Caroline Williams and Reem Karssli's Now Is the Time To Say Nothing to tour in 2019
One of the stand-out shows at Mayfest 2018, Now is the Time to Say Nothing, is to tour the UK in 2019. Bristol-based artist Caroline Williams and Syrian film-maker Reem Karssli’s performance installation will tour to towns and cities across England in collaboration with Battersea Arts Centre’s Collaborative Touring Network.
“It’s just over three hours since I’ve seen it, and I’d be surprised if in 3 years I’ve fully understood what it’s done to me.”
Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an interactive video installation exploring the role of screens in observing global conflict. Using stunning video and immersive sound, it follows the real story of Syrian artist Reem Karssli as she captures her daily experience of the Syrian conflict on camera. We see what emerges when she is contacted by a group of teenagers from the UK who want to see beyond the footage they've watched on their TVs.
Together they co-author an experience which attempts to connect a UK audience to the human story behind the news. Created over four years, following Reem into an exile which forces her to leave her camera behind, Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an intimate exploration of what it means to stay connected to each other and of what happens when war and the need for survival gets in the way.
A collaboration between Syrian film-maker Reem Karssli, a group of young Londoners, and artist Caroline Williams. Video design by May Abdalla and Christina Hardinge. Sound design by Keir Vine and Tom Parkinson. Originally produced by Young Vic’s Taking Part.
Caroline Williams is an award-winning artist working in multi-disciplinary participatory performance. Caroline was recently commissioned by MAYK to create Can You Hear Me Now with young theatre makers in Bristol, Kigali and Kampala. Reem Karssli is a Syrian filmmaker and researcher now living in Berlin. Taking Part is Young Vic's strand of participatory work engaging with young people and the theatre's local communities.
We’ll announce dates soon, but if you’d like to be the first to know, sign up to our mailing list at the bottom of this page.
“If the essence of theatre is an invitation to imagine that we are someone else and for a moment to see the world through their eyes, then this is truly theatre at its most essential.”