Inventing a New Colour
Inventing a New Colour
A war-time Exeter family takes in an evacuee from London.
Exeter in 1942. Eric and June, along with their son Francis, 16, welcome 17-year-old Londoner Peter to their home.
Peter, an evacuee from the Blitzed capital, is marking time to his 18th birthday when he can finally be called up to the armed Forces. He arrives into a house of exams for Francis, night-classes for June, and night watches for Eric, a house where the threat of dying is tempered by the fear of never having lived.
Paul Godrey's play Inventing a New Colour was given a private performance at the National Theatre Studio, London, in April 1988. Its first public production came at the Bristol Old Vic in October that same year. It subsequently transferred to the Royal Court, London.
'Surprisingly this is Paul Godfrey's first play. It is hard to categorize him. He's part philosopher, part poet: and, excitingly, very much part dramatist... Inventing a New Colour echoes to the authentic sound and reverberations of local history'
Guardian
