Into the Melting Pot: Show about religious intolerance comes to Bunyan Meeting in Bedford

A play about religious intolerance that mirrors the story of Bedford's John Bunyan is coming to Bedford.

Imaginative company The Telling will perform Into the Melting Pot on Thursday, May 18, a play about religious intolerance which mirrors Bedford’s own minister John Bunyan and his bravery in standing up for what he believed in.

BAFTA-nominated Nicholas Renton directs Into the Melting Pot which stars leading actor of stage and screen Suzanne Ahmet and critically acclaimed music and theatre company The Telling.

The half concert/half play tells the story of a Jewish woman caught up in the conflict of 1492 and channels the stories of others. It will tour England and Wales from May 17 – 24, stopping at Bunyan Meeting in Bedford on Thursday, May 18 from 7.45pm – 9.30pm, as part of Bedford Music Club.

Into the Melting Pot is written by The Telling’s artistic director, playwright and soprano, Clare Norburn.

Norburn said: “Into the Melting Pot may be set in the past, but it’s extraordinarily relevant to contemporary issues right now. Somehow by looking through the camera of the past, I hope we might be able to see the present more clearly. The story of a Jewish woman forced to leave her home in 1492 is startlingly contemporary; it has echoes in issues people face right now: the rise of anti-semitism, how members of the Windrush generation have been treated and refugees fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan. My character Blanca cries: “This is our home! My family, my roots in Seville go back hundreds of years. Just where do they think they are sending us back to….?””

Ian Rowlands of Bedford Music Club also draws a parallel with Bedford's own history: "The venue where the concert will happen is Bunyan Meeting. John Bunyan (the author of Pilgrim’s Progress) was one of the chapel's first ministers; he spent 12 years in prison as a non-conformist following the restoration of Charles II – for refusing to preach from the Book of Common Prayer. So, the venue – and an important part of Bedford’s heritage – is well tuned in to religious intolerance and the personal price that some people have to pay for standing up for their beliefs."

Into the Melting Pot follows Blanca (played by Suzanne Ahmet), a Jewish woman facing expulsion from Spain and setting sail for an uncertain future as ordered by the Spanish Catholic Monarchs in 1492. At twilight on her final night in Seville, Blanca tunes into voices of a community of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women from across the Spanish peninsula. Her story echoes down the ages to the personal stories of people affected by politics and war today. Down the centuries, women’s stories of integration, love, the rich cultural heritage of the Spanish peninsula and racial intolerance are played out to a soundtrack of plaintive Sephardic Jewish songs and lively medieval music, with full staging and stunning lighting.

The Telling are taking the concertplay across England and Wales at six tour stops. Tickets cost £2 to £18 and are available to book online.