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New Plays By Emerging Artists

Script Accelerator 2014

Script Accelerator presents five exciting new pieces of writing. Each piece has been supported by and developed in association with Park Theatre and will be presented in front of an audience for the first time. It's up to the directors and respective teams as to whether the pieces will be semi staged, off book or with scripts in hand – but in all cases they are works-in-progress. 

So grab a chance to see them and give your feedback.

 

Wed 25th Jun & Fri 27th Jun
THREE PLAYS
Full of Bees by Rick Bland  |  Happy to Help by Michael Ross  |  Broken by Upstanding Productions

Full of Bees focuses on the lives of two women, Evelyn and Sydney as they travel to the wedding of Evelyn’s Grandson. Evelyn is a physically frail 85-year-old woman. Though frail, she is a spirited woman who does not suffer fools. She has been toughened by life...working class, brought up through the depression, she spent her life working in kitchens. She married an alcoholic who died young, had two children who died before her and somehow still loves life despite all of the hardships she has been forced to face. Sydney her carer, is in her early 30’s. She is single, struggling with her weight, finding love elusive. She too is a product of her time, educated and open to the world. The two women form an unlikely friendship. On the surface they are very different...but they have both endured many past hardships that have informed the people that they have become. As they travel to the wedding, they realise they aren’t nearly as different as they seem. The play blends very dark subject matter with comedy and explores how the past lives in the present and informs the future.

Happy To Help is set in the branch of fictional supermarket chain Frisca. As a PR exercise, the supermarket’s UK managing director, Tony, has gone back to the floor incognito to experience life as a shelf-stacker. Store manager Vicky seems to enjoy making his life as difficult as possible, but beneath her carapace of ruthless ambition and wholehearted commitment to the corporation, she hides a dark and tragic past. Shelf-stacker Josh is in a band and dreams of one day jacking in the day job to pursue a career in music, but Vicky sets out to convince him that a career within Frisca is a much safer bet. When Frisca’s Texan CEO drops in to clamp down on Union activity, the visit has unexpected results.

Supermarkets now wield enormous power in Britain and across much of the world, and yet these radical changes have been largely ignored by drama. In addition to driving many small shopkeepers and market traders out of business, the industry’s monopolising power means its representatives are able to bully farmers and suppliers into selling their produce to supermarkets at a loss. Despite the recession and the huge growth in online shopping, supermarkets have held up much better than many other retail outlets. Happy To Help shows the immense power of supermarkets and the human ramifications of low cost food.

Broken explores addiction, co-dependence, love and forgiveness in a war of self- annihilation versus honesty, choice and love. Three generations, three women, one common denominator.

A mother and daughter trying to repair their broken relationship. Two lovers hoping the past doesn’t catch up with them. All three battling the demons within themselves. We lay bare the characters of Elizabeth Williams, her daughter Emma Wiiliams and Rajneet Gill who enters both their lives at different times and in a different way but through a common foe: alcohol. We explore their relationships to each other, examine the situations from their individual perspectives and ask: Is change possible when the odds are stacked against it? Do we really have ‘choice’? How can we stop hurting the ones we love? How do we forgive time and again? How do we break the cycle? How do we love unconditionally?

This piece aims to change perceptions, create empathy and bring an awareness of our judgments about others and ourselves. It addresses the issues of alcoholism, co-dependency and alienation through the eyes of three women trying to live their lives truthfully whilst restricted by culture, society and being a part of a silent minority.

 

Thu 26th Jun
Even by J. Dulin Jones

Old friends, Suzanne and Jasmine re-connect after 15 years and decide to meet up for dinner with their partners. Within minutes, cracks in their relationships break wide open as well placed barbs and old wounds bring out their worst behavior. This rupture throws the couples into a moral abyss from which there may be no return.

 

Sat 28th Jun
​Naughty pour Homme
Book by Leon Parris and Jon Smith, Music and Lyrics by Leon Parris

Paris, the city of romance. Two scientists beaver away to discover the ultimate formula to pheromones – the scent that attracts people to each other. Despite being out of luck in love their intention was never to use the formula on to the girls they fancied in the lab. 

But everything goes right, the girls seem genuinely in love, the men make riches beyond their wildest dreams… until of course the effects of the potion start to show and their world comes crumbling down around them.

Full of witty dialogue and lyrics and catchy music this is a hilarious new musical for 16+ up!