A couple of years ago, I was running my theatre company’s writing group and I had to come up with something for a workshop we were running that week. I had no idea what do write – until I had a strange dream one night about being chased through a hotel lobby by a couple of goons in suits. That’s it!, I thought! That’ll be the scene…but, I continued, I’ll also acknowledge that it’s a dream. The character can ‘wake up’ at the end and stumble into reality…or another dream.
It was a fun device and worked well for the workshop. So well in fact that I thought I should do more with it. I scrawled down some ideas from dreams and started to plot out some characters. I knew I had a couple of long flights ahead of me so, in a partial, dream-like state, I pounded out several thousand words of a play. Some scenes were dreams, some were ‘real’, some were short, others long. I was relatively pleased with it, so I took it along to the writing group for some feedback.
“It doesn’t have a plot.”
Yes. About that. Well, that was one of the sharpest pieces of feedback. But they were right. It was a collection of scenes that didn’t really go anywhere. So I made some choices about the arc of the play and the characters, did some heavy editing, and ended up with Polly’s Gone: a surreal, one-act drama.
We previewed it through a script-in-hand ‘rehearsed reading’ and workshopped some more ideas before finally producing it for the Bristol One-Act Festival in 2024. We won a couple of acting awards, which was great for the company. I loved working with the team to bring this play to life.
The play sparked lots of discussion from the audience: what was real or imagined, how did it end, what would happen next? And for a time, I did debate writing a part two or the second half of the play. In the end, I decided to leave it as a one-act. There’s no more to be said in this story.
One of the things I love most about theatre is it’s transient nature. It comes and it goes. Unlike any other artwork, there is no artefact beyond the memories of the actors and audience (photos notwithstanding). And maybe it is getting older or something, but I wanted to have an artefact for this play – some sort of legacy, physical, thing – to hold in my hands and say ‘I made this’.
So I’ve published my play.
It’s available now on Amazon right now! And I’m very excited to have a physical copy in my hands! Kindle version available too.
If you want to know what the play is about, here’s the pitch:
Ed has messed things up with Polly. He got swept away with a stupid idea that went wrong. Polly has just found out and she’s gone – left him.
This is a play about a search for redemption.
Ed is looking to put things right at the same time as being Best Man for his brother, Andy, who’s getting married to Polly’s best friend, Maisie.
But here’s the thing: in every scene, the audience isn’t quite sure if Ed is awake and what we’re seeing is real, or if it’s a dream.
In dream theory, the subconscious tries to deal with the challenges we hide from ourselves. Everything Ed is doing to put things right with Polly is actually to find forgiveness for himself.
There is a wedding…and there is a redemption of sorts.
Many, many thanks to my good friends who got involved in producing this play and for coming to see it and support our work. It means a great deal to me.
And now I can say I’m a published author. What fun!
Sam Grayston 