Mark Wheeller – författare

I'd had a conversation specifically with Dan about ecstasy. It's one of the things you do as a parent, isn't it? Wear your helmet when you're out on your bike, you know, don't take drugs. To be honest, I was more worried about him being safe on his bike than at a party with his friends.The words of the title are the last ones spoken by sixteen-year-old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs to his mother. One evening in January 2014, Daniel's parents thought he was going to a friend’s house. He actually attended an illegal rave and later died after taking MDMA.That fateful evening is told through the words of his school friends and family, divided into two hard-hitting acts in Mark Wheeller's verbatim play.I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won't Die was commissioned by the charity set up in Daniel’s memory to raise awareness about the danger of party drugs. It is a fast-paced, tragic, vibrant piece of verbatim theatre, which should engage teenage readers, audiences and performers alike.

2020 EditionSuitable text for GCSE 9-1 DramaBased on Maureen Dunbar’s award-winning book and film Catherine: The Story of a Young Girl Who Died of Anorexia Nervosa. Catherine Dunbar died in 1984, after a seven-year battle against anorexia nervosa. She was just twenty-two.Mark Wheeller’s potent documentary play uses the words from Catherine’s diaries and also of those most closely involved and affected. This 2020 edition includes a foreword by the late Maureen Dunbar, unseen extra scenes and a reflection by Mark, on the astonishing journey of this widely studied play since its first performances, including one by OYT on the Olivier Stage of the Royal National Theatre.Suitable for: Key Stage 3/4, BTEC, GCSEDuration: 75 minutes approximately
Cast: 6 female, 3 male, 22 female/male, or 3 female and 2 male with doubling.“This play reaches moments of almost unbearable intensity… naturalistic scenes flow seamlessly into sequences of highly stylised theatre… such potent theatre!”
Vera Lustig, The Independent“Elegantly structured, highly informative, and imaginatively theatrical. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.”
Anne McFerran, Stage and Television Today

Game Over tells the harrowing true story of teenager Breck Bednar, who was groomed over the internet and brutally murdered on 17 February 2014 by a supposed ‘friend’ that he met online.Breck's story is told in Mark's potent verbatim style, using the words of his family, friends and the killer.It's a shocking but deeply powerful play, with a unique 21st-century message.The play is particularly suitable for ‘socially distanced’ or online performances in students’ own homes and can be easily adapted to suit this medium.Suitable for: Key Stage 3/4, GCSE, BTEC, A-Level to adultDuration: 75 minutes approximately
Cast: 24 characters total. 8 male, 9 female and 7 male or female.The play is suitable for a large cast and multi-roling is also possible.“[A] chilling and harrowing tale, skilfully written using the words of Breck’s family, friends and his killer. It deals with the potentially disastrous effects of social media and how to keep safe online by recognising the signs of grooming and exploitation.”Vivienne Lafferty, Trustee National Drama

New revised 2020 versionSet text for OCR GCSE 9-1 Drama examMissing Dan Nolan is Mark Wheeller’s acclaimed Verbatim drama, drawn entirely from the words of those who knew 14-year-old Dan Nolan, who went missing after a night out with friends. This powerful, multi-voiced play captures the raw truth of real events, piecing together testimonies from family, friends and the community.Combining social realism with documentary theatre techniques, Missing Dan Nolan is a compelling exploration of grief, resilience and the questions that remain when answers are lost. Popular with GCSE and A-Level Drama students, the play is also performed widely by youth, community and professional theatre companies.Comparable to works such as The Laramie Project, London Road, and Too Much Punch for Judy, Missing Dan Nolan is a gripping, human story that invites discussion about personal safety, responsibility and the ethics of telling true stories on stage. With flexible ensemble casting and authentic dialogue, it is ideal for GCSE and A-Level Drama alongside plays like Be My Baby and Kes. This play tells the tragic true story of Dan Nolan, a teenage boy who went missing on the 1st January 2002 after a night out fishing with his best friends. The play explores the mystery of Dan’s disappearance and the tragic events that occurred that night; raising issues concerning personal safety and the importance of looking out for each other.This revised 2020 edition of the play includes a new foreword reflecting on the original production by Mark Wheeller, a new interview with the original cast and a new note on the original lighting design by Danny Sturrock.Suitable for: Key Stage 3/4, GCSE, BTEC, A-Level to adultDuration: 60 minutes approximately
Cast: Up to 18, or 2 female, 2 male with doubling.
"Heart-rending, bold, direct and simple. Even on the bare page this is a powerful piece of drama...” 
Paul Fowler, GODA 2003
 "This play is not just about Dan Nolan, it's about all of us and our responsibility to and for each other."
David Dykes, Head of Creative and Performing Arts, King Edward VI School, Southampton (Dan's former school)

