- March 2009
Corpus playroom will be transported back to a Gothic wilderness courtesy of 'The Vampire', J. R. Planché's melodramatic masterpiece. 'Something more than human' haunts the Scottish highlands in this exuberant, sometimes ridiculous drama, where a voracious vampire and a beautiful virgin take their places amongst the craggy cliffs and disembodied voices which animate Planche's creepy yet comic creation. As Lady Bridget exclaims, "Mercy preserve us! I tremble all over!"
- October–November 2007
A dinner party goes badly wrong. Sarah and Ralf are a young couple failing to find happiness in clubs or cinemas. They invite Sarah’s colleague Edith and her husband Bastian for dinner. Ralf jokes in poor taste that there’s a corpse in the trunk behind him. The level of taste descends as Bastian struggles to contain his violent discomfort at the prolonged joke, while his wife wants to join in the fun. Pizza is ordered. They discuss work. A defiled corpse falls out of the cupboard.
Mr Kolpert is a strikingly original work by a young writer, premièred at the Royal Court. It manages to fuse the excesses of Sarah Kane with the black humour of Pinter’s awkward interiors. This is a provocative, but above all a fantastically funny play. Nasty violence and guffaws: this says something about the way we live now, but we'll be too shocked and amused to care.
- November 2006
- October 2006
‘Oh what a jolly family.’ Edward Albee’s caustic and cautionary play thrusts the audience to the empty soul of the prettily packaged American Dream. In a soulless apartment, domineering Mommy and sexless Daddy live with Grandma, whose senility makes her saner than the puppets of married life playing around her. The ‘unexpected’ visit of voracious and hypocritical do-gooder Mrs Barker reveals some deeply grotesque home truths. Yet the absurd emotional violence is delicately wrapped in the alluring shine of comedy, mirroring the disturbingly vacuous Mommy and Daddy’s attempts to claw onto the sheen and dazzling semblance of wholesome American ideals.
- February–March 2006
- November 2005
In a seedy motel in Lansing, Michigan, a young film-maker, an assistant district attorney and a drug-dealing alcoholic revisit a shocking event from their pasts. Violence, resentment and a fierce sexual rivalry fuel this tense drama in which three old friends learn that being honest can have explosive consequences.
'A taut, hilarious thriller - as unsettling as it is entertaining!' Time Out New York
- November 2005
Terry is waiting. Always waiting. But what is he waiting for? Happiness? Satisfaction? Death? Trapped in the 'perspex purgatory' of an airport waiting lounge he waits, confronted by strangers who stop him from doing what he wants to do - be alone. This new play seeks to examine what we mean by fear and loss through a series of seemingly meaningless conversations. Everyone discovers a secret, but only the audience know the truth.
- November 2005
A very black comedy about comedy, and the people who watch it. A comedian dies. Two marriages collapse. There's a massive food fight.
An exhilarating, award-winning custard-pie tragedy from the author of The Graduate and Hitchcock Blonde, Dead Funny pushes the frontiers of farce into areas of real pain.
And it's dead funny.
- March 2005
It's THE annual festival on the Cambridge drama scene. It's showcasing the hottest, fresh talent of the winning student-writers whose short plays were selected from across the university. Each night 7 little nuggets of polished, outstanding drama and comedy will be played. 7 casts, 7 writers, 6 directors, 1 huge production team, all crammed into the sexiest little venue, performing brand-new work.
- March 2005
Before he died, Kafka wanted his books burnt. They weren't.
And then, a century after his death, Kafka inexplicably reappears in a suburban semi in Leeds. The resurrected author must come to terms with posthumous fame, his sadistic father, his obsessive fans, and an uncomfortable Freudian interpretation of his talent. How will he measure up?
Alan Bennett's surreal farce effortlessly satirises literary criticism, encourages parents to abuse their children, and subjects a tortoise to unnecessary humiliation. You've got to laugh. No, really, you've got to.
- November 2004
All Good Things merges romance and fantasy with a spiritual journey towards redemption. John is a man whose life is stalled at the bottom of a glass since the death of his wife until a chance encounter reawakens memories of the past. Through painful experience and poignant encounters John succeeds in rekindling his faith in life but only after his reason has been tested to the utmost.
As the themes of loss, hope and love are played out, All Good Things becomes a testament to human resistance to adversity.
All Good Things is an exciting piece of new writing that has previously been presented at a Marlowe Scriptlab, where Tom Cornford, a Globe practitioner and director at the Gate Theatre in London, directed a rehearsed reading of the play to much acclaim.
