“When things went to shit, I hid into myself, into my own mountains and rivers. Before and now and after. I fought battles with gangs, with history. I’m still listening out for my gut, my soul, my magic.” 

The clock is ticking. The Word is at risk. Two rival groups hide in a disused place, an abandoned archive. They hash out clues to a feud fuelled by fragments from the past. Reaching across the Before, Now and After, the group fights, dreams and grapples with scattered pieces of truth and memory to save The Word.

St Martins’ most artistically ambitious work to date brings together an ensemble of eleven young, diverse performers with a cohort of established practitioners, including writer Michele Lee, composer/musician Allara, choreographer Bridget Fiske and set/costume designer Matilda Woodroofe.

Inside the imposing architecture of Abbotsford Convent The Word reaches across epochs, emerging out of an organic process of young people digging for light inside recent dark years via creative endeavour and artistic expression. The Word wrestles with systems of power to reclaim and rewrite new future trajectories.