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Cathy Forde

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781408130575
• eBook ISBN: 9781408132425
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

"Here's to Col's numpty maw and paw for leaving him home alone and expecting everything to stay the way it was. Suckas!" When you're only sixteen, could the events of one night really shape the course of your life? Divert you from becoming the man you might have become, stunt you, burden you, trap you, destroy you, change the very core of you? Leave you empty. Cathy Forde is a leading Scottish novelist ( Fat Boy Swim, Skarrs ) and this is her first play. It's fast, furious, and like a piece of music, grows and swells to a mind-altering crescendo. The colloquial and dialogue-driven writing, explores themes eminently relevant to teenagers: fitting in with demanding mates, desiring the undesirable and the unobtainable, and severely fractured relations with parents. Cathy Forde's novels are translated into several languages are studied as part of English curriculums throughout the UK. Commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland as an initiative to encourage younger audiences into the theatre, the play will be produced on tour in Scotland and at a number of exclusive performances for schools, youth groups and colleges March -April 2010.

Published by Methuen Drama 2010

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Methuen Drama
A & C Black Publishers Limited
36 Soho Square
London W1D 3QY
www.methuendrama.com

Copyright © Cathy Forde 2010

Cathy Forde has asserted her rights under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified
as the author of this work

eISBN: 978-1-40813-242-5

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by Country Setting, Kingsdown, Kent
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire

Caution

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application
for performance etc. should be made before rehearsals begin
to Methuen Drama (Rights), A & C Black Publishers Limited,
36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY (email: [email protected]).
No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form
or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and
retrieval systems – without the written permission of
A & C Black Publishers Limited.

This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown
in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable.
The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental
regulations of the country of origin.

Introduction

What do you do when Vicky Featherstone, Director of the National Theatre of Scotland, invites you to a meeting and offers you a commission on the spot?

• Pinch yourself ?

• Say ‘Yes, please!’

• Quake with terror inside?

• All of the above?

In May 2008, this was the extraordinary situation in which I found myself.

‘Just go away and write a play,’ I was instructed. About anything. The merest hint of a brief came with Vicky’s suggestion that I try to create something that might entice young people to the theatre of their own volition.

No pressure then …

Actually, gargantuan pressure. Not only had I never written any drama in my life before, but it was years since I had even sat in the audience at someone else’s play. Work, family and the hassle-factor of being seated in time for a 7.30 p.m. curtain up all conspired to make the thrill of attending live theatre a broken habit and a distant memory.

But what a difference a year and a half makes. Mentored, inspired and enthused by Frances Poet, Literary Manager of the National Theatre of Scotland, I have become reconnected with an experience I have missed out on for far too long. Not only did I return to attending live theatre whenever possible, but Frances recommended I repair the chasms in my knowledge of contemporary drama by reading Brian Friel, Conor McPherson, Martin McDonagh, Philip Ridley, Douglas Maxwell, David Greig, Anthony Neilson … I dutifully devoured every playtext she recommended and every few weeks we met and discussed my ‘homework’. I felt as if I had enrolled for a crash course in Contemporary Drama with an excellent tutor to support me, only a tutor who never set critical essays to hand in for assessment.

So all this was enormous fun. Throughout the summer months of 2009 I d...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page