Saturday 10th May. City of Exiles. Running Order
Drama (10 minutes) : 'The Passing' By Wendy McNeilly, Directed by Andrew Sharpe, Cast: Talya Rajagukguk
Wendy McNeilly's short monologue play 'The Passing' is inspired by the plight of refugees around the world and the effects of climate change and of humanity's actions on others and on wildlife and nature. Wendy writes poetry and is working on further monologues, as well as a full-length play.
Drama (15 minutes): 'Aunty' by Maxi Di Poet, Directed by Olivia Marie, Cast: Martin Jordan and Andrea Mbarushimana
This dramatised spoken word piece is a loving tribute to those people who make such an impact on our lives. Aunty was a pillar of the family. She was loved, cherished and adored. She took the pain away not just as a nurse but she made everyone whole. Maxi Di Poet (aka Martin Jordan) is a creative spoken word artist and actor. He was part of the poets collective, 'We Are Poetry Nation' performing at Springboard 2024.
Poetry (5 minutes) Zsofia Hacsek
Music (30 minutes) Lauren South
We are so lucky to have Lauren South perform for us again after her acclaimed set last year. Lauren South is a Warwickshire singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist renowned for her original compositions and traditional melodies. With the accompaniment of tenor guitar, fiddle, and shruti box, her songs exude heartfelt emotion and vivid imagery, drawing inspiration from her passion for the nocturnal heavens, the natural world, and her journey through motherhood. Beyond her solo endeavours, Lauren is an enthusiastic collaborator and constitutes half of the dynamic new duo, Donnelly & South, alongside Keith Donnelly. Her debut solo album Tiny Boat was released in November 2023.
Poetry (5 minutes) Alison Manning
Drama (20 minutes): 'Scapegoat' by David Court, Directed by Dean Sheridan, Cast: Murray- Alan Wales, Devil- Alice Scott
Haunted by doubt and fueled by alcohol, Father Murray, a haggard Catholic priest world-weary from a thankless job, faces the ultimate test. His love for people long extinguished, he merely goes through the motions. Enter The Devil, an androgynous, arrogant, and exuberantly manipulative tempter, determined to exploit Murray's despair and shatter his already crumbling faith. A gripping exploration of temptation, despair, and the battle for a soul.
Poetry (10 minutes) Shaniece
Shaniece Martin is a poet and researcher whose work explores memory, identity, and diasporic belonging through the lens of the mental return—a concept she develops in her practice-based PhD at Coventry University on Indian English poetry. Her poetry engages with ancestral lineage, migratory histories, and the fluid spaces between East and West, Global North and Global South. Drawing inspiration from her family archives, including photographs taken by her ancestors in Nairobi, Kenya, her work blends image and word to navigate the in-between space where personal and collective memory meet. Poetry, for her, is not only a creative act but a form of research—a way of returning, reimagining, and remaking identity across generations and geographies.
Drama (35 minutes): 'Through A Stained Glass Darkly' by Anne-marie Greene, Directed by Pete Gillam, Cast: Kelly Davidson, Lilian McGrath, Anne-marie Greene
Madeleine, Roberta and Edith have been friends for years. They are women trying to do their jobs, but they’ve only been allowed in since 1994 and don’t a lot of people let them know it? While they try to serve their congregations faithfully, life is just harder when you’re a woman priest. Clerical robes don’t fit well round busts and baby bumps and having to make the cakes and sort the flowers conflicts with getting on and writing that killer sermon.
On the afternoon of July 14th 2014, the three women get together on the occasion of the historic vote on women bishops. As they share their experiences, we come to understand how they have coped with the difficulty of their situation -the laughs, the joys, the heartbreak, the suffering-and to realise what still makes it all just about worthwhile.
A decade after the date of the vote on women’s bishops, this piece of original theatre utilises transcripts from academic research interviews conducted with 40 clergywomen in the Church of England.