The Great Wave, By Francis Turnly (Berkeley, CA)

Directed by Mark Wing-Davey
American premiere
Main Season ● Roda Theatre
Starts September 2019

An epic new thriller

“And so I’ll live in hope. However long. Until I know for sure. Until I know.”

In a Japanese coastal town in 1979, teenage sisters Hanako and Reiko run onto the beach during a tremendous storm on a dare. Hanako is tragically swept out to sea, while Reiko survives – but recalls seeing three mysterious men on the shoreline. The authorities determine that Hanako has drowned, but her mother insists that her missing daughter is still alive.

Spanning over 20 years and the two vastly different countries of Japan and North Korea,The Great Wave is at once a riveting geopolitical thriller and a powerful story of the unshakable bonds between a mother, a daughter, and a sister who refuse to give up hope.

Francis is a playwright and screenwriter. He was a winner of a Channel 4 playwright bursary in 2015 and as a result was Writer in Residence at the Tricycle Theatre which culminated in him winning the Catherine Johnson Best Play Award in 2016. His play, The Great Wave, was co-produced by the National Theatre and the Tricycle in 2018 and will transfer to the US (the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California) in Autumn 2019. He is developing several projects for screen, including a feature film with Element Films/Film4 and has TV commissions with Balloon, Brightstar and Bryncoed.

Francis is Japanese/Northern Irish and is often inspired by stories from both countries.