The Great Wave

This Student Edition is ideal for any teacher coming to Francis Turnly's 2018 play for the first time, or for those who already have some familiarity with it.

Spanning 1979 to 2003, The Great Wave looks at the mysterious disappearance of a Japanese schoolgirl and her mother and sister’s tireless search to find her again. The girl, Hanako, is discovered living in captivity in a compound in North Korea, employed to teach a young woman Japanese language and culture.

Francis Turnly’s gripping play is based on a true story and conveys not only the magnitude of these events globally, but also the beating human heart at the centre of this story.

The commentary in the edition unpacks:

• the author's identity as a "Japanese Ulsterman", owing to his Northern Irish-Japanese heritage
• the play's place within a trilogy
• the significance of Japanese history and culture
• themes of occupation, colonisation, grief, loss, and hope
• the use of language in the play, including English and phonetic Japanese and Korean
• the play's use of objects as cultural markers
• the play's structure and representation of 24 years
• the play's form and genre
• productions of the play so far, including in London and San Francisco

This edition is invaluable in helping to make sense of this thematically and contextually rich play for students, and to bring it alive through the discussion of its inherent theatricality and production opportunities.