Playwright Tom Neill tells us what audiences can expect at the rehearsed reading of his new script inspired by the climate change conundrum. 

​What inspired you to create this show? Why this story?
I’m very interested in the topic of the environment and climate change, and thinking about what I can do to help, and in learning about how it’s going to affect future lives, not just my own. So I wanted to dig in to that more, translate the data and issues in to the everyday world, and put them on the level of personal relationships.

What do audiences have to look forward to?
The script is shaping up well, with some unexpected comedy, as well as deep drama and emotion. I’m working music in to the show to provide an entertaining commentary on events. The whole subject has tremendous conflicts built in, with different beliefs, expectations and reality crashing in to each other, in intrinsically dramatic ways. So audiences can expect the full maelstrom of theatrical variety to get their heads and hearts in to.
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Have there been any obstacles in the creation of this show / script?
Absolutely! The report itself is a massive document full of scientific language and data. So the biggest obstacle is my own ignorance. But that makes it interesting; ‘how do I draw out the key points and make them understandable and entertaining?’ It’s fascinating, creative and educative.

Hello! We are the team behind A Proper Working-Class Sausage Roll, which is performing at The Bread and Roses Theatre on the 30th January to the 3rd February! The Bread and Roses Team have sent us a few questions about the show, and we’ve all contributed to the answers below!
 
Who are the collaborators on this production?
Naturally there is the cast: Arianna Gallenzi and Niall Humphryes, who swap between the two characters of the show each night. Then of course, Jamie Holland my talented Co-Producer, and Valentin Burwell, our sensational technician. And of course, myself, Adam Laboda, who wrote and directed the show! It's a really wonderful team. Ari and Valentin I worked with before a few times, whilst Jamie and Niall are newbies in my creative sphere! Excitingly, we have also partnered with an independent Australian musician, Matt Landi, who has written and produced an original song for the show!
 
What inspired you to create this show? Why this story?
Truthfully, I was inspired by my parents, and the parents of my friends growing up. I watched them work hard every single day in difficult jobs to provide for both myself and my younger sibling as children, and thought, why was it so hard for them? How is it okay that they put in so much time and energy, and pain, in some cases, and yet we just about get by? Those same feelings now apply to me and my friends. And we’ve all had the dream of kidnapping a politician and telling them face-to-face about our problems, right? So that is what I started writing: a serious drama about a mother who takes a politician hostage to educate them on how difficult life is. But, as I continued to write, all I could think about was how weird the concept of kidnapping a politician is! And once I cast Arianna and Niall and started workshopping the script, it was just right to lean into the absurdity, and create, what I call, my own genre of theatre: Absurd-ish! Absurdist theatre rooted in naturalistic stories; which resulted in A Proper Working-Class Sausage Roll!
 
What is A Proper Working-Class Sausage Roll about?
The show is an absurd-ish play that follows a character, known only as ‘Holder’, who has accidentally kidnapped a Member of Parliament during a wild moment of psychosis after buying a Sausage Roll. Fed up with the way the system works, Holder tries to educate the captured politician on their experiences of life. However, ‘Captive's’ attempts to debate their way out of Holder’s custardy leads them down a wild path that exposes the privilege, corruption and idiocy that exists at the heart of the Government, all amongst some sexual innuendo and references to baked savoury goods!
 
You describe the piece as “a wild path that exposes the privilege, corruption and idiocy that exists at the heart of the Government” what do audiences have to look forward to?
Adam: I think the sheer absurdity of the show is something people have to look forward to, because parts of the show are just weird. I mean, that is what I wanted to create, so that's good! But I think the moments of passion and kindness, when the weirdness is stripped away and you are left with some real and beautiful moments of humanity and theatre - those are the parts people have the most to look forward to.
 
Jamie: It’s about the humour that stems from the privilege, corruption and idiocy. Audiences can look forward to a funny piece that reflects some of the feelings of resentment and frustration that exist within society today. 
 
Arianna: Audiences can look forward to a comedic, independent theatre piece that uses humour to highlight the issues within today’s cost of living crisis.
 
Niall: You can expect wild humour mixed with the feeling of guilt.
 
Valentin: There is a stark contrast between the worlds that we live in, financially and in many other ways. Audiences can look forward to a humorous, absurd-ish clashing of worlds.

