matthewturner.info

Much of my time this year has been spent developing my new play Dead Yard. This includes an Arcola Lab residency in May and a performance at the Arcola PlayWROUGHT festival in July.

The year draws to a close with welcome news that the play reached the final 40 in the longlist for this year’s Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.

Dead Yard has been in development since 2015 and is a real passion project, drawing on family history and my own grief at losing loved ones. Really I feel that all my writing to date has been leading to this play, and it’s by far my proudest achievement.

So what is Dead Yard all about? Four siblings try to come to terms with the loss of their father while confronting their domineering mother. This is a play about family secrets, despair and hope, and the struggle to forge a new future under the weight of tradition.

On the back of our incredible feedback this year I plan to take Dead Yard into full production in 2018. If you’re interested in getting involved with this exciting project please contact me.

‘Call off the funeral, Mummy! Chuck him in a skip and be done with him!’

Pop-Pop is dead. Yet his widow, Coral, is more intent on making war than mourning her late husband. And the children are her target. Battle commences at the family home over the traditional nine nights of festivities with old-time music, painful memories and shocking revelations. This is no ordinary wake.

Tickets are available now for a very special reading of my new play, Dead Yard, as part of the Arcola PlayWROUGHT festival. The reading will be directed by Yasmeen Arden, and takes place at the Arcola Theatre on Monday 24 July at 8.30pm.

Our cast for Dead Yard includes Kevin N Golding, Karlina Grace-Paseda, Jacqui-Lee Pryce, Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge and Lucille Findlay.

As part of the PlayWROUGHT process, all the selected writers had the opportunity to workshop their plays with Lisa Goldman. This was an invaluable experience and my thanks go out to Lisa, the others writers in our group and the organisers of PlayWROUGHT.

I hope to see you on the 24th!