‘In a Thousand Pieces’

Paper Birds Theatre Company

The Acorn Centre

22nd June 2009

at 7.30 p.m.

Tickets £8 / £6

The themes/issues contained in the show are more suitable for those aged 15 years and over. The show itself lasts for 1 hour – there is no interval.

After a total sell out and Fringe First award at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008, The Paper Birds present their critically acclaimed new show In a Thousand Pieces.

Ice-creams, suitcases, floorboards and buttons tell the physically and visually moving tale of a young Eastern European girl and her journey to England.

A beautifully woven patchwork of accounts, misunderstanding, movement, text and live original music; In a Thousand Pieces sees The Paper Birds returning to their all female roots to deliver this touching and delicate depiction of the violent, isolated and brutal world home to thousands of women forced into the British sex trade.

Stories, events, voices and settings are packed up and unpacked from battered and bruised suitcases by battered and bruised women ;whilst their stories fracture, reform, repeat and take on new shapes and forms like a distorted kaleidoscope looking for an answer for this epidemic of sex slavery.

The Paper Birds are an all female collective based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Since forming The Paper Birds in 2003 the company have co-written a television show for the BBC, completed national tours of the company’s commended ‘In a Month of Fallen Sundays’ (2004) ‘Accidentally Waiting to Happen’ (2006) , ‘40 Feathered Winks’ (2007) and performed at a number of festivals including The BBC’s Northern Exposure Festival, Bristol Old Vic’s Mayfest, Camden Peoples Theatre Sprint, The Edinburgh Festival and The Prague and Amsterdam Fringe Festivals.

In a Thousand Pieces was shortlisted for The Stage’s ‘Best Ensemble’, Total Theatre’s ‘Best Young Company’ and The Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award 2008. The Paper Birds will be touring both Nationally and

Internationally throughout 2009 beginning with a performance at The Sheffield Lyceum in February and finishing at The Ruhr Festival in Recklinghausen in June.

“The Paper Birds proves itself an accomplished company, capable of devising highly inventive and relevant work. Turning a political message into theatre of quiet beauty...absorbing, essential viewing. A must see.”

The Stage

“A sharp, compassionate, deeply felt show.”

The Scotsman ****

“This show is politically astute, ethically challenging and remarkably involving. You have a responsibility to go and see it.”

Fest ****

Photographs on this page: The Paper Birds