Past Productions
The following shows were produced as part of the Gainsborough Literacy programme working with Shooting Fish Theatre Company.
THE DEMAND
Written by Neil Edwards and directed by Emily Bignell in 2017, The Demand is a fast-paced thriller that has numerous twists and turns.
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Synopsis
After discovering his son has been kidnapped by the enigmatic Mister ‘E’, wealthy bond trader Samuel Tiptree knows that if he’s ever to see his son alive again, he’s going to have to give the kidnapper what he wants.
But when money isn’t enough, what else is there to trade?
10:01 The Minute They Came
Written by Neil Edwards and directed by Emily Bignell in 2018.
Synopsis
After witnessing her baby daughter snatched from her cot by aliens on the sprawling farm she shares with her husband, wealthy heiress Rachel Coombs wonders if she will ever be reunited with her daughter again.
But was it her daughter who was taken . . . or just her sanity?
The Murderess
Written by Neil Edwards and directed by Emily Bignell in 2019.
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Synopsis
1895. In a prison cell, 72-year old Margaret Van Woods awaits imminent execution for the mass murder of young women, conducted over a 40 year reign of terror. The night before her hanging, a ghostwriter visits charged with the task of penning Margaret’s story, an unprecedented opportunity to unearth the truth behind the frenzied killings.
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What were the motivations and methods? How did Margaret evade capture for so long? And why, most alarmingly, was every victim missing her heart?
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“How many were there in the end?” the ghost-writer asks the murderess.
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But she never gets her answer.
For the total number has still to be settled...
No Picnic
Written by Rob Johnston and directed by Emily Bignell in 2021.
A few years from now. A country coming apart at the seams. Homeless Lenni and her granddaughter Jess take temporary and desperate refuge in the grounds of an abandoned church, at the edge of a decrepit graveyard.
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It is a chance to block out the struggles of the world by having a quiet picnic.
But the unexpected arrival of Reverend Wilson, a most unconventional clergyman, reminds Lenni and Jess that the old days are long gone, and the world is now a very strange place indeed. Above their heads CCTV cameras turn their suspicious and vengeful eyes on all they see. Every whispered privacy is overheard, recorded, and stored away forever.
And beyond the uncertain protection of the rusty church-gates,
a familiar darkness is gathering...
Fleur de Lis
Written by Neil Edwards and directed by Emily Bignell in 2022.
Produced by Leanne Taylor
Sixteen-year-old Fleur is yet to find her place in life. Trapped in a battle of wills with her shiftless mother, and a small town that pays her no attention, her life seems to be an endless cycle of apathy and hopelessness. When she unexpectedly stumbles across Tracey Emin’s 'My Bed', the infamous artwork that once scandalised the world, a spark is ignited within her. Fleur then embarks upon an artistic crusade to turn her own messy life into a voyeuristic indulgence; a place where the gentrified classes can gawp at her squalor. What lengths will she go to and what price will be paid?
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