SAD is the premiere of critically acclaimed writer Victoria Willing’s (The Stage Debut Awards, nominated Best New Writer 2017) new play, directed by Omnibus Theatre’s Artistic Director Marie McCarthy, in collaboration for the first time since their five-star award-nominated hit Spring Offensive (2017).
On Christmas Day Gloria cooked the turkey that killed her mother. Now Gloria’s living in the attic, sleeping on a dog bed and shitting in a bucket.
She’s perfectly content though. Her friend Magda visits. Her husband Graham brings ham sandwiches. Her neighbour Daniel fits perfectly through the Velux. In fact as long as she can blast Bowie and bask in the light of her SAD lamp, there’s no reason to come downstairs at all.
Willing’s latest play returns to dark comedy and explores themes of isolation, connection, grief and love. The drama centres on Gloria, a 70s wannabe Punk and life-long Bowie fan, living in a fantasy world in her attic and the complex relationships which surround her. Willing says: “This play confronts the truthful, messy, contradictory reality of relationships that I don’t often see represented on stage. It’s also about challenging perceptions of women of a certain age, the unpreparedness of ageing and exploring submissiveness, dominance and power.”
Director Marie McCarthy, who also directed Willing in Spring Offensive says she was drawn to the bleak, funny, fantastical, contemporary, and chaotic energy of this drama. She adds: “The characters Victoria creates are quite uncompromising. She’s a courageous writer and doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects and that’s what I love about her plays. There’s also a great deal of tenderness in this story and I hope audiences will relate to it and enjoy spending an hour or so in the company of these four wonderful and complex characters… in an attic.”
SAD is at Omnibus Theatre 1st – 26th February 2022.
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