2016 plays and Synopses Bedbug by Snoo Wilson, Gary Kemp

2016 plays and Synopses
Bedbug by Snoo Wilson, Gary Kemp & Guy Pratt
A musical based on Vladimir Mayakovsky’s 1929 satire on the distrust of authority and the threat of
the independent voice to the socialist system during a time of growing disillusion with the Soviet
Union. Ivan Varlet is making a class change. As he prepares to marry his bourgeois bride, the former
mechanic casts off his socialist acquaintances and re-invents himself as ‘Ivor Violet’. Before he can
embark on his new life, however, a fire at the wedding kills all the guests, and sees Ivan trapped in
the ice cellar, frozen into a state of cryogenesis. Fifty years later, after the creation of a global
socialist state following a world war, Ivan is unfrozen into an unrecognisable Russia.
Eclipse by Simon Armitage
Six friends are interviewed by the police after the disappearance of Lucy Lime, a strange unnerving
girl - 'I am a walking Universe, I am' - whom they met beneath the cliffs on a Cornish beach, just
before the total eclipse of the sun.
Take Away by Jackie Kay
Take Away tells the story of a town which is in the grip of onions - everyone is doing what they can
to get their fix. Darcus, a travelling poet, turns up and offers to rid the town of the onions with his
rhymes, for a small fee.
A poetic ensemble piece about a community who pay the price for refusing to keep their promise.
The Musicians by Patrick Marber
The orchestra of Ridley Road, a state school, is to give a concert in Moscow at the European Festival
of Youth, playing Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony before an audience of cultural bigwigs. But their
instruments have been impounded by Customs. Luckily, Alex, the Russian boy who cleans the hall, is
a devout ‘Pinball Wizard’ fan who comes up with a plan that saves everyone.
Citizenship by Mark Ravenhill
Tom dreams of being kissed, but he’s not sure whether by a man or by a woman, and he feels he
should choose pretty quickly. His friends’ homophobic teasing and interrogations about what he did
with his friend Amy the other night leave Tom no space to make up his mind, and he’s got no one to
ask for advice, except maybe people on the internet.
It Snows by Bryony Lavery & Frantic Assembly
Same old story. Boy doesn't meet Girl. Girl doesn't meet Boy. Threatened by terrifying Lads Gang.
Threatened by awe-inspiring Girls Gang. Mum and Dad have declared war... against each other.
Weird neighbour in the building opposite. Usual ordinary gloominess. Then, one day, it snows.
Everything changes.
Blackout by Davey Anderson
Inspired by the true story of a young offender from Glasgow who had committed a violent crime, a
hard-hitting play about getting bullied, fighting back, trying to make a name for yourself, turning
vicious, doing something stupid, losing everything, then finding your way again.
Bassett by James Graham
At Wootton Bassett School the supply teacher has done a runner and locked the pupils in their
classroom. Dean needs the toilet, Aimee needs a coffee, Amid needs to pray, and Leo… well, Leo
really, really wants to escape. Outside, only yards from their confinement, a repatriation of fallen
British soldiers is happening along the high street, as it has over a hundred times before through this
quiet Wiltshire town. But this one is more personal than most. As factions form and secrets are
revealed, maybe Leo is not the only one who'll want to get away. An exhilarating startling snapshot
of a generation who have inherited a world at war.
Children of Killers by Katori Hall
The president of Rwanda is releasing the killers. Years after the Tutsi genocide, the perpetrators
begin to trickle back into the countryside to be reunited with their villages. A trio of friends, born
during the genocide’s bloody aftermath, prepare to meet the men who gave them life. But as the
homecoming day draws closer the young men are haunted by the sins of their fathers. Who can you
become when violence is your inheritance?
Gargantua by Carl Grose
When Mr. and Mrs. Mungus have a baby it isn’t the bouncing blue-eyed boy they were hoping for.
After a two-and-a-half year pregnancy, Mini Mungus gives birth to a monster – one with an
accelerated growth rate and an insatiable appetite for anything that moves (including joggers). But
when sinister military scientists become intent on cloning an army of giant babies from the giant, he
breaks his chains and escapes. The world can only watch in horror as he embarks on learning how to
walk and rampant destruction. Who will stop this freak of nature? Who will decide his tragic fate?
And who, more importantly, will change his nappy?
I’m Spilling My Heart Out Here by Stacey Gregg
It’s the daily scramble across no-man’s-land: you flinch as you pass those even more clueless than
you, strewn from the barbed wire of exams, first dates, evil former best mates… but hell’s ok if you
stick together.
What Are They Like? by Lucinda Coxon
Adolescence is a rough ride. You've got existential angst, mood swings, fashion fiascos, terrifying
physical changes, never enough money... And that's just the parents. How well do you know yours?