Two plays developed through drama workshops are at Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool on July 22-23 under the collective title Strained. Both are produced by artists' collective Make it Write.
In Man Up, sex worker Penny (Abbey Fitzhenry) reveals a tragic secret to lorry driver Geoff (Mike Sanders) which makes him question the way he lives and what it is to be a man.
Written by Ian Cragg, who has written several plays with the help of Make it Write, it's also directed by Abbey, who won the Best Director award in last year’s Liverpool Fringe Festival.
Ian said: “The idea arose from a belief that we often fall into a way of living or a relationship we have not thought out for ourselves, instead we fulfil the expectations of others.”
In The Tea Party, estranged son Peter battles with his difficult hoarder mum Eileen to clear her house. As he faces up to the corners and crevices of his childhood home, buried secrets begin to emerge.
Author Helen Dooley's background is in television writing, but she is enjoying the challenge of writing plays, she says: “The germ of the play came as I was trying, and largely failing, to clear my mum’s house and arguing with her over a lemon squeezer. Growing up, our house was always crammed full of things.”
Both plays came originally from The Plays the Thing workshops. Not suitable for under 16s.