“Each year the NT commissions writers at the top of their game to write one hour plays for actors aged 11-19 to perform. Writers have the opportunity to write for cast sizes as large or small as they like knowing that they will be produced across the country in a variety of different productions.Jack Thorne’s play is called Burying your Brother in the Pavement
Tom’s brother is dead. He was killed by a broken bottle to the neck… This has upset a lot people….. it hasn’t upset Tom. Or, rather, it has upset him, but in ways he can’t explain and in ways his aunties – who keep trying to thrust snack products at him – would never understand. You see, Tom and his brother, Luke, were never friends, were never really much at all, I mean, Tom really didn’t like Luke, but without him…
So it’s an odd decision – to try and bury Luke in the pavement of the Tunstall Estate – to try and bury him at the point where he was brutally murdered – but, you know, it sort of makes sense. In a kind of upside-down, monkey-type way.
As he goes through due process on pavement burial, Tom comes across planning officials, tramps, undertakers, police officers, sisters, mothers, estate agents, ghosts, pavement elephants, sky dragons and a strange lad called Tight who wants to sell him a travel-card.
This is a play about grief, and looking at someone that little bit more closely – oh, and there are a few songs, bits of dancing, and lots of weird things involving sofas.
A bit about Jack Thorne and his work
Jack Thorne’s plays for stage include When You Cure Me (Bush, 2005, Radio 3’s Drama on Three, Barrow St Theatre, New York, 2008), Fanny and Faggot (Pleasance, Edinburgh, 2004 and 2007, Finborough, 2007, English Theatre of Bruges 2007, Trafalgar Studios 2007) and Stacy (Tron, 2006, Arcola 2007, Trafalgar Studios 2007). For radio, his play Left At The Angel was on Radio 4 last summer. He is currently writing for series two of Skins having written episodes of the first series, his other TV writing includes Shameless and the 30-minute drama The Spastic King. His short film A Supermarket Love Song was shown at Sundance 2006. Jack is currently Pearson Writer-in-Residence at the Bush.
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