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'Either this place belongs to everyone. Or no-one', says Leyla. Nineteen, big mouth, long black hair, dark eyes, dark skin, gorgeous.

They dive soundlessly into the darkness, they dive together side by side into a world without language without a past or a future, without Rembrandt and without Barbarossa, without night watchmen and without fences, without backgrounds, bank accounts, their fathers’ professions, education, satellite dishes, Jesus and Mohammed; into a world without lawyers, grasping landlords, snack bars, wholesale bakeries, empires of butcher’s shops and without school grades. They dive into a world where nothing matters but the air in your lungs,, where nothing matters but the time you have left to catch your breath, until they have to go back to the other end of the pool, back into the world of words and the air, back into the world of the past and the future.

Gangs of New York meets a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Twenty years later, Frank meets Leyla and two groups of 40-somethings ask 'What happened that night?'

Black Water tells the story of two groups of very different young people. One is a group of the children of Turkish migrant workers, the other a group of young middle class Germans. They live in different parts of the city; from different backgrounds; young people with vastly different expectations of what adult life will bring. Their paths have never crossed. But one warm summer night, they all climb the fence of a forbidden swimming pool. An initial hostility melts into the sensory pleasures of the night. They enjoy the feel of the water, the sight of the stars, the warmth of the night and the unaccustomed intimacy with strangers. Friendships and love affairs are made in a single night.

Roland Schimmelpfennig’s play, originally for the German stage, interweaves the stories of Frank, Leyla, Cynthia, Freddie, Murat, Mehmet and Karim; Ollie, Aishe and Kerstin. Lyrical memories of the night in the black water at the swimming pool are intertwined with snapshots of their lives twenty years later when Frank is about to become the youngest Government minister; Aishe will
save the life of Kerstin; Cynthia is the head teacher of the school Karim’s child attends.

Through the unfolding lives of these nine beautiful young people, all of whom that night on the cusp of adulthood 'climbed the fence, just like you', the play maps out the complex relationships between class, expectations, education, family history, relationships and destiny, with a poetic script matched to Simon Slater’s original score.

Black Water (Černá Voda) by Roland Schimmelpfennig, translated by David Tushingham and with an original score by Simon Slater.

Chorus performed by Shyko Amos, Chloe Sommer, Amanda Bright, Joshua Riley, Razak Osman and Cavin Cornwall.

Kerstin ..... Chloe Sommer
Cynthia ..... Amanda Bright
Olli ..... Jack Bence
Freddie ..... Razak Osman
Frank ..... Joshua Riley
Mehmet ..... Atilla Akinci.
Leyla ..... Danusia Samal
Murat ..... Omer Cem Cultu
Aishe ..... Ada Burke
Karim ..... Hemi Yeroham
Frank’s father ..... John Peters
Frank’s mother ..... Abigail McKern
Murat’s father ..... Jem Kai Olsen
Leyla’s father ..... Nej Adamson

Sound Design, David Thomas
Directed by Jonathan Banatvala
Produced by Jonathan Banatvala and Melanie Nock

An International Arts Production

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