly striking and accomplished piece of visual theatre”, Grit is a event during Refugee Week Scotland and will be at the Tron Theatre from June 14-15. Find our more on our events page.