Ahead of Hazel's debut play opening at The Bread & Roses Theatre next week we spoke with her about the creation of the show and what to expect.

What inspired you to create this show?
Believe it or not, Blueberries for the Rainbow is my first full length play. I wrote the first scene as part of a short online playwrighting course in 2021 and it just grew from there. 
I desperately wanted to write a play that looked at how modern mothers are treated and how their needs are so often neglected, mostly by themselves and the people closest to them. Blueberries does this. It says to the audience: “Look! This is what happens when mothers are constantly put to the bottom of the pile. It is not ok and needs to change.”
Modern motherhood is a minefield of expectation and there is huge pressure to be perfect, often leaving mothers to feel they have failed before they have even really started.  
I believe this is why there is still such a cloud of silence surrounding post-natal depression. Many mothers don’t want to admit how they are feeling. There’s this crazy idea that struggling is all part of motherhood and women should just get on with it. 
I wanted to write a play that exposed society for its treatment of mothers, raised awareness of postnatal depression and helped mothers who are struggling feel less alone.
 
Why this story?
The story behind Blueberries came about after I read about The First 1001 Day Movement. Basically, this is a campaign to highlights how important the first 1001 days (from conception to birth) is in a child's life. 
While I agree this is an important movement, my initial though was – ‘that’s putting even more pressure on mothers’. And my second as – ‘what about the first 1001 days of being a mother?’ I wanted to write something from the mother's perspective at this time, as she is so often forgotten.
Blueberries starts on the 402nd day in one mothers’ parenting journey, when the continued lack of support results in a catastrophic event. It then goes back and forth over time, to find out what led to this point and how through more support and societal change, it could have been prevented.

What inspired you to create this show? Why this story?
This is a political satire poking fun at the entirety of the British Establishment.
Who better to be the mouthpiece for that than someone who has been spat out from its core, Prince Andrew.

You describe the piece as a pacey parody what do audiences have to look forward to?
Yes it’s pacey, funny and rude and makes some valid points about how we are mesmerised into believing in the legitimacy of people who have influence over us.

Have there been any obstacles in the creation of No Sweat?
It’s been a pretty smooth ride. As it’s a one man show it’s relatively easy to stage. Affordable rehearsal space has been difficult to find.

Who are the collaborators on this production?
Melanie Percy has done a great job with the lighting. I collaborated with my daughter Oriel with the design and props, and Jasper who plays the mouthy Prince has done a great job in bringing a world class idiot to life.

Who should see this show and why?
Anyone who has the smallest shred of respect for the Monarchy. You know who you are! Anyone with and MBE or OBE might want to keep that quiet.

What Inspired you to create this show, why this story
After our show Botox or Bust, we had done rewrites, and were working towards a Rehearsed Reading  of the new version of the show,  then Covid, social distancing and lockdown hit.    To keep writing and to keep sane,  and to keep in line with social distancing rules,  Real Housewives was born as a spin off show from BoB.    It is written around 3 characters who had proved popular,  which would make it easier to stage and tour.

What do audiences have to look forward to?
Fun, silly, flamboyant characters,  and total fantastic drama queens, “I do that “ moments.

Have there been any obstacles in its  creation?
Not least Covid and social distancing, but keeping the team on board and enthusiastic, keeping the faith and the vision.

Who are the collaborators on this production?
Monika Brodowska, Terri Spencer, Nick Duncombe, Duncan Trew and Graeham Lawrence. 

How a vanishing, pre-internet south London and a chance conversation about a comatose patient inspired Mark Bastin to write To Have and To Hold
 
For me, To Have and To Hold is the realisation of a long-held ambition. I’d wanted for some time to write a piece which captured the world my parents came from. A working class south London long before the internet, a world of pubs, going to the pictures and meeting people at the local palais. I was also keen to write a love story, but one from the viewpoint of a life lived, as opposed to the heady rush of the first few months or years.
 
The idea for the play was eventually suggested by my partner’s aunt, who at the time was one of a team of three home-carers looking after an elderly woman who had for some months been in a comatose state. She remarked on how loving the woman’s husband was, how caring, which was ironic in a way given the terrible life she’d led him when she was well. I’m not sure why, but her comment stayed with me. Why was he so caring, I wondered? Was it that he loved her unequivocally? Or, given her many infidelities, did he finally have her all to himself? Was his caring for her in some way a form of revenge?