Credible Witness

In this story of love and loss, Wertenbaker explores the longing for identity, the despair of fragmentation and the fragile hopes of lives redefined. "Alexander...has escaped persecution and made it into Britain. Three years later his indomitable mother, Petra, arrives at Heathrow in search of him. Eventually mother and son meet in a confrontation of irreconcilable attitudes: the one embodies an intransigent... nationalism, the other the necessary assimilation of the exile. As always, Wertenbaker is unafraid to tackle big issues." (The Guardian, London) "Wertenbaker [brings] her usual humanity and insight to an evening that becomes an intricate meditation on the merits and demerits of culture and history... intelligence is everywhere, not least in the play's definition of history itself ... I can think of few if any other dramatists who could give so rounded an account of so immediate yet permanent a topic." (The Times, London) Played to universal acclaim by Olympia Dukakis in the London production, "[Petra] is a stirring, immensely impressive figure...The audience was spellbound... the most moving, the most compassionate new play for many months."(Financial Times, London)