Theatrescience New Play Commissions Underway!

May 20, 2010

Theatrescience is buzzing with writerly activity: three established playwrights have been commissioned to produce pieces for ‘Not My Fault’ , and this month sees Ben Musgrave – previous winner of the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize for ‘Pretend You Have Big Buildings’ – travelling to Uganda to research a new play inspired by the groundbreaking DART HIV clinical trial.

As part of Theatrescience’s commitment to nurturing new talent, three young writers from the South West of the UK are also being supported through the first draft stage of creating new pieces of ‘guerrilla theatre’, which will be performed at the Eden Project as part of ‘Not My Fault’ in November 2010.

All six new works commissioned as part of ‘Not My Fault’ explore the project’s overarching theme of genetic predisposition and personal responsibility.  We live in a world where genetic information is becoming more widely available, and the simplistic suggestion that our characteristics, health and fate are contained in our genes is being popularised by the media’s often pseudoscientific approach.  How do people really feel about their genetic identity? And does knowledge of your genetic heritage lead to a fatalistic approach to your future physical and mental health, or spur you on to change your lifestyle in the hope of preventing disease? These are some of the questions being addressed by Simon Turley, Selma Dimitrijevic and Alison Falconer, three of the playwrights who attended the Theatrescience workshop weekend in November 2009, and subsequently pitched their ideas to the Theatrescience team. 

While still in the early stages, distinct pieces are emerging that explore these themes in startlingly different ways.  Young writers Sophie Macdonald, Kate O’Keefe and Jack Redmond are creating short plays on themes as diverse as genetic matchmaking, the genetics of mental illness, and the genetics of aging, and will see them performed in the temperate biome of the Eden Project, with Simon Turley’s play ‘State of Nature’ taking place in the tropical biome.

Meanwhile, Ben Musgrave is preparing for a research trip to Uganda that will enable him to meet a wide range of patients, clinicians and drama workers who have been involved in the Development of AntiRetroviral Therapy in Africa (DART) trial:  the largest HIV clinical trial of antiretroviral therapy (ART) carried out in Africa.  This landmark trial took place over six years and involved thousands of people in Zimbabwe and Uganda.  Notable for its unique approach to patient and community engagement and the, at the time, unprecedented provision of free drugs by major companies, the trial showed conclusively that ART can be delivered without expensive routine blood tests, which could have huge implications for the treatment of HIV in Africa.  With support from Theatrescience and Imperial College London, Ben will be finding out about the experiences of many people involved in the trial, how communities were involved and the impact its had on participants and the region.  We hope this will provide inspiration for a new play to be developed over the following months, as Theatrescience continues its fruitful partnership with Imperial College. 

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