The Mistake - UK tour
A New Play - 2023
1942. On an abandoned squash court, a dazzling scientific experiment takes place that three years later will destroy a city and change the world forever. Two actors, one British, one Japanese, explore the events surrounding the catastrophic ‘mistake’ that launched our nuclear age.
Interweaving the stories of a young woman in war-time Hiroshima, a brilliant Hungarian scientist, and the American pilot who flew the plane that dropped the bomb, THE MISTAKE is a powerful drama that confronts the dangers that arise when humans dare to unlock the awesome power of nature.
Director: ROSAMUNDE HUTT
Writer & Producer: MICHAEL MEARS
Set Designer: MARK FRIEND
Sound Designer: CLAIRE WINDSOR
Lighting Designer: RICHARD WILLIAMSON
Stage Manager: KELLY BOUDREAU
Voice Coach: KATE GODFREY
Poster Designer: JERRY WILLIAMS
Cast:
RIKO NAKAZONO
MICHAEL MEARS
Reviews
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"Riko Nakazono is perfect in the part of the young woman, Shigeko, an imagined character drawn from the accounts and diaries of Japanese ‘hibakusha’ (the term used when referring to atomic bomb survivors)… The visceral horror and rage of her experiences are movingly portrayed, not just by her silent scream on the discovery of her mother’s body, but also in her initial inability to recognise that the ‘shadows’ following the survivors were in fact their peeling skins being dragged behind them as they staggered to safety."
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"Japanese actor Riko Nakazono, brings warmth and innocence to Nomura Shigeko, a resident in Hiroshima… One of the most striking moments in the play comes with Nakazono’s silent scream. It’s captured like the work of Nick Ut, almost like an eerie black and white photograph of wartime horror. We don’t hear the scream. But we do feel it."
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"...the acting of these two people is superb – the instant changes in their emotions and voices is perfection,..."
