Blue Touch Paper Productions in association with Park Theatre present the UK Premiere of Never Not Once by Carey Crim, directed by Katharine Farmer at the Park Theatre.
Never Not Once, by the award-winning American playwright Carey Crim, is a poignant and emotionally gripping new drama about what happens when a family is forced to confront an unexpected and explosive answer to the question “Where do I come from?”.
Intelligent, friendly and high-achieving, college student Eleanor seems to have it all – including a pair of perfect moms fully invested in her future success. But there’s one small thing that’s missing from her life: knowing who her father is. With good intentions, her boyfriend hires a private investigator to help get to the bottom of this mystery. But the secrets of the past which come to light have the terrifying ability to rip apart the happiness of the present.
Winner of the 2017 Jane Chambers Playwriting Award for feminist plays and performance texts and a finalist for the 2018 Eugene O’Neill Award Carey Crim’s poignant drama played at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, California and was praised by the L.A Times for how it deals with the long-running multi-generational aftermath of sexual assault.
Writer Carey Crim said, “I finished the first draft of Never Not Once a few months before the #MeToo reckoning. I wrote it as a way of processing and understanding multiple conversations and experiences my friends and I, both male and female, had shared over the years. The story, though fictional, grew from those truths. It is not autobiographical, but it is very personal– birthed from too many women’s realities.
“I am a female playwright. I am proud to tell female stories. That is my lens. But I also tell human stories. And one of the best, most immediate and transformative things about live theater is the chance to see the world through another’s eyes. Not just to see it and hear it but to feel it and live it in real time. We need that radical empathy now more than ever.
Meaghan Martin (Eleanor), who is best known for her film work, made her stage debut in 2019 at the Park Theatre in The Actor’s Nightmare. Meaghan recently filmed the 1950’s drama short ‘Tap Twice’ and played Julie in the workshop of SMOKE at the Arcola Theatre. Film credits and include ‘Mean Girls 2’, ‘Camp Rock’ and ‘The Good Mother’.
Amanda Bright (Nadine) won a Fringe First at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival for ENOUGH by Stef Smith at the Traverse Theatre. Theatre credits include Macbeth and Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe) and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre / Curve Theatre). On film Amanda appears as a regular character in ‘In From The Cold’ (Netflix).
Flora Montgomery (Allison) won the Irish Times Best Actress award for her role as the lead in Strindberg’s Miss Julie (Belfast Lyric Theatre). Other credits include DINNER (Wyndham’s Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), ENDEAVOUR (ITV) and ‘A Very English Scandal’ (BBC). She will be seen in the role of Norma Major, in ‘The Crown’.
Gilbert Kyem Jnr (Rob) since graduating in 2019, he co-founded One Five Five Productions developing projects for film. His credits include Incriminating Objects (Theatre503), LEST WE FORGET (Greenwich Theatre) and ‘Prizefighter: The Story of Jem Belcher’ (Camelot Films/Amazon Studios). Gilbert was a finalist in The Stage’s Alan Bates award 2019.
Stage credits for Adrian Grove (Doug) include Follies, Medea, Bent (Staged Reading), Wonder.Land (National Theatre); Blue Remembered Hills (Northern Stage); Stepping Out, The Night Before Christmas, A Little Of What You Fancy, Robin Hood (Salisbury Playhouse); Merrily We Roll Along (Theatr Clywd); Cats (Kilworth House); Dying Breed (Bristol Theatre Royal) And A Month In The Country (Tobacco Factory). Adrian will soon be appearing as Inspector Paul Kirby in the new Jed Mercurio series ‘Trigger Point’ on ITV
Blue Touch Paper Productions is a theatre company dedicated to bringing stories that stretch, challenge, and excite to UK audiences.
Never Not Once is at The Park Theatre 9 February-5 March 2022
