NASDA presents: Mad Forest
Written by Caryl Churchill and performed by NASDA's talented second year students, Mad Forest centres around the 1989 revolution in communist Romania.
Mad Forest is the name of a wood near Bucharest. With its oddly twisted trees and near-impenetrability, it provides a fitting title for this tangled play. Written in the aftermath of the revolution, Mad Forest explores the corrosive effect of leading a double life. In the vacuum that follows a revolution, it shows how hopes can be dashed and ideals compromised, yet it is fresh and vivid.
Central to the play are two families from different backgrounds, linked by a love affair. In a series of brief scenes, we see snippets of life under Ceausescu, from whispered conversations to an abortion negotiated in a scene in which almost every word uttered is an untruth. Not surprisingly, this is a play in which silence speaks volumes.