HEADING WEST
A Play by Philip Goulding
Minimum Cast 3m 2f Maximimum Cast 11m 11f
In the middle years of the nineteenth century more than two million men, women and children abandoned the British Isles and headed west to America. Amongst them were a number of farm labourers and their families. These men and women, fearful of the new free market in foreign corn, and seeking to avoid at best a reduction in prosperity, and at worst destitution and the workhouse, chose to uproot to a New World that - it was rumoured - could be both tamed and owned. Despite popular opinion, the voyage out would not be easy. Seasick, homesick and herded like cattle, the emigrants were swindled, robbed, insulted and terrorised at every stage. Some would not even manage to make it all the way across the Atlantic. Set in England and America, Heading West follows the journey of Lizzie Wilson, her husband Edward (a carpenter and occasional bareknuckle fighter), and her farming partner George Ash. Together they travel from rural England to the bustling port of Liverpool. Having booked their passage to America they then endure a harrowing trip across the Atlantic, until the green shores of New England are sighted at last. After a short stay in New York they head up the Hudson River to Albany and then on to the Merrimack Valley. Will they eventually have the opportunity to build the kind of life Lizzie's long been dreaming of: at home on a farm in the Land of the Free - or will fate and circumstance ultimately intervene to split the trio up, spreading them far and wide across the seemingly endless expanse of America?
Alison Ball and Tim Treslove in Heading West, directed by Kevin Shaw.
Photograph by Ian Christy.
In 1852, more than 49,000 men listing their occupation as "farmer" emigrated from the UK to America. Heading West charts the lives of three of them from scratching a scant living on an English farm, through the dangerous bustle of the Liverpool docks, across 35 days of open sea to New York, and on, via the sharks feeding on the innocent and exhausted emigrants, to a farm in New England. This is powerful drama, illuminating the world of the emigrants. Heading West is a fascinating play. (Blackmore Vale Magazine)
This is drama on a grand scale peopled with richly Dickensian characters, adventure, hardship, tragedy and a sprinkling of comedy. Theatre doesn't come any better than this. (Dorset Echo)
There are no dull moments and many comical ones. A cleverly constructed and vivid play. (The Stage)
Heading West designer David Haworth has created a box of tricks from rope and wood to transform into settings to take one poor farming family from old England to New England in the 1850s. Playwright Philip Goulding depicts the Wilsons - brawny Edward and cheerful hardworking Lizzie - letting them represent the many thousands of people who emigrated to try to escape poverty. The play is full of colour and warmth, brimming with lively characters and capturing a haunting era. (Salisbury Journal)
THE BELLE OF BONAVISTA BAY (2m 2f)
This hugely enjoyable show bridges the centuries so convincingly. Goulding cleverly combines two stories, centuries apart, and makes an appealling adventure. There are some great one-liners, great moments of intense drama, delightful comedy asides and a nice touch of romance. There is so much to enjoy. Philip Goulding is an imaginative writer and this is a gem. (The Stage)
The Belle of Bonavista Bay weaves two intriguing stories: of a past migration from Poole to Newfoundland; and the return of Daniela, a Canadian, to England to find her roots. Not only are the two stories interwoven, but they are interspersed with folk songs and sea shanties. The central theme of the play is how history, our connections to it and our perception of it, shapes our lives. An enjoyable piece of theatre. (reviewsgate)
A warm and lively play with plenty of twists and turns in the script. A bitter-sweet comedy. This is a challenging story full of dry humour and wit and one which will delight audiences everywhere. (Salisbury Journal)
A story of love, loss and longing that will move and amuse you in equal measure. (Western Gazette)
Mark Carlisle, Amanda Maud and Morag Brownlie in The Belle of Bonavista Bay, directed by Sean Aita.
HORSE OR RIVER? (2f 2m) one-act
Oldham Coliseum Outreach 2008
Rafi, a successful Asian businessman in his forties, returns to his hometown where he hopes to build a monument to cultural diversity by turning an abandoned council building into a Sports & Community Centre. He gets Pam, a youth worker, on board to help develop his plans. On site they encounter Lee and his friend Menika, a Muslim. Lee's father is a racist and Lee is struggling to break free of his influence. Menika has fond memories of the council building from when Pam ran a successful Youth Club there - but that closed down due to a lack of funding. As Rafi starts to build his dream Pam warns him that he will encounter hostility from some sections of the community. But Rafi is determined to succeed...
Poppy Jhakra and Sue Devaney in Horse or River, directed by Jodie Lamb.
