Review: Another Kind of Silence, Warehouse Theatre, Croydon

4 stars

I have become acquainted with a remarkable woman thanks to this unusual one-woman play.

Scientists will doubtless have heard of Rachel Carson, but until I saw Another Kind of Silence I was woefully ignorant of the debt which society owes to this courageous woman.

In a nutshell she was an American writer, biologist and campaigner who, in the late 1950s, turned her attention to conservation and the environmental and medical problems caused by the over-use of synthetic pesticides.

Her book Silent Spring brought these concerns to an unprecedented portion of the American public. It prompted a reversal in national pesticide policy which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other chemicals which had been proved responsible for the increase in cancer and other diseases.

Of course her campaign was not all plain sailing and she had to face ridicule, antagonsim and disbelief along the way. Ironically Carson died after a battle with breast cancer.

This beautifully modulated piece of work, written and performed by Liz Rothschild, was a real eye-opener.

Rothschild really lived the role: thoroughly inhabiting the skin of her character and presenting her with calm assurance and gentle humour.

A backscreen showing attractive nature slides, a soundtrack of birdsong and a minimal setting with its little vase of real flowers added so much to the telling of Carson's story.

The play itself lasted an hour and required a fair amount of concentration to assimilate just some of the dates, facts and figures. But it was worth it. This was an example of theatre being in the vanguard of education blended with fine entertainment.

Diana Eccleston