New edition with bonus featuresThis hard-hitting verbatim play is based on a tragic drink drive accident that results in the death of the vehicle’s front seat passenger, Jo. Her sister Judy, driving the car, escapes physically unhurt – but can never escape the consequences of her own reckless behaviour.Since its initial performances in 1987, Too Much Punch for Judy has toured non-stop all over the world to schools, colleges, prisons, young offenders’ institutes and army bases. Astonishingly, it is now one of the most performed contemporary plays, with 6058 licensed performances between 1987 and 2020.The play has been cited in Chief Examiner’s reports for GCSE Drama to be an example of a play that gives students ample opportunity to achieve across the criteria.Suitable for: Key Stage 3/4, BTEC, A-Level to adultDuration: 60 minutes approximatelyCast: 6 male, 6 female, 1 male or female, or 2 male, 2 female with doubling."The audience I sat in was patently out for some whooping Friday night fun watching their mates on stage. At the end there was a horrid silence."
Nick Baker, Times Educational Supplement

New revised 2020 versionIt's Christmas. Tammy and Chris, cousins and best mates, are both thrilled to get cool new bikes. Give or take the odd unworn cycle helmet everything is great... that is until one morning when Chris has a puncture and Tammy agrees to walk with him. They’re late and in a hurry. They decide to race. Chris runs out across a busy main road and then flips open his smart phone to dare Tammy to do the same in front of a fast-approaching car...Chicken! has been performed 5,876 times, averaging nearly one performance a day since the original version was written in 1992.This new 2020 version includes many updated references, a brand-new foreword by Adrian New, of StopWatch Theatre Company, more funny lines and a new decision for the actor to make at the end!Suitable for: Key Stage 2 audience. Key Stage 3, 4, 5 performance, BTEC course as part of the TiE unit (a companion DVD/download showing the complete professional TiE programme is also available)Duration: 45 minutes approximately
Cast: The play has 9 main characters: 4 male, 3 females and 2+ of either sex. It can be doubled by 2m 2f “A powerful play with a surprising twist.”
Charles Vance, Amateur Stage

“[The] performance was lively, skilful, well-paced and enjoyable. Excellent participation, explored lots of issues pertinent to Year 7, including bullying and peer pressure as well as road safety.”
Mrs S Scantlebury, Head of Year 7, Chipping Norton School, Oxfordshire

New revised 2020 versionChequered Flags to Chequered Futures tells the true story of Chris Gilfoy, the Rookie’s World Champion Banger Racer in 2000.In 2006 Chris was being driven along a public road in a powerful BMW by a racing friend. She was thought to be driving at 90 mph in a 30 limit. None were wearing seatbelts and, unknown to Chris, the driver was uninsured. Disastrously, they crashed into a wall, narrowly avoiding killing another driver. The consequences for all three in the car were life changing in very different ways.The play tells the fast-paced story through the words of Chris and his family with great opportunities for imaginative ensemble work. In a parallel strand of powerful monologues, Jane (the mother of the driver) tells her story of the aftermath of the accident. Suitable for: Key Stage 3/4/5, BTEC, A-Level to adultDuration: 60 minutes approximatelyCast: 5 female, 3 male, 3 female/male“Mark beautifully crafts and weaves the story of the three friends and cleverly integrates some stunning monologues.” Tim Ford: Artistic Director Garrick Theatre, Litchfield

