“Down to Zero is a smartly written relationship drama – sympathetic and often very funny”
Tracy Sinclair – THE STAGE
Down to Zero is an emotionally explosive, darkly funny new play about two people, furiously in love, struggling to stay afloat as the past threatens to sink their future.
“In the eyes of evolution I am now a pointless person.”
As Steph hits the menopause, she feels she is becoming a bystander in her own bewildering decline. Her partner Sam plans a surprise weekend away for her 50th birthday, but their determined idyll is ripped away by the arrival of a surprise visitor…
“I’m slipping away and I don’t know what to do…”
The play and all reaction pieces were created by women over 40, a demographic under-represented in the Arts.
“This year…theatre has often felt to me more urgent and necessary than ever, and never more so than when it provides a room full of people with a shock of recognition and validation. I found that in…the audible groans of recognition and sheer absolute bloody relief that greeted Down to Zero (and its smartly calibrated response pieces), which tackled the still-too-often unspoken side effects of menopause”
EXUENT MAGAZINE: Alternative Theatre Awards “Commuity Catharsis Award”
“Cleverly balanced writing. Just when you think you know how this will end- it’s all thrown out into the open”
Ten writers created a short piece of theatre in response to DOWN TO ZERO.
Thurs 20 June (early eve), Sat 29 June (day), Tues 9 July (early eve)
Cost £20 incl all workshops
Followed by a showcase / rehearsed reading of all the pieces on
FRIDAY 12 JULY AT APHABETTI at 9pm.
A series of 3 x 2 hour workshops using Down to Zero as the springboard for to write a 5-10 minute drama with discussion, exploration of style, story, structure, character and dialogue, and focused writing exercises with deadlines both in the room and between workshops. Down To You culminated in a rehearsed reading of each short play by professional actors at Alphabetti in July.
…
‘An Accident Of Birth’
Writer.
Directed by Matt Jamie as part of an evening of new short plays celebrating the fight for women’s votes, alongside readings of Suffrage Plays written at the time of the Suffragette movement.
Two siblings try to understand human relationships and gender roles through overheard conversations from inside the womb.
Cast Jude Nelson and Adam Jordan Donaldson
When: Thursday 17th – Saturday 19th May 2018
…
CONSUMED
writer/performer
working in collaboration with musician/sound designer Aron Kyne.
Small Venue Network Scratch Night, Seven Arts, LEEDS
‘CONSUMED’ is a new play with 2 actors and 2 musicians/sound designers creating the story together live onstage.
“Running parallel to advances in the games industry are huge advances in music technology which give such creative potential to seduce and manipulate the audiences senses and fuel their imagination. We want to make and tell stories that help us experience the world from each other’s perspectives sometimes, across the generational divide. We need to stop talking about the way the world was and understand the world that our sons and daughters are inhabiting now and are shaping every day.”
Gervais (15) is consumed with and brilliant at computer games. Sara (49), his mum, is fucked off. The all-too-familiar real life ‘screen-time’ battle between parent and child reverses when Sara creates ‘Leto’ (Oblivion/The Hidden One) and goes into direct battle with Gervais’s onscreen character ‘Yuudai’ (‘Great Hero’).
We see Sara/Leto rise from derided ‘noob’ to decorated warrior as it dawns on Gervais that this virtual arse is getting kicked by his mother who has become obsessed with ‘CONSUMED’ herself.
As the play progresses we learn that this is for real. Every death is happening and has consequences, but in another world just out of reach.
The two musician/sound designers will be live-scoring the play/creating the game with a combination of pre-composed music and interactive improvisations involving all 4 performers.
“The trauma inherent in the subject matter is addressed with a perfectly pitched amount of humour and smart delivery. At a time when internet censorship, monitoring and surveillance are daily headline news, this vital piece of work is more relevant than ever”.
