Original Theatre and Riverside Studios present:
Originals.

Original Theatre and Riverside Studios present three world premiere plays from the best new writing talents in the UK, performed by an all-star cast.

A nationwide search for scripts and a page-turning judging panel assembled to decide the awards. This is your chance to watch and experience these leading actors as they perform script-in-hand productions for cameras which was broadcasted live around the world.   

Three nights, three brilliant plays, three amazing casts, all filmed and recorded at Riverside Studios and perfect for audiences who want their theatre to be unique and thrilling. 

Please note, Captions are only available for the ON DEMAND videos.

MILES

By Eilidh Nurse

Directed by Amelia Sears

Starring Hiftu Quasem (Ten Percent, Killing Eve) and Cristian Ortega (Vigil) – more cast to be announced.

“I feel like I’ve lost all this time.” 

Somewhere in Scotland, miles from anywhere, Bobby’s Caravan Park is struggling, in fact it’s crumbling. Janie is the only employee and she’s been stuck out here for longer than she cares to admit - and she’s drinking more than she’s willing to admit, yet frankly who cares anymore? Ed can’t pass the Tesco quiz, he can’t go out in the rain without his cag in a bag, he can’t drive, and he can’t help who he’s related to. But at least he’s got a new job... at Bobby’s Caravan Park. Hopes, dreams and families collide in this searing, tender yet funny play that asks what it means to process our past and the traumas that lie within.

Eilidh Nurse is an emerging writer. She was a member of the Traverse Theatre Young Writers Programme, one of three winners of the Rose Theatre Kingston's 2019 New Writing Festival, long-listed for the 2020 inaugural Women's Prize for Playwriting, reached the top ten percent of submissions for the 2020 Verity Bargate Award at Soho Theatre, short-listed for the 2020 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award and reaching the top one percent of Hampstead Theatre’s 2021 Open Script Submissions process. Nurse currently works as New Work Assistant at the National Theatre, having previously held the role of Assistant Producer at both the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, and the Glasgow-based theatre company Wonder Fools.

THE FALL

By Drew Hewitt

Directed by Charlotte Peters

Stars Alex Kingston (ER, Doctor Who) - more cast to be announced

“It’s never the fall that kills you...It’s the landing.” 

Whoever said that. Is wrong. It’s the fall.’ Janet and Liam are happily married until she stops stalking to him. And everybody else. To diagnose her loss of speech she begins seeing a psychiatrist who starts to probe at a secret buried in the depths of Janet’s psyche, the revelation of which has profound and lasting implications not just for her but the entire family. Drew Hewitt’s masterful play examines with wit, humour, and searing honesty the complex ideas surrounding free will, love and the painful truths of existence.

Drew Hewitt is a writer and visual artist. His playwriting credits include Another Greenland (longlisted for Bruntwood Prize, shortlisted for Papatango New Writing Award), Credo, A Smoking Revolver and Jumbo. His screenwriting credits include Hot Date, No Strings (Commissioned by ITV), Private Lives, If you See Kate, Swipe Right, The Man Who Was Thursday (adapted from the novel by G K Chesterton), The Scent of A Question Burning, White, Like Snow, The Mutt Hour. In 2015 he was invited to become an Open Session Writer at Bristol Old Vic Theatre. 

TIKKUN OLAM

By Teunkie Van Der Sluijs

Directed by Michael Boyd

Stars Luke Thompson (Bridgerton) and Diana Quick (Brideshead Revisited) – more cast to be announced.

In everything you do, you must seek the opportunity to repair the world. Steve Alexander is preparing to stand as a labour MP for the Westminster constituency. As part of his campaign, he is backing the building of a holocaust memorial near parliament square, to help the campaign gain traction. Steve and his campaign manager Dan invite social influencer Leah on board as a one woman focus group. As Dan, Steve and Leah try and persuade the divided community to back the memorial their own motivations are challenged as the political and personal ties between them are tested to the very limit. A powerful, funny, intelligent political drama, that looks at the stark contrast in views and voices in and around our capital, the ever-growing divisions between the generations, and the challenging task of mending and learning to ensure we do and are better. 

“I stand here and try and make sense of all the voices and I can’t hear my own anymore.”

Teunkie Van Der Sluijsis a Dutch-British theatre-maker, working predominantly as a director in the UK and in Europe. He is Head of Artistic Development at the Young Vic, having been Creative Associate there since 2019. His translations and adaptations have been performed Off-Broadway and in a range of festivals, venues and tours in Britain and the Netherlands. Tikkun Olam is his first play. As a director, his work includes the trilogy Clybourne Park, Beneatha’s Place and A Raisin in The Sun (International Theatre Amsterdam for Well Made Productions) for which he received the 2017 Amsterdam Award for the Arts. He also directed the Netherlands premières of The Mountaintop (De Meervaart Theatre), Water Dragers (Het Zuidelijk Toneel), Lungs (Compagnie Theatre) and Motor Town (Rozen Theatre). In the UK, he has directed Hate (Barbican -  was shortlisted for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award), Yasser (Assembly Rooms Edinburgh, Arcola London, Chopin Theatre Chicago and Royal Theatre The Hague), Winter (Orange Tree Theatre), and Women Laughing (Old Red Lion, Off West End Award Nomination for Best Director). He was Resident Director for global entertainment company Imagine Nation on Anne: The Diaries of Anne Frank at Theatre Amsterdam, and previously worked at HOME Manchester, as Staff Director at the National Theatre and as Trainee Director at the Orange Tree Theatre.  

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ON DEMAND: Originals from Riverside Studios package