Following an acclaimed UK tour in spring 2017, Jane Upton’s ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS will be making its London premiere at the Arcola this October. Deeply moving and darkly funny, this award-winning new play tells the story of the girls that slip through the cracks.
Joanne and Lisa were like sisters. Then Lisa got away. Now she’s back, but the ghosts from their past still haunt her. While Amy just wants to belong. In a world where nobody wants you, what would you do to survive?
With the threat of sexual exploitation lurking in the shadows, we see three forgotten girls spending one last night together by the railway line. ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS examines their desperation to recover what they’ve lost – friendship, family, safety.
This brilliant, thought-provoking play follows these three teenage girls, the sort of teenagers that society often demonises or overlooks. Inspired by real life stories, and developed with the support of Safe and Sound, who campaign against child sexual exploitation, this play captures the voices of these powerless, underprivileged girls with compassion, humour and authenticity.
ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS stars Esther-Grace Button (Sleeping Beauty, Cast; Troupers, Mikron Theatre; The Crucible, Regent's Park Open Air), Sarah Hoare (Jerusalem, Royal Court; Chewing Gum, Channel 4; Powder Room, DJ Films) and Tessie Orange-Turner (Sket, Park Theatre; No Border, Theatre503; Blister, Gate Theatre).
Writer Jane Upton comments, When I started researching the Rochdale child sex ring back in 2014, I was overwhelmed by the responsibility that came with creating a play from this sort of material. I almost gave up. But as the characters grew, and similar stories started to break, I knew I wanted to share our play as widely as possible. We’ve toured it nationally and now it’s great to be taking it to a London audience and specifically the Arcola, which has such a fantastic reach. The play is dark, of course, but it’s about three teenage girls so there’s laughter and piss-taking and all the things that come with growing up and negotiating your place. And hopefully it’s a timely reminder that so many children across the UK are living this horror every day.
ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS is a Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse co-production. It was joint winner of the 2016 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and was nominated for Best New Play at the Writers' Guild Awards 2017.
Terrifically realistic and darkly funny... truly extraordinary and moving theatre. (Nottingham Post)
Performance Dates Tuesday 10th October – Saturday 4th November 2017
Monday – Saturday, 8pm
Saturday matinee, 3:30pm
Running time 1 hour
Twitter @FifthWord, #AllTheLittleLights
Writer Jane Upton
Director Laura Ford
Associate Director Angharad Jones
Designer Max Dorey
Lighting Designer Alexandra Stafford
Sound Designer Max Pappenheim
Producer Corinne Salisbury
Cast Esther-Grace Button
Sarah Hoare
Tessie Orange-Turner
Location Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL, www.arcolatheatre.com.
How to get there Arcola Theatre is just 2 minutes’ walk from both Dalston Kingsland and Dalston Junction stations, on the London Overground.
Box Office Tickets are available priced at £17 (£14 concessions, £10 with Arcola Passport). Groups of 10+ get 11th ticket free. 20 tickets are available at Pay What You Can for every Tuesday evening performance. £12 for preview performances.
Jane Upton
Jane Upton has had success with plays including FINDING NANA (Pleasance Edinburgh Festival, 2017, dir Katie Posner, New Perspectives) which received 4 stars from The Stage, ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS (Fifth Word, UK tour), WATCHING THE LIVING – an adaptation of two short stories by Daphne Du Maurier (New Perspectives, UK tour), SWIMMING (Menagerie Theatre, Hotbed Festival, Soho Theatre and Edinburgh Festival), and BONES (Fifth Word, Edinburgh Festival and UK tour). Jane attended Stephen Jeffreys' Advances in Scriptwriting course at RADA, received a bursary from the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and was shortlisted for CBBC New Voices Initiative.
Fifth Word
Fifth Word is an associate company at Nottingham Playhouse and is run by joint artistic directors Laura Ford and Angharad Jones. They produce and tour ambitious new plays from the most exciting voices around the UK.
Their work shines a light on unheard stories bringing fresh, engaging work to theatres’ and younger audiences. They present plays that entertain, emotionally engage and spark debate relevant to our time. Located in the East Midlands, they nurture regional voices and the next generation of talent.
Fifth Word’s most recent productions include: All The Little Lights by Jane Upton (Nottingham Playhouse, Derby Theatre and the Old Library, Mansfield, 2015), Bones by Jane Upton (Edinburgh festival, 2011, UK tour, 2012), and Amateur Girl by Amanda Whittington (UK tour 2014). They are also currently developing new commissioned plays by Phoebe Éclair-Powell and James Fritz.
Nottingham Playhouse
Nottingham Playhouse has been one of the United Kingdom’s leading producing theatres since its foundation in 1948. It welcomes over 130,000 ticket buyers through its doors annually and has an additional footfall of 170,000 visitors to participation events and to Anish Kapoor’s stunning Sky Mirror. It creates productions large and small, from timeless classics and enthralling family shows to adventurous new commissions, often touring work nationally and internationally. Its production of The Kite Runner transferred to the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre in December 2016 and 1984 has just concluded its third West End run at the Playhouse.
