Plays
The following plays can be bought through PayPal at the price of £4.99 per play. Please use the form on the contact page to let us know the title of the play you would like to buy, if you require a performance licence and for how many performances. The performance license is the royalty payment to the playwright, at the cost of £15 per performance. We will send you a PayPal invoice to the email address listed on the contact form and once payment is received, you will be emailed a PDF copy of the play. If you have any queries or would like further information, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
All plays are Copyright material - under the terms of sale you have permission to make a directors copy of this material and one copy for each character mentioned in the script.
All plays are Copyright material - under the terms of sale you have permission to make a directors copy of this material and one copy for each character mentioned in the script.
3 male/1 female - Synopsis: Freely adapted from "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Edmond Rostand and Steve Martin's film "Roxanne", this comedy set in the north east of England tells the story of Cy Smith, a middle-aged man with a secret. Cy is an internationally renowned poet who’s true identity is a mystery to all except his agent. In order to preserve this identity, he works as a refuse collector and often frequents his local pub. One day a new barmaid, Roxy, starts work there and not only Cy but also another regular, Chris, a local jack-the-lad, fall for her. With the other character, Mister Digweed, in the role of pub landlord, is the perfect foil for Cy's humour. We watch as Cy, using a mobile telephone and the power to imitate voices, masquerades as Chris to win Roxy’s affections with funny and poignant results in a comedy in which nobody is who they seem. Featuring music from Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, The Stranglers, The Clash and Alison Moyet.
“Cyrano” was written in 1999. It received development funding from Northern Arts and a small showcase tour of 6 small-scale venues in North East England at the end of 2000. In 2001, the funding was increased to £12,000 and this enabled us to hire a director and tour 16 mid-scale venues in England and France.
“Cyrano” was written in 1999. It received development funding from Northern Arts and a small showcase tour of 6 small-scale venues in North East England at the end of 2000. In 2001, the funding was increased to £12,000 and this enabled us to hire a director and tour 16 mid-scale venues in England and France.
For Schools - 1 female/2 male - Synopsis: set in an imagined school playground, Harry’s Dream tells the story of a young bright boy whose healthy growth and schooling is upset by bullying classmate “Killer”. Unsure what to do and or who to tell and not wanting to resort to violence himself, Harry is on the point of despair when an alien spaceship crash-lands behind the bike sheds and out jumps a Green Girl. She hears about Harry’s predicament and, after repairing her engine, shows Harry how to fight bullies none aggressively.
HD was written in late 1996 with the help of then-Chief Child Psychologist David Smith and based on policy common in UK schools at that time. Its first public performance was 26-02-97 with Tony Stowers, Laurence Goissaud and Tony Hindhaugh. It went on to be performed 165 times in primary schools around northern England for almost two years.
HD was written in late 1996 with the help of then-Chief Child Psychologist David Smith and based on policy common in UK schools at that time. Its first public performance was 26-02-97 with Tony Stowers, Laurence Goissaud and Tony Hindhaugh. It went on to be performed 165 times in primary schools around northern England for almost two years.
2 male - Synopsis: Eddie, an 80-something ex-north eastern English miner and now widower, slowly packs his belongings with his adolescent grandson, as he prepares to leave the council flat he has lived in for most of his life for a retirement home. Each object holds a memory. Through songs and stories of working class life, it is an age that at first seems removed and alien to our own and yet slowly becomes more tangible. An affectionate look at the Twentieth century based in part of the working life of my own grandfather.
2 male - Synopsis: Baghdad, Iraq, the spring of 2003. The Battle of Baghdad rages and one retired and one active soldier, Iraqi and American, are trapped by rubble in a secret basement bar. Rick and Ali somehow make it through the two acts without killing each other but getting to know each other instead, finally ending up on the roof where they play a real-time friendly game of Classic Pool – not a staged one – a genuine game played during each performance that highlights the random-ness of choices and of life or death. The end of course is always the same.
1 female/3 male/one dead “body” non-speaking - Synopsis: As NATO forces enter Iraq the media feeds a constant river of images of war into the daily lives of millions of people in Britain through television sets. One such home is that of a young waster who just died injecting heroin with two other low lives and one ambitious young woman determined to alter he destiny whatever the cost. Violence overseas or violence at home – what’s the difference?
