Festival of New Plays At The Tabard Theatre

Six plays chosen from exciting new writers

The Tabard Theatre is hosting a Playmakers Festival from 30th March - 4th April to give a platform to new writers.

The festival producers have carried out a nationwide search to find the best scripts from new and exciting playwrights and six plays have now been chosen.

The judges include Bafta Award Winning Playwright Glenn Chandler, best known as writer of Taggart as well as director Ken McClymont, The Stage’s Georgia Snow and TheTabard’s General Manager Simon Reilly.

Festival Curator Max Elton believes that “it’s difficult for talented but unproven writers to get their work staged and even then it can be one night on stage before packing up.

“By giving our shortlisted plays the opportunity to have two bites at the apple each play should be able to achieve more exposure. What really makes the festival even more exciting is the incredibly high standard of scripts, covering a wide range of issues, that have been selected.”

The winning plays selected by the judges range from waiting for an appeal on death row, to simply waiting for a date to arrive. The ghost of a father returns for his own funeral, while another patriarch plans for his.

Trevors House is a comedy about a terminally ill Welshman who writes songs and sends them to Tom Jones, while Behind Us explores a dystopian world. We’ll Laugh at Gilded Butterflies; an uplifting and entertaining look at how Maggie, a prisoner on a long stretch inside, comes to terms with her situation showing great but sometimes ludicrous optimism.

Another play making its debut is Behind Us; a surreal production that explores a dystopian world in which children are snatched from nightclubs that specialise in playing the Tweenies and Bob the Builder. Its writer BFebruary 24, 2015Best Play), the Sunday Times Playwriting Award (Best New Writing), the Directors Guild Award (Best Director) and a Commendation for the Acting Ensemble for his previous production The Babysitter.

The line up for the Festival is as follows

Monday 30 & Tuesday 31 March:
Fair Exchange by Madhia Hussein
And We’ll Laugh at Gilded Butterflies by Samantha Pain

Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 April:
Mouth Play by Ross Dunsmore
Behind Us by Breman Rajkumar

Friday 3 and Saturday 4 April:
Love in the Past Participle by John Hamilton May
Trevor’s House by Bob Rogers

February 24, 2015