Playwright
with response pieces from
Allison Davies, Claire Tustin, Degna Stone & Beccy Owen and podcast radio plays by Wendy Errington
BEST NORTH EAST FRINGE AWARD
Chris Neville Smith Blog
BEST ACTOR (Arabella Arnott) and shortlisted BEST NEW PLAY
British Theatre Guide Best of North East Theatre 2019
Alternative Theatre Awards – COMMUNITY CATHARSIS AWARD
Exeunt Magazine
Down to Zero is an emotionally explosive, darkly funny new play about two people, furiously in love, struggling to stay afloat as the past threatens to sink their future.
“In the eyes of evolution I am now a pointless person.”
As Steph hits the menopause, she feels she is becoming a bystander in her own bewildering decline. Her partner Sam plans a surprise weekend away for her 50th birthday, but their determined idyll is ripped away by the arrival of a surprise visitor…
“I’m slipping away and I don’t know what to do…”
The play and all reaction pieces were created by women over 40, a demographic under-represented in the Arts.
“This year…theatre has often felt to me more urgent and necessary than ever, and never more so than when it provides a room full of people with a shock of recognition and validation. I found that in…the audible groans of recognition and sheer absolute bloody relief that greeted Down to Zero (and its smartly calibrated response pieces), which tackled the still-too-often unspoken side effects of menopause”
EXUENT MAGAZINE: Alternative Theatre Awards “Commuity Catharsis Award”
“Cleverly balanced writing. Just when you think you know how this will end- it’s all thrown out into the open”
Chris Neville Smith Blog: Best North East Fringe Award
DOWN TO YOU
Ten writers created a short piece of theatre in response to DOWN TO ZERO.
Thurs 20 June (early eve), Sat 29 June (day), Tues 9 July (early eve)
Cost £20 incl all workshops
Followed by a showcase / rehearsed reading of all the pieces on
FRIDAY 12 JULY AT APHABETTI at 9pm.
A series of 3 x 2 hour workshops using Down to Zero as the springboard for to write a 5-10 minute drama with discussion, exploration of style, story, structure, character and dialogue, and focused writing exercises with deadlines both in the room and between workshops. Down To You culminated in a rehearsed reading of each short play by professional actors at Alphabetti in July.
…
‘An Accident Of Birth’
Writer.
Directed by Matt Jamie as part of an evening of new short plays celebrating the fight for women’s votes, alongside readings of Suffrage Plays written at the time of the Suffragette movement.
Two siblings try to understand human relationships and gender roles through overheard conversations from inside the womb.
Cast Jude Nelson and Adam Jordan Donaldson
When: Thursday 17th – Saturday 19th May 2018
…
CONSUMED
writer/performer
working in collaboration with musician/sound designer Aron Kyne.
Small Venue Network Scratch Night, Seven Arts, LEEDS
‘CONSUMED’ is a new play with 2 actors and 2 musicians/sound designers creating the story together live onstage.
Gervais (15) is consumed with and brilliant at computer games. Sara (49), his mum, is fucked off. The all-too-familiar real life ‘screen-time’ battle between parent and child reverses when Sara creates ‘Leto’ (Oblivion/The Hidden One) and goes into direct battle with Gervais’s onscreen character ‘Yuudai’ (‘Great Hero’).
We see Sara/Leto rise from derided ‘noob’ to decorated warrior as it dawns on Gervais that this virtual arse is getting kicked by his mother who has become obsessed with ‘CONSUMED’ herself.
As the play progresses we learn that this is for real. Every death is happening and has consequences, but in another world just out of reach.
The two musician/sound designers will be live-scoring the play/creating the game with a combination of pre-composed music and interactive improvisations involving all 4 performers.
…
Punching The Sky
WRITER/PRODUCER/PERFORMER
Northern Tour and Soho Theatre as part of A NATION’S THEATRE 2016
Lowry, Live Theatre, Hull Truck, Cast, The Civic (Barnsley), Square Chapel, Harrogate Theatre, Derby Studio, Carriageworks, Seven Arts, Soho Theatre.
supported with public funding from Arts Council, England
www.artscouncil.org.uk