Another Space by Christopher Deans
"Christopher Deans' play Another Space is a fast moving multi-character drama about the lives of young people from a variety of backgrounds. The play focuses on the various communications and identities (real and fabricated) that young people use in daily life and in the virtual environment. The title reflects a number of situations within the play: the freedom and danger of virtual contact; the struggle of an agoraphobic to leave her house; the trans-national communication made possible through the internet; and the cosmic event of a solar eclipse which frames the timeframe of the play.
"The play tracks the journey of numerous young people searching for new ways of being or expressing themselves. Teenage runaway Eve tries to make sense of her broken relationship with her mother by going online as a failing 40 year old mother. Her mysterious friend and co-resident in the homeless hostel, Viv, is leading a double life as a prostitute and attempting to cope with the reality of being pregnant at such a young age. Meanwhile Hannah, the agoraphobic, having been forced to leave the house due to a theft of her computer, begins to discover a real life friendship with Pip. Alongside these scene are comic interludes between virtual soul mates Monkey Boy and Monkey Girl who discover their kinship online and slowly inch towards an actual meeting. All the journeys beautifully reflect the awkwardness and exploration that form part of the teenage process of making sense of the world. The play is a challenging and varied piece that creates layered characters for a large number of young performers, tackling personal dilemmas within a complex and exciting framework."
Lorenzo Mele
Available from 10 April 2008
ISBN: 9781906220174
Price: £6.99
Boiling a Frog by Christopher Deans
"While Brookmyre's novel caught the tenor, not to mention the hysteria, surrounding the religious Right's attempts to influence the repeal of section 28 of the Local Government Act (which dealt with the promotion of homosexuality), this stage production by 7:84 is no less timely ... Christopher Deans is to be congratulated in this Adaptation - the first time any of Brookmyre's books have been transferred to the stage - for safekeeping savvy political points about the danger of Church interference in affairs of state without sacrificing the cartoonish grotesquerie of the novel."
Alan Chadwick, Metro
"We're all affected by what goes on at Holyrood and Boiling a Frog - wildly fantastical though it may be - helps encapsulate the anger and frustration so many of us feel when politicians and others in public life misbehave."
Kenneth Speirs, The Mail on Sunday
Available from 10 April 2008
ISBN: 9781906220143
Price: £6.99
Cut to the Chase by Christopher Deans
‘Here's a cheeky modern take on a classic of 18th century theatre that swaps the elegant interiors of Seville for down-market 21st century Benidorm. And the way Beaumarchais' densely packed language is replaced by a rip-roaring West of Scotland twang is pure dead brilliant. Based on The Barber of Seville, Christopher Deans' Cut to the Chase is aimed at youngsters. But I'll defy anyone over 20 not to enjoy the sheer pace and comedy of this show."
Kenneth Speirs, The Mail on Sunday
Available from 10 April 2008
ISBN: 9781906220167
Price: £6.99
Free Fall by Christopher Deans
"Set in an unspecified Scottish town ... Christopher Deans' new work Free Fall explores the effects of the now 25 year old "right to buy" policy and how it has [resulted in] ... pensioners being evicted from their family home as a result of not maintaining mortgage payments on their ex-council house ... it will always find a forum which inspires and prompts topical discussion and Debate"
Louisa McEwan, The Herald
Available from 10 April 2008
ISBN: 9781906220136
Price: £6.99
Smells and Bells by Christopher Deans
"Christopher Deans' play Smells and Bells ... is a long, dark, bitter cry of rage against the attitude of the Catholic Church in Scotland to gay sexuality. Its thesis seems to be that the Catholic faith - with its powerful, sensuous imagery of pierced bodies, bleeding hearts, and flesh transfigured into spirit - has a way of penetrating with exceptional power, into the erotic imagination of vulnerable men, and then twisting it into a nightmare of denial, self-hatred and lies ... It's immensely potent and evocative: but what it evokes is an atmosphere dictated by those who equate gay sex with sleaze and bad endings, now and Forever."
Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
"There's a touch of Graham Greene about the odyssey Father Tom sets out on. Even if his spiritual quest is underplayed in favour of a less profound search for romantic fulfillment. There are some unlikely turns of events and some curiously dreamlike passages of dialogue, but underpinning it all is a deeper inquiry into the conflicting demands of easy physical satisfaction and longer-lasting love. Deans can also be a very good story teller."
Mark Fisher, The Herald
Available from 10 April 2008
ISBN: 9781906220150
Price: £6.99