Premiering at Alphabetti Theatre this July is Pause, an uplifting love story about film, comfort and escapism. From award-winning writer Laura Lindow (The Snow Queen, Northern Stage), this coming-of-age tale follows Wallace, played by Paula Penman (Woven Bones, Cap-a-Pie), as her independent video store is threatened in the late ‘90s by the arrival of Blockbusters.
After finding comfort in films as an escape from the everyday during lockdown, director Mark Calvert (The Emperor’s New Clothes, Northern Stage) and the team channelled their love of movies and combed for inspiration among classic blockbusters. Pause provides audiences with a heartening dose of movie nostalgia as it pays loving homage to the likes of Jaws, Shawshank Redemption and more.
Director Mark Calvert comments, During lockdown, with time on our hands, Paula and I reached back into the comfort of all the films we’d watched a hundred times before as they let us escape. This led us to start to create a show about ‘escaping’ through our screens, and so Wallace and her independent video shop, Stellar Vision was born. Pause is an hour of vicariously living your life through Hollywood while in a small working-class town in Clackmannanshire!
In partnership with Newcastle University, Alphabetti Theatre will present Sucking Eggs by Steve Byron (Walter, Alphabetti Theatre). In his late sixties, Peter is kept busy caring for his mother while his slightly younger sister Maggie is too busy kicking and screaming about getting old to be much help. Following the two siblings and how they navigate ageing with grace – or not – Sucking Eggs is a kitchen sink drama that looks at ageing and the importance and difficulties of family ties.
Pause and Sucking Eggs runs Tuesday 6th – Saturday 17th July 2021. Tickets are on sale here.
