It was Spain. 1492. But it couldn’t happen here, or now - could it?
Imaginative company The Telling tour to Glasgow on 9 May 2025 with Into the Melting Pot, a play about Jewish, Christian & Muslim women in Spain in 1492 by award-winning writer Clare Norburn & BAFTA-nominated director Nicholas Renton with lively medieval & Jewish music
BAFTA-nominated Nicholas Renton directs Into the Melting Pot which stars leading actor of the stage and screen Suzanne Ahmet (Generation Z (Channel 4), Ludwig (BBC), Marvellous (@sohoplace)) and critically acclaimed music and theatre company The Telling. The half concert/half play where music and theatre collide tells the story of a Jewish woman caught up in the conflict of 1492 and channels the stories of women of other faiths. It will tour to Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow on 9 May 2025, as part of a UK tour.
Into the Melting Pot is by award-winning writer and The Telling’s Artistic Director, Clare Norburn. Another one of Norburn’s concertplays, Vision, about the extraordinary medieval Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, received critical praise.
Clare says, “Into the Melting Pot may be set in the past, but it’s extraordinarily relevant to contemporary issues right now. Somehow by looking through the camera of the past, I hope we might be able to see the present more clearly. The story of a Jewish woman forced to leave her home in 1492 is startlingly contemporary; it is has echoes in issues people face right now: the rise of Anti-Semitism, how members of the Windrush generation have been treated and refugees fleeing Ukraine, Afghanistan and Gaza. My character Blanca cries: “This is our home! My family, my roots in Seville go back hundreds of years. Just where do they think they are sending us back to….?””
Into the Melting Pot follows Blanca (played by Suzanne Ahmet), a Jewish woman facing expulsion from Spain and setting sail for an uncertain future as ordered by the Spanish Catholic Monarchs in 1492. At twilight on her final night in Seville, Blanca tunes into the voices of a community of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women from across the Spanish peninsula. Her story echoes down the ages to the personal stories of people of all faiths affected by politics and war today. Down the centuries, women’s stories of integration, love, the rich cultural heritage of the Spanish peninsula and racial intolerance are played out to a soundtrack of plaintive Sephardic Jewish songs and lively medieval music, with full staging and stunning lighting.
The Telling are taking the concertplay to Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow on 9 May 2025 as part of a UK tour. Tickets for the Glasgow performance are available to book via https://www.thetelling.co.uk/events/itmp-glasgow
Tickets for all the performances are available to book online via https://www.thetelling.co.uk/diary