Dust (2020 – 2021)

White Horse Road
18 Mar - 19 Apr 2020
Age range: 4-9
Dust. Photo by Stephen Beeny
  • Co-production Half Moon and Z-arts
  • by Laura Dockrill
  • Music Hugo White

Available to stream on our On Demand platform

When Little Titch and her scruffy rucksack arrive at the giant, pink house it is not what she expected – a blanket of thick grey dust covers everything in sight and it is wild and overgrown. Her new home is cold and unwelcoming until she meets Nelly, a flamboyant and loveable hoarder. Together the pair discover they have more in common than they first thought and that friendship can heal hidden wounds.

Written by acclaimed award winning children’s author Laura Dockrill (Darcy Burdock book series, Big Bones) Dust used exquisite poetic language to explore a heartfelt story about love, loss, identity and memory. With haunting music by Hugo White of The Maccabees, this striking and emotional play was a joyous reminder about just how playful the world can be.

Dust was a Half Moon and Z-arts co-production: an exciting collaboration by the UK’s leading small-scale young people’s venue and touring company and Manchester’s unique and award-winning venue for children and families.

The production was ready to go on a venue national tour from 18 March – 19 April 2020, when COVID-19 put the country into lockdown just as it reached its dress rehearsal. As a result the show never opened, and sadly the tour cancelled.

Subsequently, the production was re-mounted and filmed in Autumn 2020 for digital screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A British Sign Language interpreted recording was also made available. The films premiered on 6 February 2021, with repeat screenings throughout February and March 2021. Alongside the films were three online creative learning workshops for audiences to take part in at home, exploring the themes of the show. All the films had closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences.

The production won the 2022 OnComm Offiettes Award for Best Theatre for Children Aged 5-11 at the Offies, the Off West End Theatre Awards. The OnComm Offiettes recognise productions for young people that were presented live or online during 2021. They form part of the Offies, which acknowledge the excellence of shows from independent, alternative and fringe theatre.

From autumn 2021 the production has been available to watch via Half Moon’s On Demand service.

The filming of Dust was made possible by funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, distributed by City Bridge Trust through the London Community Response Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players for making this possible.

You can access the script of this play via the British Library’s MPS Modern Playscripts Collection.

Production photos (2021)

Cast List

  • Faye Weerasinghe Titch
  • Antonia Kemi Coker (2020) Nelly
  • Katherine Vernez-Gray (2021) Nelly

Creative Team

Videos

Production photos (2020)

The 2020 cast of Dust talk about the production.

Marketing

Design

Design videos

Reviews

Laura Dockrill interview

Filming

Hugo White interview

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