Description
Book SynopsisThis collection features four urgent and explosive plays by award-winning playwright Evan Placey, each tackling issues facing young people today. They provide ideal material for teenagers to read, study and perform.
Girls Like That explores the pressures caused by technology when a schoolgirl’s naked photograph goes viral. Commissioned in 2013 by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and West Yorkshire Playhouse, it has subsequently been performed by school and youth-theatre groups across the UK, at the Unicorn Theatre, London, and in the Houses of Parliament. It won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences.
Banana Boys, published here for the first time, is about the challenges of being on the school football team – and secretly gay. It was commissioned and produced by Hampstead Theatre’s heat&light company in 2010.
In Holloway Jones, Holloway dreams of being a world-class BMXer, but she is held back by the tough reality of a parent in prison. Also making its debut in print here, the play was commissioned by Synergy Theatre Project, toured schools and the Unicorn Theatre in 2011, and won the 2012 Brian Way Award for Best Play for Young People.
Finally, Pronoun is a love story about two childhood sweethearts dealing with the fact that one of them, Isabella, has now become a boy. As one of the plays in the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival it proved enormously popular with youth theatres and college companies.
'Maybe change starts with plays like this' Lyn Gardner, Guardian, on Girls Like That
Trade Review'Evan Placey treats his themes with a raw honesty and no attempt to censor the less savoury aspects of them… an interesting collection of plays that will challenge both teenagers and adults'
* Word Matters (Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech & Drama) *
'Four of [Evan Placey's] best plays assembled in a single volume. Youth theatres, schools, drama schools and the like will find plenty of gritty material to work on here'
* The Stage *
'This collection of plays for teenagers is a must... The subject material is often challenging but absolutely vital and handled with the right mixture of sensitivity and courage. Sexuality, family and friends lie at the heart of the four plays contained here and all are highly accesible and would work with a range of acting styles and cast sizes. Placey's characters are totally believable and the dialogue crackles with wit and insight'
* Teaching Drama *
