Noughts and Crosses Archives - North West End UK

22Apr

By Helen JonesNo Comments

North West

Noughts and Crosses – The Lowry

Pilot Theatre and Northern Stage have once more brought Sabrina Mahfouz’s adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s 2001 novel out on tour, having first produced it in 2019. Set in an alternative 21st century Britain, called Albion in the books, there is fairly strict segregation. The crosses (dark-skinned people) are in control of the country, and the noughts (light-skinned people) are the oppressed and suppressed. Jasmine, the wife of the politician and Home Secretary Kamal Hadley, had employed Meggie McGregor as a nanny to her children. As such her daughter Sephy (Persephone) and Meggie’s son Callum had become friends. But as the segregation requirements get stricter an interracial friendship is not allowed, and Sephy and Callum’s friendship is forced into secrec...

Noughts and Crosses – Liverpool Playhouse

A new baby signals hope, as does an unopened letter. Hope that things will be better. Fans of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses series are sure to love the stage adaptation of the book, which was also turned into a BBC series a couple of years ago. Sephy Hadley is a Cross, and her father is also the Home Secretary, Callum McGregor is a Nought, and his mother was the housekeeper to Sephy’s family, until she refused to lie for Sephy’s mother and got sacked. Having grown up together, Callum and Sephy continue their friendship in secret as in their world Crosses can’t be seen to be mixing with Noughts, especially not one from a high-profiled family. Things appear to be changing when Callum is one of three Noughts who have won a scholarship to be allowed to go to the same school as Seph...

Chris Jack talks about why Noughts and Crosses matters as it goes back on tour

Books for young adults tackling some tough issues are big business now and Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses is a work that has touched millions of teenagers. In Blackman’s dystopian world Sephy is a Cross, and Callum is a Nought, in a world with strict racial and social divides. As violence breaks out Sephy who is the daughter of the Home Secretary, and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger. The genius of Blackman’s vision is that racial power dynamics are flipped on their head asking us to think about how hatred destroys lives in a different way. Pilot Theatre commissioned Sabrina Mahfouz to adapt it for the stage before taking it on tour just before the pandemic closed theatres, where it was seen by over 30,000 people on tour with ...