An epic tale of love, loss and explaining how to use the microwave.

“I wish I could say here our story starts. But this story starts later, and ended earlier. Is entirely fictional, and completely true. Voila.”

In 2021, Hannah Maxwell moved back to the Home Counties to care for her terminally ill grandfather. But this show isn’t about that. It’s about France’s Eurovision star Barbara Pravi, who’s just lovely.

In between cooking, cleaning and Countdown, Maxwell escapes into an intensifying fantasy of ballroom dances, heartfelt ballads, Parisian cafés, fluent French and definitely-not-creepy plots to engineer a meetcute with a random foreign celebrity. It’s La La Land meets Mission Impossible meets Hannah’s nan.

Combining spoken-word, video and chanson francaise, NAN, ME & BARBARA PRAVI sits you down at the kitchen table to talk through grief and care, addiction and recovery, and hope and coping in unprecedented times.

A work-in-progress piece of storytelling theatre from the acclaimed creator of I, AMDRAM. Commissioned by Camden People’s Theatre and supported by Menagerie Theatre Company, Queen Mary University of London, and Colchester Arts Centre. Made possible by generous support from Arts Council England. 

Creative team: 

Written and performed by Hannah Maxwell

Producer: Becky Plotnek

Dramaturgy: Annie Siddons

Lighting & Technical Design: Jo Palmer

Costume & Set Design: Rachel Gammon

Sound Design: Juan Luis Casanellas Donoso

Technical/Project Support: Livvy Lynch

Choreographer: Daniel Hay-Gordon

Animation: May Kindred-Boothby

Photography: Christa Holka

Digital Post-production: Anna Fernandez

Voiceover: Angela Dunham (Hannah’s Nan)

Tags: 2023, hannahmaxwell, professional, theatre, ThePlace