Development-funded by Arts Council North East, OOTL was first performed professionally to an invited audience at The Buddle Arts Centre, Wallsend, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in June 2004, with Tony Stowers as writer/director and actors Nicola Woods, Brian Voss, Tony Hindhaugh and Joe Teague.
Development-funded by Arts Council North East, OOTL was first performed professionally to an invited audience at The Buddle Arts Centre, Wallsend, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in June 2004, with Tony Stowers as writer/director and actors Nicola Woods, Brian Voss, Tony Hindhaugh and Joe Teague.
3 male/1 female - Synopsis: Kick-started by certain scenes in Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming” on British television around ’84, ’85 and regular trips to Manchester on the train to see my girlfriend in student accommodation, “The Bond” is the return from Australia of a man to a family of small-time crooks in England, claiming to be their long-lost brother. Neither we the audience nor they the family are quite sure if the man is who he says he is. When it comes to family, blood is always thicker than water, but must we take those family oaths to our graves?
3 male/1 female - Synopsis: Based loosely on the biography “Le Petomane” by Frank Caradec and Jean Nohain, this is a two-act serious play with lots of comedic bits, rather than a comedy with serious bits. Le Petomane was aka Joseph Pujol, a real-life French baker who at the end of 19th century – as the British began displaying “The Elephant Man” in London - hit upon the idea of turning “passing wind” into an art form, or a very ribald entertainment if nothing else, packing the Moulin Rouge out for years, proof positive that sophistication and crudity make strange bed-fellows! The story sensitively charts how Joseph discovers his gift and turns into a hit entertainment without compromising his dignity.
First public reading : Newcastle Arts Centre, February 2005. Second public reading The James Joyce Public House, Tuileries, Paris (Moving Parts Theatre) March 2010, with Maja Beiler, Kester Lovelace, Tony Stowers and Dario Costa.
First public reading : Newcastle Arts Centre, February 2005. Second public reading The James Joyce Public House, Tuileries, Paris (Moving Parts Theatre) March 2010, with Maja Beiler, Kester Lovelace, Tony Stowers and Dario Costa.
5 male/4 female - Synopsis: Blended as a hybrid theatre play/film from the Amazon book “A Teesside Voice” by Tony Stowers, this is the story of a young northern drug dealer drifting through London’s post-Thatcherist underbelly in the early 90’s. Based on people the author knew in Camden Town at that time, Rob Barlow is the key antagonist whose imagination and paranoia conflict in a seedy London of hustlers and thieves, pimps and backstabbers, corrupt journalists and nouveaux riche wasters, as he drifts inexorably to a disaster that offers a slim strand of redemption. First public reading: The Actor’s Centre North East, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, March 2005, with a combined ensemble of actors.
1 male - Synopsis: A worker in a nameless, faceless, nightmarish basement kitchen begins his work as a Dish Washer and relishes informing us of every fine detail of his job - a disturbing, nightmare-ish study of the uneducated, unqualified and oppressed workers of the world.
2 male - Synopsis: Saturday night beneath the plastic palm tree and two pairs of dissatisfied male friends who’ve never met before (one gay couple, the other straight) hit town. By Sunday, one will have been re-born, one will have won insight, one will have lost everything and one will still be bad at playing Dominos. Originally entitled “A Town Called X” and in part inspired by the title of the American film “American History X” and the murder of Matthew Shepherd by homophobes in the late 90’s in mid-west America, “X” is performed over 35 minutes, promenade style n atypical spaces and with the music of David Bowie. “X” is a challenging but important piece of work .
“A Town Called X” was first performed at Live Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in November 1999 with development funding from Northern Arts. It featured David Napthine, Tony Hindhaugh and Danielle Elliot and was directed by Tony Stowers. “X” was performed in March 2010 at The End bar in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for 3 weeks with Terry Betts and David Hannah in the two roles and Tony Stowers as director.
“A Town Called X” was first performed at Live Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in November 1999 with development funding from Northern Arts. It featured David Napthine, Tony Hindhaugh and Danielle Elliot and was directed by Tony Stowers. “X” was performed in March 2010 at The End bar in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for 3 weeks with Terry Betts and David Hannah in the two roles and Tony Stowers as director.
