REVIEW: Paved with Gold and Ashes at Old Red Lion 9 & 10 August 2023 / Edinburgh festival preview

‘Love, hope and a tragedy waiting to happen’ ★★★★

New York City, 1911. Immigrants arrive from all over Europe, hoping for a better life.

Five women get jobs at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Bickering sisters Rosaria and Lucia from Italy, whose mother also works at the factory. Lonely, snobby Rose, whose father is the local Rabbi. Annie from Ireland, with her Pollyanna view of the world, her love of her family and her resilience despite being shunned by the other women in the factory. And sweet but mysterious Ida, soon to escape the factory to marry the man she adores and raise the baby she carries.

They all have dreams that sustain them through the harsh working conditions. Dreams of marriage, love and stardom on the silver screen. But all of that ends in tragedy…although I don’t want to give away why.

Based on a true story, Paved with Gold and Ashes is beautifully performed by a tight ensemble of actresses – so tight in fact that it is impossible to praise one above the others. They created shifts in space and time through song and simple but effective physical theatre that carried the audience along with the story.

Julia Thurston’s writing was at first expositional, but as the tale unfolded, she captured the intensity and emotion of the tragedy and the humanity of the victims. Some of the characters and their relationships were more clearly drawn than others, so, for example, it was not clear why Annie was shunned by the others. But overall, this was a strong piece of writing.

While set in 1911, this play could have been about today. Greedy, unscrupulous businessmen and tenement landlords who exploit the vulnerability of their poverty-ridden workforce and tenants. Economic migrants seeking a better life, treated like dirt by a country that needs their labour. Rivalry between migrant groups as they cling to their national identities and grasp for the chimera of status while trying to fit into the new world in which they find themselves.



This is an important play, performed beautifully by a talented group of actresses. If you are in Edinburgh this year, go and see it. But take your tissues.

Photo credit: Stephanie Van Driesen

Paved with Gold and Ashes by Julia Thurston, Old Red Lion, 9 and 10 August 2023 (Edinburgh preview dates), Threedum Theatre Company, https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/paved-with-gold-and-ashes.html

Performers: Everleigh Brenner, Olivia Gaidry, Serena Lehman, Caroline Letelier,

Julia Thurston

Writer: Julia Thurston

Directed by: The Company

Produced by: Threedum Theatre

Reviewer: Srabani Sen

Srabani is a theatre actress and playwright. As an actress she has performed at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (The Globe), the Arcola, Southwark Playhouse, The Pleasance and numerous fringe theatres, in a range of roles from Shakespeare to plays by new and emerging writers. She has written several short and full length plays. Her play Tawaif was longlisted for the ETPEP Finborough award, and her play Vijaya was shortlisted for the Sultan Padamsee Playwrights Award in Mumbai.