Trade
UK Tour 2023: Pleasance Theatre, Nonsuch Nottingham, Exeter Phoenix, Old Joint Stock Birmingham, Norwich Arts Centre.
Supported by Arts Council England
Written by Ella Dorman-Gajic
Cast: Katarina Novkovic, Ojan Genc, Eleanor Roberts
Directed by Maddy Corner
Assistant Director: Kaiya Bartholomew
Set & Costume Designer: Natasha Gatward
Projection & Caption Designer: Timothy Kelly
Sound Designer: Kristina Kapilin
Intimacy Coordinator: Tigger Blaize
Translator: Zorica Agbaba
Movement Consultant: Mathew Wernham
Stage Manager: Rhea Cosford
Producers: Maddy Corner and Ella Dorman-Gajic
“Any show centered around sexual exploitation and the trafficking of young women is destined to weigh heavily on audiences, but in Trade, written by Ella Dorman-Gajic and directed by Maddy Corner, a balanced script and evocative staging work beautifully, in tandem, allowing the audience to confront and engage with this eternally urgent, necessary story.”
Emma Dorfman, Always Time For Theatre
“This is a story told from inside out, a narrative swirled around a single character looking back from a pivotal moment as she explains herself to an audience close enough to see the whites of her eyes, the sick on her shirt, the blood on her trousers. There’s no place for the audience to hide in the Pleasance’s downstairs theatre and crammed in on three sides the audience were simply outnumbered and overwhelmed by the three players on stage as we looked into their eyes and saw only Sarajevo, Yugoslavia and the London nobody will admit to knowing.
Superbly directed by Maddy Corner, this is a play that pulls you into another world and continuously wrong-foots expectations and it will haunt me for days. Unsurprisingly it won an OFFIE Award and there will be many such garlands for this cast and this crew in the years ahead. Props to designers Natasha Gatward, Timothy Kelly and Kristina Kapilin for an impactful backdrop and artistically integrated captions that make Trade accessible to both d/Deaf audiences and native Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian speakers.”
Paul Joyce, IThankyou
Fusing projection, design and immersive soundscapes this captivating three-hander plunges us into a visceral journey, spanning Serbia, Bosnia and the UK. Artistically integrated captions make this play accessible for d/Deaf audiences and native Serbian speakers. Captions translated into Serbian by Zorica Agbaba.
Buy the playtext here, published by Salamander Street.
10% of playtext sales go to Unseen, a charity fighting human trafficking.
“Trade is an extremely poignant and thought-provoking production, delivered powerfully by a strong cast. The entire plot feels true-to-life, demonstrating how easily girls’ lives are snatched away, the difficulty of escaping a trafficking situation, and the reasons why victims may become perpetrators. This is an important and emotional piece of work that is certainly worth catching.”
Charlotte Boreham, Everything Theatre
“It’s a story of trafficking that is so real that, at times, the piece almost documentary or memoir-like, as opposed to a piece of theatre. Dorman’s text is chock-full of poetic imagery; Corner’s direction, of viscerally-charged staging that, every now and then, reminds us what we are watching is very live and alive.”
Emma Dorfman, Always Time For Theatre
“Trade is an absolutely phenomenal work of art, portraying the horrors of human trafficking and the impact that this has on its victims.”
Bobbi Fenton, Fairy Powered Productions