2 adult females, 11 adult males, 4 boys of 12 years old - Synopsis: Set in the North East of England, a fatherless boy of 9, David Lovatt, disturbed by deja-vu and dreams by night of screeching seagulls, bright but bullied at school (and unable to ride a bike) lives in a matchbox council house on a run-down estate near Durham City, with Mum, Lisa, who struggles with low-paid jobs whilst hiding a secret: a hit-and-run accident years before in which Lisa’s unpunished ex, Scotty, killed a female pedestrian. Lisa and her son have been running away from Scotty ever since.
Mike Shepherd, their neighbour, located to the estate by the social services, hides secrets of his own and chance brings him into the lives of his neighbours, Lisa and David. Having lost his wife-and-son some years before in an accident, Mike’s budding career in the police service was cruelly nipped in the bud as his life fell apart and he hit the bottle and skid-row. Estranged from his own family, Mike battles his ghosts alone - until one day the boy next door knocks on his door and asks if he can help teach him how to ride a bicycle in time to take a Cycling Proficiency Test some months in the future. Briefly, Mike rediscovers feelings he’d had as a father with David and David finds a role model in Mike, time enough for Mike to sober up and take stock. With a hint of romance between Lisa and Mike, were it not for the looming storm gathering over the head of Scotty, their future would have potential. But then Lisa and David suddenly disappear and leave no forwarding address. Mike hovers on the edge of his own private hell once again.
When Scotty’s “big deal” goes wrong he makes his escape onto a lonely moor road where, unbeknown, David is perfecting his moves for the impending Cycling Proficiency Test. With a tragic twist seconds away, a seagull suddenly slams into the window of Scotty’s jeep and sends it and him to a watery grave in a quarry. With tragedy, loss and reflection in the air and with the aid of Mr Appleyard (David’s primary teacher and his special project based on “Communication through History”: the pen, hieroglyphics, the printed word, the photograph, the microchip, etc), David suddenly “remembers” the event that has haunted his young mind for 3 years.
The truth out and the fall-out of retribution settled, the Cycling Proficiency Test briefly unites Mike, Lisa and David, hinting at a bright future for all of them. But who is the elderly gentleman conducting the Proficiency Test - somebody’s husband, somebody’s son, somebody’s father?
First public reading: February 2005, Actor’s Centre North East, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with Tony Stowers, Terry Betts, Dave Hannah and Molly H.
Mike Shepherd, their neighbour, located to the estate by the social services, hides secrets of his own and chance brings him into the lives of his neighbours, Lisa and David. Having lost his wife-and-son some years before in an accident, Mike’s budding career in the police service was cruelly nipped in the bud as his life fell apart and he hit the bottle and skid-row. Estranged from his own family, Mike battles his ghosts alone - until one day the boy next door knocks on his door and asks if he can help teach him how to ride a bicycle in time to take a Cycling Proficiency Test some months in the future. Briefly, Mike rediscovers feelings he’d had as a father with David and David finds a role model in Mike, time enough for Mike to sober up and take stock. With a hint of romance between Lisa and Mike, were it not for the looming storm gathering over the head of Scotty, their future would have potential. But then Lisa and David suddenly disappear and leave no forwarding address. Mike hovers on the edge of his own private hell once again.
When Scotty’s “big deal” goes wrong he makes his escape onto a lonely moor road where, unbeknown, David is perfecting his moves for the impending Cycling Proficiency Test. With a tragic twist seconds away, a seagull suddenly slams into the window of Scotty’s jeep and sends it and him to a watery grave in a quarry. With tragedy, loss and reflection in the air and with the aid of Mr Appleyard (David’s primary teacher and his special project based on “Communication through History”: the pen, hieroglyphics, the printed word, the photograph, the microchip, etc), David suddenly “remembers” the event that has haunted his young mind for 3 years.
The truth out and the fall-out of retribution settled, the Cycling Proficiency Test briefly unites Mike, Lisa and David, hinting at a bright future for all of them. But who is the elderly gentleman conducting the Proficiency Test - somebody’s husband, somebody’s son, somebody’s father?
First public reading: February 2005, Actor’s Centre North East, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with Tony Stowers, Terry Betts, Dave Hannah and Molly H.
This is a freely adapted version of the original story by Charles Dickens condensed into this form for a one-person reading over the course of some 25-30 minutes. This is a workable and animated adaptation that was successfully performed 12 times to elderly residents and long-term hospital patients. Scrooge, Marley, Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and Mr Fezziwig – all brought to life before your eyes – and ears!
