Gidion’s Knot

Over the course of a parent/teacher conference, a grieving mother and an emotionally overwhelmed primary school teacher have a fraught conversation about the tragic suicide of the mother’s son. Gidion may have been bullied – or he may have been an abuser …

As his story is slowly uncovered, the women try to reconstruct a satisfying explanation for Gidion’s act as they come to terms with their own feelings of culpability and the roles of the school system and parents in the development of children.

The title of this powerful two-hander by Johanna Adams is a punning reference to the Gordian Knot that Alexander the Great famously cut with a sword instead of untying like so many before him had tried but failed to do. The knot that remains tied is the play’s unanswered puzzle: what drove Gidion to suicide? What was he really like?

Osman Aboubakr directs Eliane Germanos and Caroline Hamrén. There are further performances on 8 and 9 February at 2pm and 8pm both days.