An Tobar and Mull Theatre presents the world premiere of Night Waking by Shireen Mula, adapted from the novel by Sarah Moss. Directed by Rebecca Atkinson-Lord.
A remote Scottish island. A sleep-deprived mother. A grave you were never meant to find.
Anna Bennett should be writing a book. Instead, she’s counting the minutes of lost sleep, peeling a toddler off her leg, and Googling ‘Victorian infanticide’ at 3 a.m. Her ornithologist husband is out studying puffins, oblivious. Her sons are running feral. And when she and her eldest uncover something in the garden—something small, something wrapped in wool—it becomes clear that history isn’t just a thing she studies. It’s here. Underfoot. And it won’t rest quietly.
Night Waking is a sharp, strange, and darkly funny exploration of motherhood, colonialism, and the ghosts we inherit. As Anna ricochets between present-day exhaustion, historical letters, and a past that won’t stay buried, she is forced to confront what it means to nurture, to protect, and to fail.
Adapted from Sarah Moss’s novel by Shireen Mula, this one-woman play is a feat of acting virtuosity—a fragmented, fevered journey through sleepless nights, long-lost voices, and the things we don’t say.
For anyone who has ever craved silence but feared what might fill it.
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