Kirjahaku

The night before the funeral was when he told us that he was getting the lot and I said, I said only then in retaliation, you know, and I am not proud of this, but how Dad had, how he had smashed his glass and cried, cried for Simon when he rang home to tell him how he had failed his exams, how it broke his dad's heart.Simon and Sean’s dad is dead. Returning home from London, Simon is shocked to find Sean in a relationship with a man called Aidan. Sean is irritated by Simon’s new cosmopolitan ways. And Aidan? He just wants to be part of the family.This is a play for anyone who ever left home and comes back to find everything changed. And for anyone who never went away in the first place.Attempting to find common ground, they head out for a booze-fueled night in Gateshead. Before long they are arguing. What is it about the memory of a childhood trip to Whitby that sets them off? Darts, pints and fists fly across the room, as past and present collide with dizzying consequences.Petrification received its world premiere at Live Theatre, Newcastle, on 23 May 2016, before a UK tour, presented by Telltale in association with LittleMighty.

Meet Jess and Joe. They want to tell you their story. Joe is Norfolk born and bred and wears wellies. Jess holidays there with her au pair and is slightly too tubby for her summer dresses. They are miles apart even when they stand next to each other. This is a story of growing up, fitting in (or not), boys, girls, secrets, scotch eggs and maybe even love, but most of all, it’s about friendship.Spanning several summer holidays, Jess and Joe Forever is an unusual coming of age tale that explores rural life and what it means to belong somewhere, if you can really belong anywhere.A layered and thoughtful play about finding your place in the world when you only know a small corner of it.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere of the play at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in September 2016.

Meet Jess and Joe. They want to tell you their story. Joe is Norfolk born and bred and wears wellies. Jess holidays there with her au pair and is slightly too tubby for her summer dresses. They are miles apart even when they stand next to each other. This is a story of growing up, fitting in (or not), boys, girls, secrets, scotch eggs and maybe even love, but most of all, it’s about friendship.Spanning several summer holidays, Jess and Joe Forever is an unusual coming of age tale that explores rural life and what it means to belong somewhere, if you can really belong anywhere.A layered and thoughtful play about finding your place in the world when you only know a small corner of it. This edition was published to coincide with House Theatre's production at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 2017.

And we are watching the huge grey waves crashing and this is the moment when I say I have to tell you something. Claire and her wife Kit have moved from the confines of London to the wide open coasts of South Shields.To be nearer family, to be nearer the sea, to put down roots. To have a baby.Claire’s new job at the local school is a step up, and she wants to make a real difference, but she soon discovers that she has as much to learn from her students as they have from her.A tender new play about gender, wild swimming, and how we define who we are.

God seems to ask a lot of things of a lot of people The parishioners of All Hallows Church are putting on a production of Noah’s Ark, one of a cycle of mystery plays performed by all the local parishes. The Bishop is hopeful the project will help paper over the cracks revealed by an unfortunate incident involving an evangelical, a glass of wine and an angry liberal. Rory, All Hallows’ vicar, wants to keep a low profile, and his partner Simon is happy to provide musical accompaniment but would rather he wasn’t given any lines, thank you very much. The congregation, however, have other plans. For Patricia, the show is an opportunity to show off the church’s artistic talents, while the Curate, Hannah, hopes it will give her a chance to get to know the parishioners better. Meanwhile, Fin becomes ever more infuriated at Rory’s hands-off approach and teenager Erin just hopes that this is a family where she might find a home. Above all, Rory wants to keep the ship – and his relationship – afloat. Can this battered vessel still offer its clergy and congregation sanctuary in the storm? Compassionate and funny, The Flock depicts the bumpy road to inclusion for this community, asking how we can live and worship alongside one another when our differences are so marked. How do we remain together when we’re so far apart? This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre in August 2021.

Nativities is a darkly comic new play set in the wasteland of petty office politics, designated smoking areas and personal alienation.Excited about her new job as administrative assistant at a call centre, Stella is eager to fit in with her workmates and they seem to like her too, especially when they find out how much they all have in common. It's really like a family at Scion Communications so when they discover that Stella is pregnant they're all delighted for her. However, as her pregnancy progresses, their certainties about love, relationships and parenthood are questioned and their lives both at work and at home begin to unravel.Set somewhere between an Orwellian dystopian vision and an all too familiar contemporary reality, Cooper's writing turns a lens on everyday office life and how personalities are warped in its liminal space. Within the repeating motifs of the anonymity of the corporate existence, recurrent unvaried routines and ominously authoritative performance targets, the core of the play focuses on the sheer isolation and loneliness of the characters. The dialogue is overlapping, misunderstood and disconnected, and the characters are unable to communicate in spite of spending the majority of their waking lives together. This kaleidoscopic dialogue and the slippery, shifting ground between the characters effectively creates a new language for the stage which is startlingly original. This is writing which is innovative, relevant, chilling and blackly funny.

'Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of any sort of… disappointed love.' Catherine Morland knows little of the world, but who needs real-life experience when you have novels to guide you? Seizing her chance to escape her claustrophobic family and join the smart set in Bath, she meets worldly, sophisticated Isabella Thorpe – Iz, to her friends – and so Cath's very own adventure begins. This playful and surprising reimagining of Northanger Abbey is infused with the spirit of Jane Austen's original novel and fizzes with imagination and humour. It was premiered in 2024 at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, before touring to Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.