[ finboroughplaywrights season ]
29 October – 22 November 2008
“It’s alright for you innit? You got your dad to sort everyfing out for ya. My dad might as well be up the fuckin’ Andes, for all I know – for all the use ‘e is. Liverpool, Portsmouth – I aint got a fuckin’ clue where ‘e is. An’ wha’ is there for me in Pompey anyway? Just blocks o’ flats, that’s all, I mean ‘em tall tower block fings; miles an’ miles of ‘em…”
As Liverpool celebrates European Capital of Culture 2008, we present a world premiere of a new play from Liverpool playwright Dameon Garnett, following the success of his Time Out Critics' Choice debut play, Break Away, at the Finborough Theatre in 2005.
Blake and Reece are sixteen: two boys from two cities, Liverpool and Portsmouth. The tensions of North and South play out as the boys realise their backgrounds may not be so different after all. Blake is lumbered with a baby he never wanted. His dad, Gary, is struggling to cope as a single parent while teaching his son how to face the responsibilities of being a father. Reece has run away from home, hasn’t seen his father in years and is slipping into a criminal underworld from which there appears to be no way back.
Two mates, one plan and a future where the straight and narrow is an empty road – and coincidentally inspired by the two cities that Boris Johnson, London’s new mayor, famously offended! Follow is a touching and gritty drama about fatherhood, friendship and growing up fast.
Playwright Dameon Garnett was born in Liverpool. His first play Break Away was premiered at the Finborough Theatre in 2005 when it was named Time Out Critics' Choice and starred Tina Malone, leading actress of the hit TV show Shameless. The script is published by Oberon Books. Other work includes New Year's Day which was given a staged reading at the Royal Court Young Writers' Festival, with Michael Angelis. He was an Associate Writer at the Liverpool Everyman, and has also received a bursary from the Soho Theatre. He has also had staged readings of his plays performed at the New Ambassador’s, the ICA and the Pleasance, all directed by Rufus Norris.
Director Ken Alexander makes his London debut at the Finborough Theatre. He is the Former Artistic Director of two of Scotland’s most prestigious venues – the Byre Theatre, St Andrews, and Perth Theatre, and he is also currently Consultant Director to one of Scotland’s longest established touring companies, Borderline Theatre, Ken trained as a director with Joan Knight at Perth Theatre, and his many productions include Outlying Islands, Stepping Out, The Grapes of Wrath and Passing Places (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Death Story, Out On the Wing, and Ae Fond Kiss (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Suddenly Last Summer (Freed Center for the Performing Arts, USA), Into the Woods, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Master Class (Byre Theatre, St Andrews), Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (Perth Theatre), and Scottish tours of Californian Poppy, The Odd Couple, Bondagers, and Parking Lot in Pittsburgh.
The cast includes Oliver Gilbert, Adam Redmore and Paul Regan.
Oliver Gilbert’s credits include After Ashley (Finborough Theatre), Contemporary Dance (National Theatre Workshop), Killing Faith (Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne) and Outside the Cradle (Etcetera Theatre). Television and Film includes Atonement , Beyond the Rave and Londoners.
Adam Redmore’s credits include Macbeth, Three Sisters, West Side Story, Kindertransport, Hobson’s Choice, Dying For It and The Suicide (Bute Theatre) and Billy and the BWCA (Edinburgh Festival). Radio includes If You’re Reading This (BBC Radio 4) and Under Milk Wood (Royal Welsh College of Music And Drama).
Paul Regan’s credits include Pvt Wars (Finborough Theatre), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Astonished Heart and Still Life (Liverpool Playhouse), The Winter’s Tale (Wirral Shakespeare Festival), Kindess (Etcetera Theatre), Chavasse – VC and Bar (Liverpool Cathedral), Waste (Unity Theatre), Enter the Clown (Theatre in the Mill, Bradford). Film includes Day in the Life and Esther Kahn. Television includes New Street Law (Red Productions), and Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps (BBC). Radio includes the plays A Northern Elegy, A Painter’s Sky Lost in Liverpool (BBC Radio 3), Silver Grey and Unprotected (BBC Radio 4).
