All plays listed here have been performed, except for 'NO SURRENDER', a new play which was a recent finalist in the Dylan Days One-Act Playwriting Competition in Minnesota.
Last Revised: 2007
Characterisation: 2m 3f
Set Requirements: Split Set: 2 living-rooms
Synopsis:
SANDRA and RONNIE HARRIS, comfortably off, middle-class and well-educated, seem ideal adoptive parents, but after a visit from MRS. KENNEDY, a court representative, the darker side of their relationship is revealed. They hope to adopt the baby of FIONA, a student, and her married lover. Fiona comes from a Hebridean island where attitudes about unmarried mothers are entrenched in a bygone age. When Mrs. Kennedy visits Fiona, Fiona delays signing her final consent till her boyfriend arrives, in the hope he will have a change of attitude that will allow her to alter her decision. However his arrival adds a further sinister dimension.
AWARD WINNER IN DRAMA ASSOCIATION OF WALES ONE-ACT PLAYWRITING COMPETITION 1996.
Last Revised: 2008
Characterisation: 3m (1 non-speaking) 3f
Set Requirements: Split Set: 4/5 acting areas
Synopsis:
It is 1965, when pregnancy outwith marriage is taboo, and religious bigotry is accepted as the norm in Glasgow. DAVIE and BETTY CARMICHAEL are trapped in an unhappy marriage, the result of a rushed wedding when Betty became pregnant. Davie is determined their daughter, LIZ, will have all the academic chances he missed. At university, Liz meets and falls in love with BRENDAN. When her friend, MORAG, inadvertently reveals to bigoted Davie that Brendan is a Catholic, David is enraged, all the more so when he and Betty suspect Liz is pregnant. Tragedy follows when Davie sets out for revenge.
FINALIST IN THE 2008 DYLAN DAYS ONE-ACT PLAYWRITING COMPETITION RUN BY HIBBING COMMUNITY COLLEGE, MINNESOTA; THE COMPETITION ATTRACTED 108 ENTRIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
Last Revised: 2008
Characterisation: 2m 4/6f 1m/f
Set Requirements: One Set: a railway platform
Synopsis:
Why do people leave home and family to wander anonymously and alone? NICOLA dozes in a lonely railway station, haunted by bad dreams of past tormentors - her MOTHER and TWO SCHOOLMATES. As a MAN tries to engage her in conversation, he is interrupted by the arrival of local hooligans, TRACY, KELLY-ANN, and DARREN. Nicola's secretive manner irritates them, and the present mirrors the past when they make her their prey. The bullying escalates to become dangerously physical, but the Man intervenes to drive them off. However, left alone with Nicola, he exploits the situation when he discovers her secret - she has lost her memory.
Last Revised: 2007
Characterisation: 4f
Set Requirements: One Set: a village hall
Synopsis:
A frightening storm drives ELLEN and her elderly mother, MRS. YULE, from their dilapidated cottage to shelter in the village hall. But WENDY PENNINGTON, chairwoman of the Hall Committee highhandedly forbids them the use of the hall, fueling Mrs. Yule's resentment of incomers (white settlers) to the village. Her animosity gets out of hand and she attempts to burn down the hall. Mrs. Yule and Wendy eventually come to blows and Ellen's daughter, KAREN, intervenes, but she becomes the agent of disaster when the conflict ends in tragedy.
AWARD WINNER IN DRAMA ASSOCIATION OF WALES ONE-ACT PLAYWRITING COMPETITION 1997