I finished the 1st draft of a play this week. It's shite and I could not be happier. This draft was not about getting it right. It was about getting it written.
DEATH OF ENGLAND: CLOSING TIME in the Dorfman / Sept 2023
@Clint_Dyer_
and
@royboywilliams
reunite for the final, standalone chapter in the award-winning series.
The cast is
@therealjomartin
and Hayley Squires.
Exploring family dynamics, race, colonialism and cancel culture.
"I don't see colour"
"All lives matter"
"This is not about race"
"Playing the race card"
"My best friend, colleague, neighbour is black..."
"I'm not racist but...."
If you say these things, please educate yourself.
You are part of the problem.
DO THE WORK
Well to say
@IRubasingham
getting the NT job was the best news to wake up to would be a lie as I have been hearing strong hints for the last 2 weeks. But I am still awake, it is still the best news and I am still bloody well smiling. The future looks bright on the southbank x
Getting pretty emotional seeing the reviews for Death of England: Delroy come through. 🥺
★★★★ The Guardian
★★★★ Evening Standard
★★★★ The Telegraph
★★★★ The Stage
★★★★ WhatsOnStage
★★★★ The I
Tonight, at the Lowry Theatre in Salford two plays of mine will open in the same building at the same time , on both of their theatre spaces.
This has never happened to me before. Feeling well chuffed.
"I don't want people to think they're alone."
A 13-year-old schoolgirl explains why she needed to attend the Black Lives Matter protest in Reading and gives her experience of racism.
Get the latest on the UK protests:
Just when I felt theatre had lost the power to break one's heart, i go to to see Faith Hope and Charity
@NationalTheatre
. I don't care if you are tory or labour. As a society we must do better in terms of looking out for each other, otherwise what is the bloody point?
Tonight we say farewell to Rafe Spall's 'blazing' ★★★★ (The Stage) performance in
@royboywilliams
and
@Clint_Dyer_
's
#DeathOfEngland
.
Thanks to each and every one of you that has come to see it.
Chichester Festival Theatre's 2019 season announced, with actors featured including Hadley Fraser, Amara Okereke, James Nesbitt, Clare Burt, Hugh Bonneville, Sheila Hancock and many more
We have lost another legend, the celebrated actor Earl Cameron CBE! I One of the first black people I saw on television. I remember how excited my family would get whenever he appeared. "Earl's on the tele again, come!" A true inspiration. Rest in eternal power, great man.
Black Lives matter means Black lives matter! It really is that simple. So it may have hard left origins, so bloody what? Are black people supposed to wait for a The Daily Telegraph reading right winger to stand up and say "BLM"? Pardon me, if I don't hold my breath.
@Debradoodoo
@eddiemarsan
@prodnose
I grew up on a council estate in West London, there were kids with loving dads, kids (like me) with no dads, and kids who were terrified to go home because of the moods they dads might be in coming back from the pub. I totally relate to what
@eddiemarsan
is saying.
🚨 EXTRA TICKETS AVAILABLE🚨
New dates have been added for Roy Williams' 5-star adaptation of The Lonely Londoners👀
Book now for Fri 29 March at 7.30pm & Sat 30 March at 3.00pm & 7.30pm.🎉
📸 Alex Brenner
🎟
📆 29 Feb - 6 April
I still hope the UK theatre world gets to see this production one day. One year passed, and I am still reeling with joy, admiration, and sheer amazement at what
@NicolefcCharles
did with my play. I can't thank her and
@ChichesterFT
enough.
After my first play at Stratford East, I went back to tearing tickets as a theatre usher in the West End. I needed a job, I needed to pay the rent. No shame!
Jan 2021. Lockdown. Two old friends confront their relationship with Britain – and each other.
Neil Maskell and
@GilesTerera
play Michael and Delroy in a powerful new film by
@Clint_Dyer_
and
@royboywilliams
.
Death of England: Face to Face premieres free on Sky Arts on 25 Nov.
Ayesha Antoine will play security guard Donna in Roy Williams' Go, Girl. Credits include Blank at Donmar Warehouse, White Teeth at the Kiln Theatre and Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s Hamlet.
Sneak peek of Rafe Spall, writer
@royboywilliams
and writer/director
@Clint_Dyer_
rehearsing their new play Death of England.
More info:
Playing from 31 January.
Photography by Billy Bull
📢ANNOUNCING TWO WORLD PREMIERES 📢
In 2024, we turn 30! We’re kicking off celebrations with 2 extraordinary productions.
Roy Williams’ adaptation of Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners and Stephen Unwin’s Laughing Boy, after Sara Ryan’s memoir, arrive at JST.
🎨 Ciaran Walsh
No way I could have known back in 1995, when I was sending my play The No Boys Cricket Club off unsolicited to Theatre Royal Stratford East , that I would be sitting in Philip Hedley's office three months later, as he told me he wanted to stage my play the following year.
