Then Silence Production

★★★★
“A production that's impossible to shake off afterwards… the image burned into your retina takes one hell of a long time to shift.” - The Guardian (on Arne Lygre’s Nothing of Me, Stockholm Stadsteater, April 2014)

“Arne Lygre has stepped into the elite of Norwegian authors. Then Silence firmly confirms his position” - Klassekampen

'Kay Michael has created a non-stop, thrilling physical version of this frightening, intelligent play.' - Andrew Haydon (Postcards from the Gods)

Ibsen Award Winner Arne Lygre’s Then Silence will be presented as a workshop production before making its official UK premiere in 2015.

Critically acclaimed and hailed by many in Europe to be the new Jon Fosse, Kay Michael’s production of Then Silence will mark the first presentation of Lygre’s work in the English language. A play that offers a devastating lens into the human condition.

Then Silence, written in 2009, is a striking and brave three-hander that swings from innocent play to extreme violence, asking us what we would do in order to survive.

With flecks of Beckett and Pinter running through his work, and compared to Fosse in the lyrical precision of his language, Lygre’s dialogue takes us from one dilemma to another with ease and pace. Three boys try to define themselves and the world around them in an endless game, and in the process realise their greatest and at times darkest possibilities.


"It’s a game. A serious game, but a game nevertheless"


Directed by Kay Michael, recent assistant director with Paines Plough, this is her first collaboration with Romanian-born designer Denisa Dumitrescu. Together they are interested in making new international work that is not confined to convention or auditorium, and that can travel across geographical borders.

Then Silence previewed at the Platform Theatre Studio in May 2014, and will be taken on a small scale UK and European tour in 2015.