Cis and Barbiche by Jenny Davis
70 years ago in 1944 in Liverpool, young Barbara Rigby, aged 19, fell in love with a young airman, Francis Usai , who was fighting in WWII in a squadron allied to the RAF and training to be a gunner on Halifax Bombers. “Cis”, as he was called by his family, wrote dozens of letters to his “Barbiche”, wonderful letters – lively, passionate, funny, and poetic. Barbara, meanwhile, kept an informative daily diary of her life in wartime England.
Barbara has lived in Perth for 50 years and kept the letters and diaries from the time when, as she says, the world was for her “brightly coloured”. In 1944, one of the letters Barbara received from Francis contained these words, “In seventy years time they will talk about Barbiche, who saw her country invaded by all those odd strangers who stole girls’ hearts.”
Seventy years later we are doing just that.
Directed by Jenny Davis
Starring: Jo Morris, Mark Desebrock and Alinta Carroll with music by Nikki Dagostino
By popular demand CIS AND BARBICHE will be performing again in Perth before travelling to the UK!
Book now for Sat April 26th 2014 at the State Library Theatre Perth at 10.30am
Tickets $30 full and $25 conc
Bookings online: admin@agelink.com.au Telephone bookings: 9384 8158
TESTIMONIALS:
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this uplifting experience. Cis and Barbiche will remain in our minds and hearts, not only as joyous and sometimes conflicted people, but also as a voice of their generation and the turmoils and turbulence they confronted on a daily basis.
I cannot tell you how much we enjoyed today.
Nostalgia, remembrances, humour, hope, despair, were all part of that beautiful play, but what shone through was the sense of the power of the human spirit. Emotionally…I was wrecked, but completely uplifted at the same time. Entranced by the power and professionalism of the actors, awed by Jenny’s vision and skills – a consummate and very important production.
I don’t need to wish you ‘good or whatever it is in York’ – you will smash it.
You are a stunning and very important group of people.
Carolyn Grainger
Just wanted to express our sincere thanks for the opportunity to see this fabulous play.
The storyline is wonder. Getting it to this point is amazing. The delivery of the play by your actors was first class.
How could you not love Cis, understand Babara and not be touched by the whole event.
Thank you again and I do hope that you received assistance to take this play to the greater community of Perth, this needs to be shared.
Loved it.
Susan and Joan Della Franca
I want to say how much we enjoyed the play yesterday. The acting, presentation,music all superb. Thank you so much for presenting it.
Laura Raiter
My wife and I are indebted to you and the cast for such an amazing performance . Good luck with further performances and future productions.
Terry Harvey
I absolutely adored this, had a smile on my face and a tear in my eye the whole time. There was not a dull moment.
Thank you so much for telling us about it – I am spreading the word . . .
Sue Dry
Agelink Theatre is holding a fundraising campaign to assist with costs of the production and we would like to gratefully acknowledge the following people for their generous donations:
Gareth Bradshaw
Talei Howell-Price
Irene Jarzabek
Alex Desebrock
Nick Maclaine
Fiona de Garis
Renee Hale
Rebecca Davis and Stuart Halusz
Big Sky Entertainment
John Harper-Nelson
Barbra Harper-Nelson
Anne O’Neill
Benj D’Addario
Nella Glover
Susan Dry
John H Lewington
Mark Desebrock
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