Philip Osment

1988. THATCHER'S BRITAIN. Seventeen-year-old Luke runs away to London – away from homophobic playground slurs, headlines that scream 'Don't Teach Our Children To Be Gay' and a family who wouldn't understand him – to Uncle Martin, who he once saw with his arms around another man at a march. In the capital, Mark is sacked because of fears about colleagues working with 'someone like him'. His boyfriend, Selwyn, faces being beaten up both by the police and at home by his own stepbrother. Meanwhile, Debbie battles with her son, who doesn't want to live with her and her girlfriend. And retired piano teacher Miss Rosenblum – who once found refuge in this country from a terror that swept away half her family in 1930s Vienna – has seen this sort of hatred and fear before. Soon, these individual stories – of first loves and old flames, alliances and abandonment, missed opportunities and new chances – intertwine to paint a vivid picture of Eighties Britain. This Island's Mine was originally performed by Gay Sweatshop in 1988. Now, three decades after the introduction of Section 28 banning positive representations of homosexuality, Philip Osment's passionate and lyrical play, of outsiders, exiles and refugees, is all too resonant.

This Island's Mine

Stumbling upon a hidden and forgotten garden, three young friends find themselves transported to World War One, and caught up in the shocking truth of young soldiers sent to fight for their country. Beautifully illustrated by Michael Foreman, this thought-provoking play helps to bring the First World War into modern day.

The Lost Gardens

Lin Coghlan

Oladipo Agboluaje

The Wish Collector by Oladipo Agbolauje A magical epic whirling from a playground in Britain to a village in Sierra Leone The Acme Thunderer by Lin Coghlan A funny, moving family drama of pigeons and siblings, set amid the Blitz. Of the Terrifying Events on the Hamelin Estate by Philip Osment A high-spirited contemporary satire bringing the Pied Piper legend up-to-date. Three 30 minute plays by leading playwrights for children to act, commissioned by the Unicorn, one of the world’s foremost companies creating theatre with young people. Premiered as end of year performances by primary classes, the scripts are ideal school productions or for younger youth theatre groups. They are designed to be directed by teachers or youth leaders with no previous drama training. The book includes advice and ideas to support preparation, rehearsal and production.

New Plays for Children to Act

Class Acts

A psychological thriller from writer and director Philip Osment.

Buried Alive

Miguel de Cervantes

The plot of Pedro, the Great Pretender follows the tricks of a master chameleon whose picaresque escapades involve him with royalty and peasants, gypsies and actors, courtiers and shepherds, village bigwigs and religious devotees as he struggles to find his true vocation in life.

Pedro, the Great Pretender

Osment has written and directed plays for two of the country's most prominent young people's theatres

Plays for Young People

Osment's trilogy of 'Devon Plays' draw on his background growing up on a farm in North Devon and were produced in the mid-1990s by Cambridge Theatre Company (Method and Madness). The Dearly Beloved (1993): 'Local boy made good comes back to visit his mother in a small West Country town where his presence brings home to his friends who stayed put the various ways in which their lives have failed ... you can't but be reminded of Chekhov at times.' Independent What I Did in the Holidays (1995): 'Osment's wonderfully dense and detailed study of fraught life in rurally non-swinging Britain. The play charts a painfully funny path through the casual everyday cruelties inflicted by the thoughtless young and selfish old. Osment's play is a delight.' Evening Standard Flesh and Blood (1996): 'Brilliant at evoking the nostalgia of Devon country life in a strange, recidivist family ... and in the elision between outdoor lust and indoor stuffiness.' Observer

Dearly Beloved; What I Did in the Holidays; Flesh and Blood

Osment Plays: 1

DramaOnline

The residents of a small town populate the pages of Philip Osment's 'The Dearly Beloved', an exploration of rural life and spiritual longing and the first of his three plays set in Devon. In always dreaming of a better life, the townspeople fail to see the things that are in front of them. The return of prodigal son Alaric, now a successful TV producer, results in tragic consequences, shaking the characters out of their dreams and forcing them to face harsh realities. Commissioned by the Cambridge Theatre Company, 'The Dearly Beloved' won the Writers' Guild award for best regional play in 1993.

The Dearly Beloved

"A dramatist of exceptional and distinctive promise" (Daily Telegraph) The early 1950s. Two brothers and a sister are marooned on a remote farm after their father's death. They are thrown into a state of panic when one of them makes a bid for freedom. Long-suppressed jealousies and resentments begin to seethe and fester. Thirty years later an unexpected visitor brings their feud to a climax. Flesh and Blood completes Philip Osment's trilogy of Devon plays, following the highly acclaimed The Dearly Beloved (winner, 1993 Writers Guild Award) and What I Did in the Holidays (nominee 1995 Writers Guild Award).

Patrick Kindlon

About

Books

Join the club