The Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies present their annual Launch Festival! Where undergraduate Drama students present their final degree pieces in a four day festival across both our stages.
Tickets to this event are free to all! Day tickets will allow you access to all performances that day, please book in advance if possible. Please book tickets for multiple days if you plan to attend more than one day!
(Some performances on Tuesday are Closed Runs for Invited Audience only – see **)
12 noon: If The Veil Lifts
Melinda Hett and Sharon Adebayo
The truth surrounding Lyla Morgan’s murder is finally uncovered on the eve of the killer’s resentencing.
1.15pm: One’s Guilt is Another One’s Power
Chloe Bareham
Join Lady Macbeth and Amy Dunne – two of the most cunning females in literature – come face to face with their guilt and fears, but also their power. Does too much power undo each character – or is it the guilt that brings them down?
** 2pm: My Dad Almost Died (And Other Funny Stories) CLOSED RUN – INVITED AUDIENCE ONLY
Lolly Taylor
On a young woman’s 22nd birthday, she gets a call many dread: her father is in the hospital. As she makes the journey to see him, she tries to work out what to say to him. This piece that explores different genres and styles in order to ask the question “is there a style of theatre that is best for portraying emotions?”.
CW – mentions of abuse and death (parental death), hospitals, strong language
** 2.45pm: Sonny Days CLOSED RUN – INVITED AUDIENCE ONLY
Nathan Burke
A man looks back to his younger, freer, more vibrant self and the life he was living before the pandemic.
** 3.30 pm: nightmares for my godmother CLOSED RUN – INVITED AUDIENCE ONLY
Namatayi Mavunga-Akinti
She knows she’s going to die, she just doesn’t know how. With time running out and the fear building in her chest, Tambudzai begins to talk. talk about things she hasn’t thought about in years.
4.15pm: In Their Shoes
Jess Brooks
A young woman looks back on the challenges of her life growing up as she travels home from university. Reminiscing about her school years, she wonders how growing up too soon and facing a global pandemic with her situation has affected and encouraged her.
(Some performances on Wednesday are Closed Runs for Invited Audience only – see **)
**12 noon: Splintered CLOSED RUN– INVITED AUDIENCE ONLY
Corey Lee
What would you do when your existence is at stake?
Mas is a newly formed personality (or altar) in the mind of Michael, somebody with dissociative identity disorder, and is trying to find his place within the system of personalities. It isn’t long until his existence, and other altars around him, is put in danger.
Through his scientific theories, Mas fights to repair the fractures in Michael’s mind, seeing art as a way of connecting to one another. However, Mas finds himself in conflict with other altars, who don’t share his moral perspective, fearing Mas’s dangerous solutions will lead to the disintegration of Michael’s mind.
Will Mas succeed in saving Michael and his altars in time to prevent the complete splintering of the mind he inhabits?
**12.45pm: Emma Kopf CLOSED RUN– INVITED AUDIENCE ONLY
A pregnant woman in a bath hears a voice calling through the bath taps and pursues it in an attempt to find out more about the future of her unborn child in an era of climate change
1.30pm: Taylor/Hamlet
Tyler Reuben
Fresh from their recent failures, Flute and Rubin make way for a new generation of performers with an ambitious live cinema adaptation of Hamlet. Follow the creatives as they inhabit Shakespeare’s classic, wrought with suspicion, death and mental distress, proving that everyone can’t help but bring themselves to a character.
**2.45pm: Sinking in Sangria CLOSED RUN – INVITED AUDIENCE ONLY
Sally Hardy Jones
Amid a rising new authoritarian government and the steady erosion of civil liberties, Daisy Morgan’s quiet pub life is shaken to the core as she searches for intimacy in a world where personal freedom is vanishing. As the government enforces increasingly invasive laws for women—controlling speech, enforcing curfews, and even taking her own personal autonomy —her romantic encounters become fraught with fear, resistance, and quiet rebellion.
**3.30pm: The Sun and Song We Carry CLOSED – INVITED SUDIENCE ONLY
Teah Bernard
In 1980s London, we follow Aaliyah, a child of the Windrush generation and a midwife navigating life within a hostile and unforgiving healthcare system. When faced with the task of taking care of an abandoned baby, she is left with a moral dilemma.
(NB This show is in the Lakeside Studio Theatre)
12 noon: In Their Shoes
Jess Brooks
A young woman looks back on the challenges of her life growing up as she travels home from university. Reminiscing about her school years, she wonders how growing up too soon and facing a global pandemic with her situation has affected and encouraged her.
12.45: nightmares for my godmother
Namatayi Mavunga-Akinti
She knows she’s going to die, she just doesn’t know how. With time running out and the fear building in her chest, Tambudzai begins to talk. talk about things she hasn’t thought about in years.
1.30pm: Sonny Days
Nathan Burke
A man looks back to his younger, freer, more vibrant self and the life he was living before the pandemic.
2.15 pm: My Dad Almost Died (And Other Funny Stories)
Lolly Taylor
On a young woman’s 22nd birthday, she gets a call many dread: her father is in the hospital. As she makes the journey to see him, she tries to work out what to say to him. This piece that explores different genres and styles in order to ask the question “is there a style of theatre that is best for portraying emotions?”.
CW – mentions of abuse and death (parental death), hospitals, strong language
3pm: One’s Guilt is Another One’s Power
Chloe Bareham
Join Lady Macbeth and Amy Dunne – two of the most cunning females in literature – come face to face with their guilt and fears, but also their power. Does too much power undo each character – or is it the guilt that brings them down?
3.45pm: If The Veil Lifts
Melinda Hett and Sharon Adebayo
The truth surrounding Lyla Morgan’s murder is finally uncovered on the eve of the killer’s resentencing.
12 noon: Taylor/Hamlet
Tyler Reuben
Fresh from their recent failures, Flute and Rubin make way for a new generation of performers with an ambitious live cinema adaptation of Hamlet. Follow the creatives as they inhabit Shakespeare’s classic, wrought with suspicion, death and mental distress, proving that everyone can’t help but bring themselves to a character.
1.15pm: The Sun and Song We Carry
Teah Bernard
In 1980s London, we follow Aaliyah, a child of the Windrush generation and a midwife navigating life within a hostile and unforgiving healthcare system. When faced with the task of taking care of an abandoned baby, she is left with a moral dilemma.
(NB This show is in the Lakeside Studio Theatre)
2pm: Sinking in Sangria
Sally Hardy Jones
Amid a rising new authoritarian government and the steady erosion of civil liberties, Daisy Morgan’s quiet pub life is shaken to the core as she searches for intimacy in a world where personal freedom is vanishing. As the government enforces increasingly invasive laws for women—controlling speech, enforcing curfews, and even taking her own personal autonomy —her romantic encounters become fraught with fear, resistance, and quiet rebellion.
2.45pm: Emma Kopf
A pregnant woman in a bath hears a voice calling through the bath taps and pursues it in an attempt to find out more about the future of her unborn child in an era of climate change
3.30pm: Splintered
Corey Lee
What would you do when your existence is at stake?
Mas is a newly formed personality (or altar) in the mind of Michael, somebody with dissociative identity disorder, and is trying to find his place within the system of personalities. It isn’t long until his existence, and other altars around him, is put in danger.
Through his scientific theories, Mas fights to repair the fractures in Michael’s mind, seeing art as a way of connecting to one another. However, Mas finds himself in conflict with other altars, who don’t share his moral perspective, fearing Mas’s dangerous solutions will lead to the disintegration of Michael’s mind.
Will Mas succeed in saving Michael and his altars in time to prevent the complete splintering of the mind he inhabits?
