Night Waking

An Tobar and Mull Theatre presents the world premiere of Night Walking by Shireen Mula, adapted from the novel by Sarah Moss.

Directed by Rebecca Atkinson-Lord

A remote Scottish island. A sleep-deprived mother. A grave you were never meant to find.

Anna Bennett should be writing a book. Instead, she’s counting the minutes of lost sleep, peeling a toddler off her leg, and Googling ‘Victorian infanticide’ at 3 a.m. Her ornithologist husband is out studying puffins, oblivious. Her sons are running feral. And when she and her eldest uncover something in the garden-something small, something wrapped in wool-it becomes clear that history isn’t just a thing she studies. It’s here. Underfoot. And it won’t rest quietly.

Night Waking is a sharp, strange, and darkly funny exploration of motherhood, colonialism, and the ghosts we inherit. As Anna ricochets between present-day exhaustion, historical letters, and a past that won’t stay buried, she is forced to confront what it means to nurture, to protect, and to fail.

Adapted from Sarah Moss’s novel by Shireen Mula, this one-woman play is a feat of acting virtuosity-a fragmented, fevered journey through sleepless nights, long-lost voices, and the things that won’t stay hidden.

For anyone who has ever craved silence but feared what might fill it.

Age guidance: 12+

Running time: 2 hours plus interval.