THEN HE KISSED ME
2m 3f minimum 7m 5f maximum cast
Royal Theatre Northampton 1993, Guildford SA 1994, Brighton Festival 1995, Courtyard Theatre/Soho Theatre Co, London 1996
Then He Kissed Me is a chillingly straightforward tale - Tina, a factory girl, discovers, a few days after her 21st birthday, that the boy she had a one-night stand with three years earlier was HIV positive. Goulding's job is to show the effect this has on the lives of those around her, and he does this movingly. Goulding has a good ear for realistic conversation and a Mike Leigh-like eye for the details of human relationships, and it is this authenticity that gives Then He Kissed Me its power: the rows and misunderstandings, the inadvertent insensitivities, the everyday ironies. By its honesty, quality of observation and lack of self-pity, Goulding's play goes further, emotionally, than many others I have seen with the same subject. (The Stage 1996)
A provocative and appropriate love story for the 90s. (Plays International)
Goulding's ambitious exploration. (Time Out)
This powerful piece. A disturbing, contemporary love story. A thought-provoking, moving production. (Radio Nene Valley)
The superb script was subtle in its approach, and full of comic nuances along with a few surprises and plenty of punches. (Chronicle & Echo)
A sensitive examination...highly charged emotional scenes. A moving evening. (Morning Star)
Raw dramatic power...genuinely funny scenes. Riveting. (Camden New Journal)
Philip Goulding has approached this subject head-on. He does not preach or dictate but faces the turmoil with reality, fear & compassion & some wonderful humorous touches. (The Stage 1993)
David Case and Lisa Howard in Then He Kissed Me for the Royal Theatre Northampton, directed by Joe Sumsion.
WAITING FOR ELVIS
2m 2f minimum cast 8m 3f maximum cast
March 1960. Word gets out that Sergeant Elvis Presley is scheduled to land at Prestwick Airport in Scotland on his way back to the USA from National Service in Germany. It would be the one and only time Elvis set foot on British soil. Tony Taylor is a mechanic in Nottinghamshire. Hearing the news of Elvis’s imminent arrival he decides to skip work and set off on a quest to see his hero in the flesh. Joining him for the adventure are his sister Jean and her friend Sylvia. Jean’s feet appear to be firmly on the ground, while Sylvia is hoping to be swept off of hers. Waiting for Elvis follows the ups and downs of the gang’s journey from Nottinghamshire to Scotland and their subsequent dramatic dash from Gretna Green to Prestwick. Will time run out or will Tony achieve his ambition – to see the Memphis Flash at close range?
A livewire script and top quality acting – how much better can it get? Wonderful entertainment. (Chronicle & Advertiser)
Gillian Perry and Kate Setchell as Jean and Sylvia in Waiting for Elvis, directed by Gavin Stride.
interval (with nude) (2m 1f)
interval (with nude) is an intricately-structured, witty and truthful play about the behind-the-scenes world of the theatre. Imaginatively conceived and confidently written, this quirky, entertaining and thought-provoking piece features George Spelvin - a washed-up, middle-aged, former TV actor, who, with young, upcoming actress Anna McLean - is about to star in the premiere of a new play - also entitled: interval (with nude). Set in six different intervals, interval (with nude) presents a credible and authentic series of back-stage scenes showing the development of a new play from the first dress rehearsal, through a tour of provincial theatres, and on to the final performance. Along the way George and Anna spar not just with each other, but also with the writer/director of interval (with nude), as he struggles to shape his play into the kind of commercially-viable product which might guarantee the project an extended life beyond the confines of its first provincial tour. Suffice to say, George and Anna don't always agree with Philip's inflated opinions about his play.
Euan Uglow - The Quarry Pignano, 1979-80. Oil on canvas, 80 x 113.12cm. Copyright Estate of the Artist. Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London
ON A FOREIGN SHORE (2f 1m)
Margaret is a trawlerman's widow living on the edge of a decaying coastal town. Against her wishes, her daughter Rebecca is finally leaving home to move in with her 'poet' boyfriend. But before too long Margaret has acquired a lodger - Milton, an American painter on the trail of a famous artist who visited the area over a hundred years ago. On A Foreign Shore looks at the ways the lives of the two women are irrevocably reshaped by the arrival of this exotic male stranger.
Fisher Girls on the Beach at Tynemouth by Winslow Homer
THE SPIRE (Minimum cast 10 m 3f + 1 child. Maximum cast 22)
Adapted from the novel by William Golding.
Set in England in the Middle Ages, The Spire tells of Dean Jocelin's efforts to realise a vision by building onto his cathedral a huge, 400-ft tower and spire. Without foundations, and against the advice of clergy and masons alike, the spire is erected - octagon upon octagon, until its shadow falls darkly upon the world below. This superb tragedy is about the conflict between faith and reason, and explores how the making good of Jocelin's vision entails endlessly disagreeable and unforeseeable discoveries. Driven on by his faith, Jocelin's folly is eventually constructed in the teeth of technical obstacles which any sane man would have regarded as prohibitive. The building of the spire symbolizes the things man calls into existence, with his vision, brain and hands, that were not there before, and shows the incidental sacrifices made by men and women involved even indirectly in this work. William Golding's extraordinary story shows us how one man comes to terms with what it means to be human.
Interior of Salisbury Cathedral by Joseph Mallord William Turner
(2m 2f)