Comedy, Tragedy, Farce

Plays, Readings Workshops, Discussions and Debates

A three week season that throws the spotlight on the theatre of work.

We spend a high proportion of waking lives at work. In fact, full-time employees in the UK work the longest hours in Europe. Each of us has a variety of roles to play in our working lives; we have to meet the expectations of others, and many are even subjected – like an actor with the critics - to performance reviews. The world of work is a kind of theatre, an interface of the public and private self. It is full of politics, relationship dramas, conflict and comedy.

Centred on two plays inspired by the world of business - The Pitch and Suicide Square - the WorkPlay season explores issues of identity, passion, and the conflict between the public and the private self at work.

THE PITCH
A comedy by Jonathan Guy Lewis. What happens when some wiz-kid branding agents try and throw a creative pitch together? Torment and tantrums, tension and hysteria “24 hours to go…Coffee, oxygen, more coffee – can they come up with the killer idea? The Pitch, which was developed with Soho Theatre London in 2005, followed a period working with a Soho-based Advertising Agency, delves deep into the passions, jealousies and stimulant consumption of the under pressure ‘creatives’.

SUICIDE SQUARE
A new play by Neil Fleming, Suicide Square explores the powerful networks and secretive world of top level management consultants and their impact on a vulnerable business leader. Invisible and unaccountable, consultants are everywhere. They are the latter day Medici. When the notorious Verity Consulting and their charismatic boss James Brown move into a conservative medical imaging company, all hell is let loose. The matrix of complex relationships are all tested, as are the ethics of those involved.

WORKSHOPS, DEBATES AND READINGS
A series of after-show discussions, workshops, debates and lunch-time readings of plays about work. This smorgasbord of education, entertainment and interaction aims to provoke debate around issues of work and performance: Work/life balance. Status and hierarchy. The public and the private. Bullying. The meaning and value of work

The WorkPlay idea was launched at Northern Stage’s Making Theatre seminar in Newcastle in Feb 2007 and will have a further outing as apart of a series of Inspiration evenings at Maynard Leigh associates on May 22nd and June 18th 2007. Let us know if you would like to attend. We are looking for sponsorship partners and a central London venue for the Season in 2008.