INHERITANCEA NEW PLAY BY SCOTT WRIGHTWITHOUT DécOR AT THE KING’S HEAD THEATRE

4 / 11 / 18 OCTOBER 2014

Bruce is the founding artistic director of Thrust. He trained at Middlesex University. Directing includes Photographs, Pornography, The Bell Jar, Aladdin, In-Vitro (Thrust), Spineless, Our Space (Theatre503). Dramaturgical work includes adaptations of The Bell Jar and On Chesil Beach (Thrust). He conceived and curates More Storm in a collaboration between Thrust and Middlesex University.

BRUCE ADAMSDirector

Having recently moved to London, Michael’s work in the capital includes Housed (Old Vic), A Borough United ( Jacksons Lane). Michael studied at Liverpool Hope University, before continuing his training at Hope Street Ltd in their Emerging Artist programme.

MICHAEL MUSA IDRIS DENNIS

Rachel trained as an actress at Middlesex University and Palmer’s College. As an associate artist at Thrust her work includes: Photographs, On Chesil Beach, Pornography, The Bell Jar, 6 Characters In Search Of An Author. Other performance: Good Will Hunting, Chatroom (Cockpit). While training: The Breasts Of Tiresias, Ubu Roi, The Street Of Crocodiles (MDX).

RACHEL WOODREBECCA

Scott studied English Literature with Creative Writing at the University of Surrey, and previously trained as a performer with the National Youth Theatre and at Palmer’s College. He is currently a member of the Old Vic Community Company and an associate artist at Thrust. As a writer/performer for Thrust: Photographs, Inheritance. Other performance: God Save the Teen (Trafalgar Square), Hard to Swallow, Mugged, Sparkleshark, Daz 4 Zoe (Thameside).

SCOTT WRIGHTWRITER / JASON

CAST & CREATIVE:

INHERITANCEA NEW PLAY BY SCOTT WRIGHT

Inheritance was first performed in a workshop production on 21 May 2013 in the Ravensfield Theatre, with the following creative team:

Director: Bruce AdamsDesigner: Zakk HeinCast: Adam Hammet (Jason), Luke Joyce (Dennis), Rachel Wood (Rebecca)Costume designer: Ester Mangas Fernandez

Inheritance was commissioned following a period of research facilitated by Middlesex University, aimed at identifying the critical topics and conversations present in contemporary playwriting. The goal was to commission a new play which would add to this conversation.

The family unit is a fundamental feature of at least 23 of the 56 plays studied (41%). As well as portrayals of the conventional nuclear family there have been plays about foster families, plays about childless couples, plays about families after the children have grown up, about single parents of both genders, extended families, even plays about men giving birth.

Also present was a strong sense of place: The Last Of The Hausmanns was firmly rooted on the south-east coast, For Once in a rural village near the Welsh border, People in National Trust heartland. Grief and Detroit were heavily concerned with the pressures and expectations of suburban living. Wastwater, set around Heathrow airport, imposes a grittier urban setting on its characters while Love, Love, Love transplants its characters from the city to the suburbs to the country: as one character says, to their dismay, “we live, as you know, in Reading”. These settings seem to go beyond providing mere backdrop: to have set the plays anywhere else would have altered their meaning.

You see I’m authentic Basildon. If there was a Basildon stick of rock. In a manner of speaking. And I was that stick of rock. I would have Basildon spelled right down me insides. (In Basildon)

Most interestingly, where these two circumstances overlapped playwrights seemed to explore with notable regularity the “gap” between today’s twenty-something generation and their parents. This gap has been argued to exist in a multitude of forms, including wealth, careers, aspirations, politics and lifestyle. In a number of examples the liberal spirit of the sixties is contrasted with the hardship and conservatism of the 1980s:

I don’t know if you noticed, Mum. But while you were wanking into a chrysanthemum, Margaret Thatcher was making her entrance. Did you see? Jesse Helms. Ronald Reagan. Now that was a revolution. They knew the terrain, darling - scorched earth. Jesus Christ - You hippies - you could have learned a thing or two about changing the world from those people. (The Last Of The Haussmans)

There is some reference to the right-wing governments argued to have been voted in by the parents to protect their wealth being to blame for this: “You didn’t change the world, you bought it. Privatised it.” (Love, Love, Love). In NSFW a feminist graduate with a first-class degree works diligently but reluctantly for a Nuts-esque magazine: “All my mates are on benefits and [...] I don’t want that”; while her middle-aged editor appears to have risen to the position with a relative straightforwardness.

Overwhelmingly, a significant clutch of plays seem to argue that twenty-somethings have far fewer opportunities than their parents, and the self-destructive nature of the young characters in a significant number of these plays is portrayed as an inevitable endpoint of this.

DIRECTORBRUCE ADAMS

CASTMICHAEL MUSA IDRISRACHEL WOODSCOTT WRIGHT

THANKSFreya Martin, Zakk Hein, Ester Mangas Fernandez, Nicola Stammers, Charlotte Thompson.

Without Décor AT THE KING’S HEAD THEATRE takes a world premiere play and presents it at its truest and most vulnerable: without sets, lighting or costumes, the play is left with only its most vital components - space, writing, acting, directing, audience. The play is repeated three times as a work-in-progress, giving it space to develop and evolve through each encounter with an audience. THEREFORE, YOUR FEEDBACK IS VITAL! SEE OVERLEAF FOR WAYS TO TELL US WHAT YOU THOUGHT.

“A GREAT SHOWCASE OF YOUNG TALENT”THE ARGUS

“AN ABSOLUTE MUST-SEE”JOYCE HYTNER OBE

“VISUALLY STRIKING”DR CHARLOTTE THOMPSON

“INCREDIBLY BRAVE”NICK HERRETT

“GREAT IMAGINATION”JULIA PASCAL

“SOPHISTICATED...POWERFUL”PEDRO DE SENNA

“UNMISSABLE”FRINGE REVIEW

“”FRINGEGURU

A formidable ensemble with a reputation for risk-taking and invention, Thrust unites a family of directors, designers and performers to make daring new work with a young voice and a bold heart. Multi-disciplinary collaborative practice is at the heart of everything we do. Founded in 2007 and led by artistic directors Bruce Adams and William Bowden, we maintain an eclectic repertoire that emphasises the collective practice of our artists, whose diverse specialisms traverse the spectrum of the theatre arts. Often text-based and always contemporary, we make work that frames its content through innovative use of the theatrical form.

artistic directors: bruce adams & william bowdencompany producer: rosanna grimes artist in residence: zakk hein

TELL US WHAT YOU THOUGHT!The aim of Without Décor, the King’s Head Theatre’s innovative programme for new writing, is to facilitate the development of new plays by exposing them to audiences at their truest and most vulnerable. Every week we will be re-working the play based on your feedback, therefore it’s really important for you to tell us what you thought! Comments, criticisms, likes and dislikes - no matter how big or small - are all super-valuable.

Come and tell us in person at the theatre, or post your views via our social media on the right. Feel free to get in touch any time by emailing thrust@thrusttheatrecompany.co.uk.

You can visit our website (where you can also join our mailing list) at www.thrusttheatrecompany.co.uk.

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