I hate the tories with every fibre in my being. I always shall. But I must put aside my hatred for a moment and reflect on what is quite posssibly going to be a historic day. Something I, as a person of colour, never thought I would see in my lifetime. Amazing right? Thoughts?
🚨We're thrilled to announce the cast of The Lonely Londoners🚨
⭐️ Tobi Bakare - Lewis
⭐️ Gamba Cole - Moses
⭐️ Shannon Hayes - Agnes
⭐️ Gilbert Kyem Jr - Big City
⭐️ Carol Moses - Tanty
⭐️ Aimee Powell - Christina
⭐️ Romario Simpson - Galahad
🎟
#notallmen
It's not all men, but it is ALL WOMEN! Come on guys, we ALL have wives, girlfriends, sisters, daughters, nieces, mothers, aunts, cousins, colleagues, friends etc, etc. ALL men need to listen.
📢 Cast announcement
Very sadly Jo Martin is indisposed and has had to withdraw from the role of Denise in
#DeathOfEnglandClosingTime
We’re grateful to Sharon Duncan-Brewster for stepping in at short notice to play Denise for the remainder of the run, alongside Hayley Squires.
#ItsASin
. Binged watched the first 3 last night. It's drama like this that makes me proud to be a writer. I think it's exceptional.
@russelldavies63
,I salute you.
It's so exciting to be back in our building and developing a new play again. 🙌
Death of England: Delroy by
@royboywilliams
and
@Clint_Dyer_
, featuring
@GilesTerera
, is coming soon to the National Theatre.
To all professionals in the film, television, theatre, entertainment & arts world, join the challenge to post a photo of you in your job. Just a picture, no description. The goal is to flood social media with our profession. Copy the text & post a pic.
#SaveTheArtsUK
Thank you Chichester Festival Theatre and thank you cast and company and thank you Nicole Charles for a truly beautiful fantastic production.
#SingYerHeartOut
It was a few years back, I was strolling through the West End, when walking in the opposite direction was 'Emma Peel' From The Avengers. She looked right at me and gave me the most incredible smile. I had a spring in my step that lasted me the whole year. RIP, Dame Diana.
Hey
@WhatsOnStage
we’ve been great friends over the years. And I’m proud I’ve won the WOS Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play twice.
So I hope you’ll listen to a friend when I say a £500 prize for a 60-90 minute play is not the right thing to offer... Add a zero. 😉
Thanks Che Walker for bringing these wonderful people to see Death Of England: Closing time on Friday night. They are one of the reasons why I write for theatre and the stories I want to tell. x
It's finally time to say a heartfelt farewell to Roy Williams' The Lonely Londoners!❤️
The final two performances of the show will be at 3.00pm and 7.30pm👀
Congratulations to everyone involved on this five-star, sold-out run.👏
📸 Alex Brenner
Ben Wallace defends Nadine Dorries's appointment as Culture Secretary, saying she is a "bestselling author" who produces culture "that people buy and actually want to see, rather than some of the more crackpot schemes we've seen being funded in the past by taxpayers"
The Death of England dream team go face to face! 🎤
@Clint_Dyer_
and
@royboywilliams
talk their new film, what motivates them to write, and what they definitely wouldn't order for lunch.
Watch Death of England: Face to Face for free on Sky Arts. Thursday 25 November, 10pm. 📽
I have been thrown out of Parliament for saying what we all know:
Boris Johnson has lied to the House of Commons and the country over and over again.
But I’ve got news for the Tories, I will never stop speaking truth to power!
Julia has a personal message for Boris Johnson following his claims he was forced out by the Partygate inquiry “witch hunt”.
“Boris Johnson, if you’re watching, it’s none of those things. The only person who has forced you out of office is yourself!”
@JuliaHB1
Dionne Warwick, upset with misogyny in rap lyrics, once set up a meeting with Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight at her home, where she demanded that they call her a “bitch” to her face.
Snoop Dogg later said, “I believe we got out-gangstered that day.”
Please go and see this amazing film called Pretty Red Dress Alexander Burke is revelation. Only 3 people in the cinema, including my partner and I. It deserves so much more. Complex as well as imaginative and moving. GO SEE!!
I have been thinking about James Baldwin a lot over the last few weeks. I wondered what he would been saying about the world we are living in now if he was still alive, but almost every word that man has spoken and written is about the world right now. BLACK LIVES MATTER!
CALLING ALL YOUNG WRITERS
The Inspire Programme is back 🙌 Are you an innovative, ambitious aspiring playwright aged 18-25? Apply for our FREE mentoring scheme with award-winning playwright
@royboywilliams
. Help us spread the word with a RT!
Read more:
all this does is encourage the myth that anybody can write a play. Whilst you do not need to have a formal kind of training to be a playwright, you do need to have an understanding of how drama works, of characterization, of plot, and structure and narrative.