OPTIK THEATRE

THEATRE AT THE LIBRARY

OCTOBER 14 7.30pm + OCTOBER 15 3PM AND 7.30PM

WHITTON LIBRARY 141 Nelwson Road Twickenham TW2 7BB

Optik Theatre performs their latest new writing show with five brand new plays.

THEATRE AT THE LIBRARY is an innovative approach to bringing live original theatre to audiences. Performing in a trusted local space enables the company to take the risk of presenting unknown new material. The project has the support of the London Borough of Richmond's Cultural Challenge and Innovation Fund as well as the enthusiastic backing of local community groups like the Friends of Whitton Library.

The writers are Trish Bertram, Andi Courtland, Emma Dawson, Annie Power and Nilgün Yusuf. And the professional cast stars Patrick Ashe, Cranks (fka Rebecca Crankshaw), Niamh McEnhill and Maiya Louise Thapar. Directed by Barry Edwards

The writers

Andi Courtland is a writer of both fiction and drama whose short story DIFFERENTIAL DIAGONSIS was a winner of the Cheshire Literature Prize in 2024 and whose full-length play WATCHING THE SKY GO DARK was recently given a table-read by Show Up Productions. Other work includes the comedy two-hander A FRANK TALK ABOUT AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT and the short story TENURED, read on BBC Radio Sheffield in 2021.

Trish Bertram lives in Teddington and started seriously writing about 4 years ago after joining a writers' class in Kingston. She has a background in theatre stage management and broadcast television, but has always wanted to write. Theatre was always her first love so playwriting is her particular interest, and having now reached a point in her life where she can finally make time to do it.

Emma Dawson is a playwright and novelist and currently has DYCP funding from the Arts Council. Her play, EDIE, was performed at Theatre503, alongside being longlisted for Theatre503 International Playwriting Prize, longlisted for development with Traverse Theatre, shortlisted for development with Middle Child Theatre, and shortlisted for Through the Mill Playwriting Prize. For her prose work, she is represented by Suzannah Ball at WME and her debut novel, MARINE, was longlisted for the 2025 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize.

Nilgún Yusuf is an alumna of Soho Theatre Writers Lab, was longlisted for the Tony Craze Award in 2025 and recently received a Peggy Ramsey Award for her current work in progress. Her debut play NINE MOONS was supported by Mrs C's Collective and performed at four London venues. Her plays have also been performed at the Space, Bridge House Theatre, Old Red Lion, Lion & Unicorn, Bold Theatre, Barons Court Theatre, Drayton Arms and INK Festival. She is currently working on an MA in Writing for Screen and Stage at Birkbeck and regularly reviews for London Pub Theatres and The Reviews Hub.

Annie Power is a London-based writer and producer working across theatre and film. A graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, her work has been staged at venues including Soho Theatre, The Old Red Lion and Pleasance Theatre. Her films have screened at festivals such as the BFI London Film Festival, and she won Best Screenwriter at the Underwire Film Festival in 2014. In 2024, she founded the theatre and film company Open Page Productions.

EGGS IS EGGS by Nilgün Yusuf and The Send Off by Annie Power are too powerful monologues spoken by a woman in her sixties.In Eggs is Eggs Jean describes her life with her deceased husband as a pussyfooting nightmare which she is glad to see the back of - while enjoying a boiled egg assisted by a particularly relevant egg timer! In THE SEND OFF Liz is at her own office farewell do and lets rip with a few home truths and a very unexpected final twist. Both monologues are played by Cranks (nominated for Best Solo Performance in the Offwestend awards)

In SQUIRRELGATE by award winning writer Emma Dawson two young women face a domestic crisis together - what to do with a dying squirrel that has somehow turned up in the younger sister's bed. A sisterly bond eventually works it out.

SKY HORSES is an remarkable first play by Teddington based retired TV exec Trish Bertram. A young woman, Mia, is on the edge of the office building roof and a young male colleague is trying to coax her down. But all it not as it seems and the encounter ends in an unexpected but surprisingly uplifting way.

TWO FEMALES FAILING THE BECHDEL TEST by Andi Courtland is a satirical look at the famous Bechdel Test which rates plays by the number of women in dialogue that does not mention a man. In this comic take on the test the writer ( a man naturally) gets taken to task by the characters (women naturally) he has actually created.

THE COMPANY

Optik Theatre was founded in 1981 by director Barry Edwards along with actors Paul Bown and Adrian Rawlins, designers Heather Ackroyd and Cornelia Parker and musician Clive Bell. Since then the company has toured extensively in the UK and Europe as well as internationally to Brazil, North Africa, Australia, South Korea and Canada. From 2014 – 17 Optik presented three productions featuring the work of Gertrude Jennings for Richmond's WW1 Centenary.