Newcastle welcomes award winning performing arts company to Northern Stage with new play Kin

Newcastle's Northern Stage theatre is welcoming a new play this week - from performing arts group Gecko- telling stories of migration, racism and the meaning of Home

Author: Ellie KumarPublished 2nd Mar 2023

Newcastle's Northern Stage theatre is welcoming a new play this week - from performing arts group Gecko- telling stories of migration, racism and the meaning of Home.

Kin tells the story of Leah, who travelled from Yemen to Palestine to escape persecution in 1932. Ninety years later her own grandson is re-imagining her journey.

That grandson is Amit Lahav, Artistic Director of Gecko, who tells us;

“Every production that I create starts with a personal reflection combined with a current wider societal issue.

"In 2017, I visited my grandmother in Israel where we talked about her journey from Yemen to Palestine to escape persecution, as well as my family’s history more broadly.

"Kin was ultimately inspired by the desire to delve deeper into the complex mix of migration stories that make up who I am.

"Migration is a facet of human existence – we all have migration stories whether we’re aware of them or whether they’re more distant, and that excites me because we have the potential to encourage a profoundly positive, celebratory voyage towards empathy.

"We exist both where we’ve come from and where we’re going; this is what I wanted to explore through the creation of Kin.”

Gecko is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed physical theatre company, led by Artistic Director Amit Lahav. Founded in 2001, the company has created 7 critically acclaimed shows, 2 Associate Shows and 2 films.

Kin is Gecko’s latest production, which is commissioned by the National Theatre and explores themes of migration, racism, empathy, and home.

It runs at Northern Stage until Saturday 4th March, with a BSL interpreted show this evening, Thursday 2nd March.

You can find out more about Gecko online, and on social media, and more about Northern Stage and how to get tickets via their website.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.