Accelerator - Xana Marwick

c. Xana Marwick
c. Xana Marwick

I’ve been trying to figure out how to make a piece of work about the effects on children of witnessing domestic violence for a really, really long time. Until now it's felt too dark, too personal, too not-entertaining and just not something that anyone would actually want to see. With Thrown I’m excited about creating a story where domestic violence is absolutely there as a subject, and not turned away from, but it's not the main event. It doesn’t have to define the story, any more than it has to define the young-protagonist’s life.

—Xana Marwick

Xana Marwick was selected for Accelerator in the June 2019 call out and offered funding to create a new rehearsed reading of a new piece of writing called Thrown.  Xana used the time and support from Imaginate to research boxing and the themes of the play, to write dialogue and songs and to pull together an amazing team of artists, starting with a composer. 

For more information about Xana’s recent and previous work:
www.kitsonpress.co.uk/xana-marwick
www.xanamarwick.com
www.stadiumrock.org

Thrown 

Thrown is a folk-musical about a child who learns to box (and beats the crap out of all the baddies).

‘A starry night; deep, dark blue. The twinkles of planets far away (where maybe this stuff doesn’t happen). A small child stands below, hands over ears, listening to the sound of blood rushing through their head and trying to ignore the thwacks and screams from inside the house. Out of their pocket they pull a creased and crumpled piece of paper. Big Bryan’s Boxing Gym, it says. 8pm. Its 7.45pm now. If they run, they’ll make it. No one will notice that they’ve gone…’

Xana Marwick will use this Accelerator project to write and develop THROWN a new musical-theatre production about an extraordinary child who takes up boxing at their local gym and becomes really, really good at it, all in secret without their family or school friends ever knowing they’d been to lessons. It’s a story of sporting triumph, using music and song to tackle deeper, darker themes in an accessible, entertaining way, that both acknowledges and protects the feelings of those children (and adults) in the audience who might be experiencing dark and dangerous things in their own homes.

Creative Team