WILT Comes To Spielman Theatre This April
New Bristol theatre production company continues city’s creative trend
A newly formed and home-grown Bristol theatre company, will be hitting the stage this month with a piece of writing exploring the process of grief.
WILT, was written by Jazz Summer back in 2023. It’s a comedy drama based upon the five stages of grief. It was staged at a scratch night at the Alma Tavern Theatre as part of its development. It then went on to run at Tobacco Factory Theatres.
WILT is now returning to the south Bristol theatre, coming to the Spielman Theatre this April.
Writer Jazz is a recent graduate of Bristol School of Acting. She came together with other 2024 graduates Elizabeth Tattersall, Joe Northstone, Scout Worsley and India Erlam to form theatre production company Segments.
WILT follows Nadia and Elliott on their return home following the funeral of Nadia’s father. The young couple don’t know how to cope with the loss. Secrets and wrongdoings come to the fore as they go through the five stages of grief.
Jazz says that she wrote WILT after her own personal experience with loss.
She says: “With ‘Wilt’, I want to show how life changing loss is, and how it can change your relationship with yourself and all those surrounding you. From my experiences with death, you see a completely different side to those close to you and you gain this awareness of how fragile each moment with those important to you is. In ‘Wilt’ we show you this whirlwind of change and emotions in all its glory.
“Another thing I’ve noticed is just how drastic the difference is between peoples’ experiences and coping mechanisms. I believe that to hide any of those feelings or to gloss over the devastation of a loss is to show a complete lack of understanding and so we’ve worked hard to create a show that has moments of all emotions so that everyone can see something of their experience of loss within it.”
Jazz, who is also directing, says that the piece of theatre is an ‘ode’ to everyone who has been told grief ‘will all get better’ at a time it feels most ‘impossible’.
The Segments company graduated from Bristol School of Acting in 2024. The drama school is one of the country’s newest, having gone from strength to strength over the last few years, staging impressive productions.
It aims to prepare actors for a ‘sustainable’ career in the industry.
Bristol itself is a hotbed of theatrical activity and creativity, providing opportunities and connections for early career actors and creatives to get their work staged locally.
WILT will be at the Spielman Theatre, which forms part of Tobacco Factory Theatres on Raleigh Road.
It’s booking now, running from 24 – 26 April 2025
For more information or to book, visit: https://tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/wilt-2/
For more information about Segments, visit: https://linktr.ee/SegmentsCompany
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