Search results for ""Author Deborah Bruce""

A sharp, dark comedy that explores the inescapable difference between feeling 19 and being 19. Lou is getting on with her life, carefree and without ties. But this abruptly comes to a halt when her 19-year-old god-daughter Minnie moves in to take up a place at university. Minnie's arrival shines a harsh light into the corners of Lou's life – revealing it to be not as it seems. Her relationships are complicated, her neighbours are closing in on her, and the clock is ticking. What does it mean to be a grown up? Deborah Bruce's play Godchild premiered at Hampstead Theatre in October 2013, directed by Michael Attenborough.

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'When the barman pointed to the cordoned-off area I was like, who are all these old people at our reunion?' It's been thirty years since former flames Alex and Jason last saw each other. With their carefree university days long behind them, the student reunion seems the perfect opportunity to reconnect, revive and relive their heyday. But as they flirt with reigniting their passion – even if just for one night – will the march of time get in the way? Deborah Bruce's Raya is a witty and tender play about whether or not we can ever turn back – or stop – the clocks. It opened at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in June 2021, directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert. Deborah Bruce's other plays include Godchild, The Distance and The House They Grew Up In.

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Mary has just been released from prison. She wants to come home and forget all about it – but Briana has other ideas. Over two tumultuous days, a family is forced to confront not only their past, but everything about themselves. Because the truth doesn't go away, even if you refuse to hear it. A powerful story of family and forgiveness, Deborah Bruce's play Dixon and Daughters was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in April 2023, directed by Róisín McBrinn and co-produced with Clean Break.

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A painfully funny play about motherhood (and fatherhood), about keeping control, and about letting go. Good friends should be there for one another – no matter what. But when Bea returns home after five years abroad, having made a bold choice about her life, old friends struggle to support her, or even to understand. One night in Brighton, things threaten to slide into chaos... Deborah Bruce's play The Distance was premiered at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, in October 2014. It was a finalist for the 2012-13 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

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'My parents are here. In the walls and the floorboards and the bricks of this house. This is not only your street with only your stories.' On a residential street in South East London, reclusive siblings Peppy and Daniel live in a house stuffed full of everything they have ever owned. With their eccentric appearance and their rampant garden hedge, they're not like others on their road. When young Ben from next door comes visiting, looking for friendship, what happens next challenges everyone's idea of neighbourliness. Deborah Bruce's play The House They Grew Up In is a tender, dark and funny look at co-dependency, anxiety, and living alongside those who are different from us. The play was first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in July 2017 in a co-production with Headlong.

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When Josie dies in an old people's home, her grandchildren gather to share their memories of her, and her fellow residents feel the effects of her death as her funeral takes place. Is the gulf between the young and old as wide as it feels, or are we fundamentally the same inside whatever age we are? Deborah Bruce's play Same was commissioned as part of the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival and premiered by youth theatres across the UK. Originally written for young actors, but with roles from teens to eighties, Same can be performed by groups of any age.

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Five characters share a common thread: Joanne. But it's not about her. It's about Stella, whose tomorrow is as far away as winter from summer. It's the way Grace finds her song on the footpath between two cars. It's about Alice's MBA wasted on plugging holes, Kath's patients crawling alongside her after the night shift and it's Becky caught in the crosshairs of what's best and what's right for her students. But what about her? What about Joanne? In Joanne, five of the most exciting voices in theatre explore the pressures on our public services as one young woman buckles under pressures of her own. The play comprises five interconnected short plays for a solo performer, written by Deborah Bruce, Theresa Ikoko, Laura Lomas, Chino Odimba and Ursula Rani Sarma. Commissioned by Clean Break, Joanne premiered at Latitude Festival in 2015, before transferring to Soho Theatre, London.

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