An American student at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) has described working on a production about The Spanish Civil War (being staged in May) as a journey of “self-discovery, as well as family discovery” – with a surprise Liverpool connection.

Second-year Acting student Julianna de Diego will be telling the story of her grandfather Octavio de Diego as one part of LIPA’s ambitious, new production Red and Black.

Octavio was imprisoned in Spain in 1948 for distributing anti-fascist material, then moved to England where he worked as a spy for MI6 before leaving as a refugee to start a new life in Venezuela.

Julianna is from the US, but her family has roots in Spain and Venezuela. She says: “I’d heard all these stories about my grandfather and his brothers when I was a child, but I was too young to grasp how incredible they were.

“As soon as I found out we would be creating a performance about The Spanish Civil War my family started going through boxes, looking for photos and records and helped me to put together the entire timeline and story. As more details came through I became more and more excited, because it is a really remarkable story.”

Among the new discoveries were photos of Octavio’s contacts from across Europe, from his time working for MI6, posing as a communist activist and a family link to Liverpool. “One of the items my parents found was his Refugee Passport. It confirmed he left to start his new life in Venezuela from Liverpool in 1952.

“When my parents told me that it blew my mind. To think 65 years later, I’d be living in the same city. Four years ago, I didn’t even know I’d be coming to England to study – let alone Liverpool. That is crazy to me.”

Red and Black is a devised collaboration with award-winning theatre company Slung Low with students having direct input on the show’s narrative and content. The company are no strangers to Liverpool, in 2010 they performed the Anthology and in 2011 Finale to mark the demolition of the original Everyman Theatre.

LIPA’s biggest-ever production, Red and Black is an immersive piece of theatre performed in various locations inside and outside of LIPA, Slung Low’s Artistic Director Alan Lane describes it as being like a theatrical advent calendar, “and behind each door is a different experience.”

These range from a fundraiser at a 1937 Liverpool working mens’ club to a Salvador Dali inspired sensory surreal prison and a finale featuring a huge Franco puppet, theatrical effects and original music.

“You normally think, well I’ve got 16 performers, how do I make this epic and exciting?” says Alan: “We have over 100 performers – we don’t need to worry about it being epic.”

 
Red and Black is performed at LIPA from 21 to 26 May at 7pm and 9pm. Tickets are £9.50 (£5 concessions). Advance tickets can be booked online at www.lipa.ac.uk or via Unity Theatre box office on 0151 709 4988.
 

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