We’re excited to announce new details of the plays due to be shown at two Playwrights Pathway sharings on 4 and 5 September at the Royal Court Theatre.
Playwrights Pathway is a partnership between Clean Break and Royal Court, supporting a small group of Clean Break Members to develop their playwriting craft, working towards their first full-length play-script.
These events will share a series of rehearsed extracts of the following plays:
Difficult Daughters is an intergenerational story exploring three generations of women from the same family lineage, all with complex issues and needs around identity and belonging.
We look at their past and present and uncover traumas reactivated by colonial acts of violence, where over 2 million were starved and forced to sever their connection to the land. Part gig-theatre, part drama, Difficult Daughters uses traditional Irish storytelling and folk music to capture the grandmother Patty's fractured sense of self. Against the backdrop of four decades, we witness patterns of behaviours repeating themselves - until the mould breaks, bringing about change and hope.
Glitz ‘n’ Gutz follows Maria, a young woman who has just been housed in a room in a temporary accommodation shared with two other girls. We discover the breakdown of family relationships between Maria and her foster mum, Ama and her girlfriend Gina.
Following Maria on her journey of healing, reconnection, transformation and self-discovery as she tries to come to terms with the effects of a life-threatening disease - Crohn’s. The party is over and she realises she must focus on self-care and self-love.
Mango Season is about female genital mutilation (FGM) and the effects this has on a young eleven-year-old Somali girl. The play explores what womanhood means in Somalian tradition juxtaposed with what it means to our protagonist, Samira.
With the use of ancestral chorusing, an approach influenced by Ntozake Shange, Mango Season addresses the complexities of FGM and the relationship Samira has with her body, and her rejection of the traditions that are not part of her world. The trauma of Samira’s experience puts her on a different journey, far from her sheltered, privileged Chelsea upbringing.
Mix Up Mix Up is a cross generational story that takes a candid look at how systemic and cyclical failures of state, racism and trauma impact the women we meet in this play. Their emotions, belief systems, and identity are all mixed up in a world that doesn't cater to them
Maureen is a white woman trying to raise mixed-race daughters Helen and Sharon in the 1970s and 80s. The sisters are trying to find out who they are in a world that offers little support and a lot of judgement. We witness the three women reckoning with the history that refuses to let them live in the present.
With the birth of a new generation, however, seeds of hope and resolution are sewn.
swan is about three working class Irish women living in London. Lilly falls in love with Sinead. Macy, Lilly’s little sister faces displacement from her community due to gentrification. The play explores the relationships between Lilly and Sinead and how they embark on the journey into parenthood. It takes us on a journey allowing us insights into gentrification, bodily autonomy, gender expression and the challenges of love.
This programme was delivered by Rachel Valentine Smith and Titilola Dawudu, Creative Associates of Clean Break and Jade Franks from Royal Court's Open Court, with support from Dubheasa Lanipuken.
The Programme dramaturgs were Gurnesha Bola, Jade Franks, Rachel Valentine Smith and Titilola Dawudu.
Rachel Valentine Smith, Creative Associate at Clean Break says: “Working with the Writers each week to develop these brilliant stories has been a privilege. Delivering the programme with the Royal Court team has been such a rich and meaningful exchange that celebrates our organisation’s history together in a really special way.
There is no one way, no right way, no google-able way to write a play but each of the writers have approached it with incredible heart and verve. I can’t wait to share the work more widely.”
Jade Franks, Open Court Associate at The Royal Court comments: It has been an absolute pleasure to collaborate with Clean Break on the Pathways Project. It's been an incredibly successful project which is indicative of the longstanding relationship between The Royal Court and Clean Break. For me personally, working with these writers every week for almost a year has been one the highlights of my time working at The Royal Court. I have been continually inspired by and grateful to be sharing a space with the six writers as well as all those part of the Clean Break community.
Open to the public and free of charge, we hope you will join us to celebrate these imaginative stories, brought to life by the individual voices and talents of our writers.
