FIBRES, a new production by award-winning playwright Frances Poet, comes to Cove Burgh Hall this weekend.
The show, which explores the legacy of asbestos in the Clyde shipyards and details the experiences of women with asbestosis, will reach peninsula audiences on Saturday, October 19 at the start of a Scottish tour.
Starring Jonathan Watson, of Only An Excuse and Two Doors Down fame, alongside Maureen Carr, who played ‘ugly sister’ Edith in Still Game and also appeared in River City, the play binds together four interconnected stories in a funny and touching tribute to families and individuals affected by the asbestos crisis during the height of production in the twentieth century.
Fibres is a co-production with Scottish theatre company Stellar Quines and Citizens Theatre and will be directed by Jemima Levick.
Explaining her inspiration, playwright Frances said: “Five years ago, I met a woman at my daughter’s music class who told me that she had lost her parents six months apart.
"Her father had been a ship’s draughtsman and had served a three-day apprenticeship on the ships.
"His exposure to the asbestos in those three days was enough to end not just his life prematurely but also that of his wife who washed his overalls.
“I knew about asbestos, as something dangerous from the past.
"I didn’t know that deaths from asbestos related diseases were still growing each year, or that the west coast of Scotland had, at that moment, the highest incidence in Europe, or that some of the people dying were wives and weans who were exposed through their loved ones’ clothing.
"It broke my heart enough to write a play about it. But because it’s a Glasgow story, I found my characters making me laugh, even in the face of tragedy.
“Their resilience was irresistible. And suddenly the play I was writing wasn’t a tragedy but a love story with as many laughs as tears.
“I’m so glad Stellar Quines and the Citizens Theatre are taking the play to audiences across Scotland.
"I suspect our story will be met with many more stories shared after the show. I want to hear them all.”
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