Conundrum

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Anthony Ofoegbu (Actor and Crying-in-the-wilderness Company Director) with actress, Rachel Summers

Conundrum, possibly the last British production in a major European cultural event before the UK closes its EU chapter, displays tenacity, diversity and inventiveness that makes Rijeka the perfect home for this show.

Written and directed by Paul Anthony Morris, Artistic Director of Crying in the Wilderness Productions (CITWP), an associate company of the Young Vic, one of London’s foremost theatres, and co-produced for Croatia by Honey-tongued Theatre Productions, Conundrum, deals with the impact of migration and internal displacement on the human psyche.

Conundrum was written over various stages of development, for three actors and four musicians. In 2017 the play was tested successfully on audiences in a one off showcases at the Arcola theatre in London.

In 2018 Conundrum was scheduled for a production run at the Young Vic theatre in 2020. Three weeks before our production in 2020 the performance of Conundrum was postponed at the Young Vic theatre due to the pandemic that swept across Europe.

In July we began exploring alternative platforms through which we could resurrect our production for online audiences through the innovation of our genre, Theatrevision™, a hybrid of theatre and filmmaking. In August CITWP was commissioned from Certain Blacks, an arts development organisation formed to support the growth of diverse artists, to open the online festival Surveillance in London where this recording was made. It was supported by Arts Council England, the largest England funding body in the UK.

The screening is a thirty-minute version of a 70-minute production set to open in London when the theatres re-open. Originally, we were meant to perform the show in Rijeka straight after the London premiere. However, this digital version in Rijeka will be the first screening of the play before it opens in London.

From left to right: Paul Anthony Morris (Artistic Director of Crying-in-the-wilderness Theatre Productions), Anthony Ofoegbu (Actor and Crying-in-the-wilderness Company Director), Filip Krenus (Artistic Director of Honey-tongued Theatre and Co-Producer of Conundrum for the Rijeka EU Festival) and Daniel Roach-Williams (Stage-Manager on Conundrum).

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