[ finboroughplaywrights season ]
Wednesday, 29 October–Saturday, 22 November 2008
Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm. Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm
Tickets £13, £9 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats.
Previews (29 and 30 October) £9 all seats.
Performance Length: Approximately 2 hours.
Full booking information here
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“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
