Interview with Olivia Millar-Ross – SILENCE UK Tour

Associate Director Olivia Millar-Ross joins us to give a full low-down on what the rehearsal process has been like for SILENCE and the importance of this play for audiences coming to see it on tour.

How have rehearsals been going?

Rehearsals for Silence have been going really well. You can feel the passion the cast and creative team have for this play through how it’s being pieced together. There is so much thought going into each element, and it’s been really exciting to watch the play come together as we inch closer to previews.

What kind of discoveries have the team been making in the room?

Silence was adapted by four brilliant writers from journalist Kavita Puri’s book; Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, and there are so many questions to dive into about the stories of the characters in the play. It is a complicated history over hundreds of years, and questions about partition and the lives of the people who lived through it continued to arise throughout rehearsals, and even now into tech, which I think is really important. If you aren’t asking questions, you aren’t making discoveries.

The atmosphere feels collaborative, so it’s a great space to explore the material in. Kavita came to rehearsals last week, and having her in the room to watch a run-through, talk to us about her experience recording these testimonies, and to answer any questions the cast had felt like a real privilege.

What design elements are you excited to see incorporated into the process?

In terms of design elements, I have really enjoyed seeing projection incorporated into the play. It plays a big part in the design of the show, and it has been amazing to witness it meld with the text. The projection is both realistic (using actual photos from the time, and from the character’s lives), and more abstract.

What’s been the biggest challenge so far? And how have you overcome it?

The biggest challenge has probably been not having our set in the rehearsal space. Seeing it full scale in real life on our first day at Queens Theatre, Hornchurch was great. We did have a small model of the set in the rehearsal room, which was useful to visualise transitions, but of course it’s not the same. Tara Theatre and our stage management team have been incredible though, they’ve really supported the actors in providing what they can.

What do you want audiences to look out for when watching SILENCE?

So much love and care is going into the play. It’s no secret that the subject matter is at times very heavy, and it’s important to learn that history and sit with that weight. It’s also important to hear the stories of the kindness of strangers during terrible times, because those stories are in there too. There are different generational voices represented in this version of the play, and I would want audiences to look out for that. You hear the hunger of the younger generation to learn more about themselves through learning their history, because of course this is a history that we aren’t taught in school. You can sense the beginnings of intergenerational trauma being healed through their discoveries, and the open conversations they are having. It’s inspiring, hearing how empowered they are.