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An ambitious and provocative experiment – a festival of new political writing from some of the most radical and vibrant voices in British theatre. The playwrights’ brief was to respond to the first anniversary of 1968 and/or the first anniversary of a new labour government.

16 new short plays

Seeing Red was an invitation to writers to create new work within a consciously political context. The result is a timely mix and fascinating spectrum of work exploring the dissent of the present and the defiant ghosts of the past.

Designed by Rosalind Coombes
Script Development by Lisa Goldman and Jeanie O’Hare
Lighting Designed by Neil Sloan
Costumes Designed by Pamela McBain and Alex Buxton
Sound Designed by Yvonne Gilbert

SEEING RED PART I

Fragmenting Red by Tony Craze

Red Sky in the morning………a new dawn. Bill may still show scars from the Grosvenor Square riots, but elected now on a Centrist plank he’s at least more comfortable if troubled. Is inteegrity really becoming synonymous with “Left Wing” as heis ex-student Kyla suggests? Are structures just sentimental patterns? And does each society really get the theatre it deseveres?

Directed by Deobrah Bruce
With Nicola Westmoore and Peter Marinker

Election Night in the Yard by Roddy McDevitt

In the courtyard of an inner city block of squats, recently taken over by a property developing housing association, an assorted bunch of drunks, junkies and wasters wile away the early hours between Labour’s triumph and the bitter dawn.

Directed by Bernadette Moran
With Peter Marinker, Nicola Westmoore, Yomi A Michaels, Daren Hawkes and Tim Steed

I’ll Cry if I want to by Aidan Healy

‘Things can only get better!’
It’s 1998 now, the Anniversary Party and guess what number’s being dropped on the turntable?But it’s another anniversary that’s troubling Rose. MP for a year, with joint in hand she sticks an old postcard of Che Guevara between Blair’s eyes. What with Cruel Britannia and affairs of the heart, things could hardly be much bloody worse.

Directed by Lisa Goldman
With Kika Markham and Jonathan Chesterman

The Head Invents The Heart Discovers by Peter Barnes

The old ways are clapped out though they continue to stagger on. Democracy is not about numbers, it is a way of life. In this play for a new theatre, Alice and Jack sit watching the sky. But it is you the audience who will create their story…

Directed by Lisa Goldman
With Frances Cuka and Ric Morgan

The Cows are Mad by Jon Tompkins

Just what is the advice Hilary gives to Bill each morning before he gets out of bed? Who is the young girl with the feisty feminist views over the picket fence? Should we put our faith in the acidic shockjock who invites us to give CNN a miss and look more closely at the old tree dwellers?

Directed by Bernadette Moran
With Peter Marinker, Nicola Westmoore, Yomi A Michaels, Kika Markham and Tim Steed

Know your Rights by Judy Upton

“I went to the Citizen’s Advice….It’s a Dunkin Donut now. Funny how your don’t notice things being closed ‘til you need them”

Jane lives in the flat below Bonnie and her son 3-year-old son Jake. It’s the kind of place where neighbours smile and say hello of a morning. But one day on the stairs Jake accidentally trips up Jane ….. Know your Rights is a funny and moving portrait of two ordinary people in dumbed-down 90’s Britain.

Directed by Lisa Goldman
With Noma Dumezweni and Frances Cuka

Text: Published in Judy Upton Plays:1 – Methuen
Links: www. judyupton.co.uk www.methuen .co.uk

SEEING RED PART II

On the Couch with Enoch by Tanika Gupta

Enoch Powell is on his deathbed and desperate to be remembered - not as a failed politician but as a poet. His final poem is about forbidden love but he is too ill to write it down. Luckily, agency nurse Amit is on hand to attend to his every need. Well, almost…

Directed by Deborah Bruce
With Akbar Kurtha and Edmund Dehn

The Mandelson Files by Paul Sirett

Pedro finds out his father wasn’t run over by a bus in Dudley High Street, he was murdered by the CIA in Bolivia. So at the age of 14 he plots his revenge on all Imperialist Capitalist scum. Mandelson to Control. Mandelson to Control. Project date May 1st 1997. News: Good.
Our mission begins………

Directed by Deborah Bruce
With David Eastman and Viv Moore

The Big Idea by Helen Kelly

“Just plugging the ideological vacuum left by the demise of socialism in Eastern Europe. Love to stop and chat but I’d best get on”

Sheila, Tracy and Bob too work in the Social Deprivation Research Unit and the research needs funding but at what price? A witty and incisive short drama about the state we’re in and the next big idea?

Directed by Lisa Goldman
With Viv Moore, Peter Marinker and Lizzie McPhee

The (Bogus) People’s Poem by Kay Adshead

An Aria for one voice – that of a young asylum seeker
Directed by Lisa Goldman
With Noma Dumezweni

SEEING RED PART III

Thanks Mum by David Eldridge

May 1st 1997. Danny is in love and Lou is unwell. Mother and son do battle over pizza, the past and where Lou put the cross on her ballot paper. A humorous and poignant family drama.

Directed by James Kerr
With Laura Cox and Paul Wyett

Slow Drift by Rebecca Prichard

The debt collector is at the door . Emma’s unemployed dad has got to leave town. But will he be able to say goodbye? A tender drama about the destruction of family.

Directed by Lisa Goldman
With Tina Kinsella and Mark Leadbetter

Made in England by Parv Bancil

New Year’s Eve. Two middle aged skinheads, one Asian and one white, get loaded with no place to go. Hung up on punk, patriotism and life in general they try to get into the party spirit. A heady cocktail of 80’s nostalgia and 90’s cultural angst.

Directed by Lisa Goldman
With Akbar Kurtha, Natalie Tinn, Ravinder Gill and Mark Leadbetter

Les Evenements by James MacDonald

Paris, 30 years after ’68. A bust up between two lovers, as the police carry out ethnic cleansing in the ghetto. A drama of barricades and betrayals.

Directed by Lisa Giglio
With Rene Zagger Brendan Price, Jan Goodman and Alexandra Hingst

Stick Stack Stock by Dona Daley

A teacher prepares her day with a familiar ritual: she drinks a litre of water and gets into the car. The roads are full of children. The day is like any other. So why does the playground seem harder to cross?

Directed by Deborah Bruce
With Roli Okorodudu

The Ballad of Bony Lairt by Roney Fraser-Munro

A Tragic farce by MR. RONEY FRASER-MUNRO

A Period Costume Piece set in 19th Century Islington. Featuring Lord Bony Lairt, leader of the new Whigs Party, and his campaign to end poverty; aided and abetted by Dr Pierre Manglesohn, a doctor without a licence to practice, his masculine love Lady Georgina Broon and Baron Jean Pressgott, an overfed thieving glutton.

Directed by Nathan Osgood
With Andrew Ferrier, David Eastman, Anthony Clegg, Tony Taylor and Gary Dunnington

CONSPIRACY –
every Sunday during May – July
presented by Tam Dean Burn

An explosion of live performance and participation in response to the politics of now. A chaotic happening, including video, film, performance, poetry, stand-up, rant, music and you. With Resident Red Room artists, guests and continuous open stage.