MEGAN, Holly and Ben are definitely not the cool kids, but Megan has a plan in East Yorkshire playwright Tom Wells's new play Broken Biscuits.
They have one long summer holiday to change their lives; one sure path to coolness; one amazing transformation through the power of song in a 90-minute show with no interval.
“The point is: we’re losers. Nobodies. Carry on like this, we’re losers forever. And we don’t have to be," urges Megan, who is played by Faye Christall in the Paines Plough and Live Theatre, Newcastle co-production.
"Fresh start, two months to completely one hundred per cent reinvent ourselves. And I know exactly how we can do that,” says Megan in this coming-of-age comedy that plays Tom Wells's home turf at Hull Truck Theatre this week before moving on to Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre from Tuesday.
Holed up in Megan’s garden shed, the three friends try to change their fortunes in a heart-warming story for our times. “Broken Biscuits is a play about three teenagers starting a band: I wanted to write about the summer you finish your GCSEs, being 16, full of big hopes and big worries, figuring things out a bit and trying new stuff," says Tom.
"And I wanted to have a go at writing some lyrics, in the DIY spirit of a teenage band, fill the play with music and see what happened. I’m thrilled that Broken Biscuits is being brought to the stage by Live Theatre and Paines Plough and we've been really lucky to cast three soulful young actors with funny bones as Megan, Holly and Ben.”
Andrew Reed's Ben in Broken Biscuits
Joining Christall in James Grieve's cast are Andrew Reed's Ben and Grace Hogg-Robinson's bespectacled Holly. Christall and Reed were chosen from a nationwide search by the Paines Plough’s co-artistic director, while Hogg-Robinson is making her professional stage debut.
Grieve is delighted to be working with Wells once more. "Tom first joined Paines Plough as part of our Future Perfect group for emerging playwrights in 2009," he says. "We've always adored his writing and following the huge success of Jumpers For Goalposts we're honoured to be co-producing Broken Biscuits with Live Theatre, Newcastle.
"It's a gorgeous, hilarious, heart-squeezing play that shows why Tom is one of our best-loved modern writers. Featuring original songs from Matthew Robins and a supremely talented cast of future stars, we're enjoying sharing it with audiences on tour.”
Wells, from Kilnsea in Holderness, has written such plays as Folk; Symphony; Jumpers For Goalposts; Cosmic; Jonsey; The Kitchen Sink; Fossils; Spacewang; Me, As A Penguin; Yeti; About A Goth and Notes For First Time Astronauts. Ben & Lump, his play for Channel 4's Coming Up season, was broadcast in Spring 2012, the year when he was associate playwright at Hull Truck.
At present he is under commission to The Drum Plymouth, Northern Broadsides, The Royal Court and the National Theatre and is developing a new idea for Leftbank Pictures.
Broken Biscuits can be seen at Hull Truck Theatre tonight at 7.30pm and tomorrow at 2pm and 7.30pm, then at the SJT from Tuesday to Saturday at 7.45pm, except for 7.15pm on Thursday, with matinees at 1.45pm on Thursday and 2.45pm on Saturday. Box office: Hull Truck, 01482 323638 or at hulltruck.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com
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