Emissaries

Premiere of a new three-act play

 

Emissaries tells three stories of English expatriates in Antwerp at different points in the city’s history.

1. The first is Saint Willibrordus, one of many Anglo-Saxon missionaries sent from England in the seventh century to the Low Countries to convert the pagans. What else was on his agenda? And whose agenda was it, actually?

2. The second, Aphra Behn, is a successful playwright in the 1670s London. She looks back to her stay in Antwerp in 1666. But why was she actually here?

3. The third is a fictional young record company executive who arrives in Antwerp in the summer of 1969 to sign up local talent to a major British label. Or was there something else he had to do, too?

 

Very different stories in very different ages. But history is full of echoes, isn’t it?

Emissaries is a melting pot of roleplay, spin-doctoring, intrigue, betrayal, international politics, love stories and cautionary tales. It’s a love song to theatre. And it’s an ode to Antwerp and the expats it welcomes.