The Press on Break Away
“Break Away…signals the arrival of a perceptively class-conscious and nuanced playwright." Lucy Powell, Time Out
“You can't deny Garnett's bruising energy." Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Liverpudlian Dameon Garnett’s first play contains cracking dialogue, excellent jokes and good characters. It is a promising debut.” Colin Shearman, The Stage
The Press on Follow
“This is a play that celebrates real family values (not necessarily the ones the politicians go on about) and the humanity at the core of each of us, and does so with plenty of laughs along the way.” Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide
“This is a play that will say a lot to youngsters without ever being preachy and oldsters may see much of their old selves in it.” Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide
“Another day, another gritty urban drama. Liverpool low life: teenage wasters, teenage druggies, teenage parents… we’ve been this way a thousand times. The Finborough stage hosts a dingy living-room design that’s as familiar as the set-up, so we strap ourselves in for a brain-battering night of social hectoring. That’s what we’re conditioned to expect; which is why the real shock of Dameon Garnett’s Follow is just how entertaining it.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
“There is a priceless moment in the opening scene where Reece sprawls on the floor while Blake slumps over the settee at an improbable angle, stretching and scratching. Huh – teenagers. Did I mention how funny this play is, or how uplifting? There are nuggets of pure gold amid Follow’s northern grit.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
“Follow retains an upbeat, chirpy wit.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Undeniably sparky and entertaining.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“A touching picture of male domesticity.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Dads are often portrayed as pretty useless in the theatre, and Dameon Garnett's play is a breath of fresh air, a slight but ticklish account of three blokes not so much bringing up baby as learning to take responsibility in the absence of women.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
“Never showing the women in these men’s lives, and contrasting the structure provided by a father who’s present with Reece’s rudderless existence, intensifies the combat between ill-focused aspirations and the demands of mundane reality.” Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate
‘Follow’ has many surprises and the authenticity of the characterisation makes the action totally believable.” The News Line
“Adam Redmore and Oliver Gilbert...play them beautifully, aided by dialogue that sounds totally natural.” Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide
“Adam Redmore’s bemused, credulous and sulky Blake is matched by Oliver Gilbert’s desperate, persuasive and goofy Reece.” Aleks Sierzs, The Stage
“The complexity of adolescent angst is beautifully rendered by the two younger actors.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
“Pouting, sulking, both terrified and irritated by the tiny being he has helped to create, Adam Redmore's Blake is a bewildered, maddening yet irresistibly likeable manchild.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Oliver Gilbert is poignant as Reece, nervy, filled with longing and a staunch defender of the mother who fails him.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Adam Redmore makes Blake's journey from reluctant dad to doting father surprisingly believable.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
“Blake (Adam Redmore) maintains an uneasy balance between fury and indolence; the audience can never be sure whether he is going to lounge on the sofa, throw a strop or lash out.” Maxie Szalwinska, Metro
“His horrific candour gives the production a convincingly gritty tone: when told to give his child a bath, he considers putting him out in the rain.” Maxie Szalwinska, Metro
“Oliver Gilbert is very good as the slippery Reece, and there is sterling work from Paul Regan as Gary, a parent just trying to do his best.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
“As Gary, Paul Regan adroitly conveys the mingled exasperation, love, loyalty and occasional flicker of paternal pride of the sorely tested parent.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“A fine performance too from Paul Regan as Blake’s father Gary.” Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide
“As the adult, Paul Regan gives Gary a solid moral ballast.” Aleks Sierzs, The Stage
“A sympathetic performance by Paul Regan.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
“Dameon Garnett has a real ear for vernacular speech.” Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide
“Dameon Garnett paints a vivid picture of troubled teens, the play’s big themes of parental and individual responsibility almost burst through the confines of this small domestic drama.” Aleks Sierzs, The Stage
“Garnett’s writing has an irresistible momentum that ensures we care deeply what befalls this trio.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
“Garnett does have a good knack for tension, and an admirably unpatronising sympathy for his characters.” Andrew Haydon, Time Out
“Dameon Garnett’s rapid-fire, short-scene terseness hustles the action along, the hopes, urgency and limited practicality of the younger men contrasted by the steadier attempts of the more mature Gary to rebuild his own life round a new relationship while directing his son towards responsibility.” Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate
“Here is a young playwright who understands and can portray a new generation.” The News Line
“Garnett's script is peppered with wry observations and banter, and the relationships are spot on in Ken Alexander's easy production.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
“Its appeal lies in Garnett's compassion for his floundering characters, his rapid-fire, whip-smart dialogue and Ken Alexander's persuasively acted production.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Ken Alexander’s cast ensure they’re vividly presented, pointing up the individuality.” Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate
“These strong portrayals, propelled by the pace and precision of Alexander’s direction – there’s real desperation, for example, in the search for lost drugs – point up the particularity of Garnett’s play in its insistence on the value of lives from the anonymous estates.” Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate
“Ken Alexander’s direction achieves a spontaneity of playing that keeps the audience constantly engaged.” Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide
“Ken Alexander’s well-balanced production, on Georgia Lowe’s naturalistic set, brings out the play’s humour as well as its conflicts and his cast are very good.” Aleks Sierzs, The Stage
“Ken Alexander directs with verve and brio.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
“The Finborough stage is tiny and cluttered in Georgia Lowe’s naturalistic design, yet the actors inhabit it with great physicality.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
“As in Edward Bond's Saved, the wails of a neglected baby resound through this new play by the emerging Liverpudlian writer Dameon Garnett.” Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Nathan is played by a doll of such extraordinary realism that our suspension of disbelief is never challenged. His creator, Nikki Thompson, has set a high bar for the future of stage babies.” Mark Valencia, Whatsonstage
