Preview: M0028, St Paul’s Church, Southville

“When I read Kadri Ozcan’s play I instantly found myself staging it in my mind. As a director, this is always the first sign I am looking for.” Bristol director Emel Holifield is explaining why she and her company SanaRt Theatre are returning to the fray this month, three years after their last outing, with another gripping site-specific production. 

SanaRt’s last venture was a production of Barrie Keefe’s 1980s saga My Girl, in a room above a cafe in Southville. This time, they’re moving a few hundred yards across BS3 to the atmospheric crypt of St Paul’s Church on Coronation Road – and a staging of Kadri Ozcan’s captivating post-apocalypse satire M0028.

Adam has been living in a bunker for 12 years – but now the crucial time for departure has arrived. He is nervous about meeting the world – or what is left of it – but he still has time in his beloved shelter to answer a few questions. Ozcan’s bleak satire takes us into a not-too-distant future, where artificial intelligence provides us with instant communication – but still doesn’t help us to know what to say.

“It has a very dramatic structure with carefully planned exposition, and a superb, shocking twist,” Emel enthuses. “The narrative is driven by the characters: I feel and recognise their voices strongly. The story also explores big contemporary issues, namely the environment and technology. It exposes how we look after our world and how far we are prepared to let technology take over our lives.” 

And why St Paul’s Crypt? “M0028 is a story about post-apocalypse, and I just wanted to tell this tale in its authentic location. St Paul’s Crypt is a location where the story could really take place. When I saw the venue, it felt as though the story had found its home.” 

So, why has Adam (who’s being played by Doug Francisco of Invisible Circus fame) spent 12 years in isolation, and why is that coming to an end now? And what sorts of questions will he have to answer? “Adam does not know what happened after the flood and if there are any survivors or anything left in the world to survive. His stay is coming to an end because of shortage of food and a lack of anything that might help him stay there any longer. How did he manage to sustain himself in isolation? How much did his existence damage the others? These are questions whose answers will slowly become clear.”

Sarah Warren’s stage design, featuring artworks created from recycled materials by the cast and crew, evokes Adam’s spartan environment – not just in the here and now, but over the 12 years of his stay. “We want the audience to enter Adam’s head and to experience his sense of loneliness, desperation and madness.”

The story does, in fact, involve four characters. “I want to keep the other characters separate and to say very little about them,” Emel explains. “Their voice in the story is extremely important and changes the dynamic drastically. Their presence will shock and shake the audience the moment they become visible on stage.”

What do you hope to send audiences away thinking and feeling? “I really want them to have a good time! More than anything, this play is a dark comedy. But I hope audiences will also be excited, confused and shocked – and will need some time to digest what they have seen.”

M0028 takes place in the Crypt of St Paul’s Church, Coronation Rd, Bristol from Tuesday, June 2 to Saturday, June 20 (no shows 5/8/13/15/18 June). For more info and to book tickets, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/detail/m0028