Act Normal includes 31 contemporary monologues from Too Much Punch For Judy, Hard To Swallow, Missing Dan Nolan, I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won’t Die, Game Over … and many more of Mark’s plays and musicals.Written with young performers in mind and available for classroom or audition use, they offer a range of characters and topics – both comic and serious - along with acting notes for each monologue. Many of the monologues are verbatim, providing a unique opportunity for actors and directors to explore this exciting form. Act Normal is the first exclusive collection of Mark’s monologue work.‘Surprise your teacher, your friends, your family, your audience and last but not least, yourselves!’– Mark WheellerMonologue topics:True stories and verbatim piecesBritish World War II evacuee experienceTestimony of world champion blind athlete Graham SalmonAccount of sisters involved in a drink-driving accidentStory of a woman’s battle with anorexiaA young woman’s struggles breaking into the football worldTwo pieces on the life-changing consequences of a car accidentRecounting of a prison assaultDan Nolan’s 2002 disappearanceGrooming and human traffickingStudents excluded from the mainstream education systemAccidental drug overdoseYoung people and self-harmOnline predatorsFictionAbsurdist, allegorical tale about a fantasy KingUnplanned teenage pregnancyFandom and mourning an idol (reference to David Bowie)Theatre in Education piece on road safetyFeatured plays, with character options and ages(NB: all are suitable for performers of any age and gender)Blackout - Operation Pied Piper - Jean, aged 9Graham – World’s Fastest Blind Runner – Junie, pre-teen/ Graham, adultToo Much Punch For Judy – Judy, young adult/ Duncan, adultHard to Swallow – Anna, young adult/ John, adultSweet (W)FA / Lethal In The Box – Miss Vallas, adult/ Spanner, adultChicken! – Nut-Job, teenager/ Chris, teenagerLegal Weapon 2 – Andy, young adultWacky Soap – Storyteller, adultMissing Dan Nolan – Pauline, adult / Sarah, young teenager/ Andy, adultOne Million to Stop The Traffik – Mary, adultKids Who Look Out of the Window – Tonisha, teenagerChequered Flags to Chequered Futures – Jane, adult/ Driver, adultI Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die – Jack, teenagerScratching the Surface – Louise, adultThis Is For You – Susan, adultCan You Hear Me Major Tom? – Mark, adult/ Jasmine, adultGame Over – Lorin, adult

A varied collection of 30 contemporary duologues from Mark Wheeller's plays. Compiled at a time when social distancing is a consideration, these duologues all lend themselves to Zoom/Social Distance friendly performances.It includes duologues from:Too Much Punch For JudyHard To SwallowMissing Dan NolanI Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won't DieGame Over... and many more of Mark's plays... and musicals. It also includes a previously unpublished self-contained short Sibling Saviours.All these duologues are suitable for young people to use for classroom or audition use. Despite many being ostensibly for adult performers they are all tried and tested for young people to use with amazing results.There has never before been a collection of exclusively Mark Wheeller duologues.

Revised and expanded 2021 editionRace To Be Seen was nominated as the Scottish Evening News Critics Choice Best Play and Pick of the Fringe by Radio Forth at the 1984 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.Race To Be Seen tells the story of how an award-winning play came to be written about the amazing World Champion Blind Athlete Graham Salmon MBE, who tragically died in 1999.It charts his parents story when, as a baby, Graham had to have both eyes removed due to an incurable eye cancer. It follows his schooldays and how he was expelled for running a book as well as his trials in trying to secure a job and finally, his incredible sporting success!Graham went on to play golf for the international visually impaired team. He hit the headlines again for hitting a «hole in one». His final battle was against cancer. Graham surrendered first his leg and then his life … but never became downcast … he wanted his autobiography to be called “Wide Eyed And Legless”!Graham Salmon is the most inspiring athlete I have met; I say this without a moments hesitation even though I have enjoyed the rare privilege of sharing the company of Muhammad Ali, Stanley Matthews, Gary Sobers, Martina Navratilova, Nadia Comaneci, Arnold Palmer and countless others in the course of my job. – Robert Philip Daily Telegraph.A remarkable play ... a story of great courage and dedication; It is also entertaining and good Theatre, with plenty of scope for imaginative direction.– Amateur Stage Book Review (of the original Race To Be Seen).Snappily written episodes ... a moving, eminently performable show. Get this book if you are looking for something of real substance.– H. Wright National Association of Drama Teachers Broadsheet (of the original Race to Be Seen).Duration: 55 minutesCast: 6 (3m 3f with doubling). Can be performed with a cast of up to around 30. (10m, 8f & 12 m or f)

Widely studied, frequently staged—verbatim theatre is everywhere. In this new book, Mark Wheeller, the author of verbatim hits Too Much Punch for Judy, Hard to Swallow, Missing Dan Nolan and Game Over, and the most performed living playwrights in the UK, takes a personal journey through the form, and demystifies the making process. For Mark, his verbatim theatre journey all began with a man called Graham Salmon – the world's fastest blind runner. Verbatim: The Fun of Making Theatre Seriously is a perfect handbook for teachers, educators, students and anyone interested in the creative process.

This new verbatim play is based on the testimony of Hungarian Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack MBE, aged only thirteen when she was sent to the notorious Auschwitz -Birkenau in the summer of 1944. Interwoven with complementary narratives and layered with Holocaust history, this is a powerful new piece for Drama and History teachers alike.Commissioned by Europe’s only specialist Holocaust theatre in education company, Kindness offers tremendous challenge to Drama students. It allows the stories of survivors, as well as the voices of some of the millions more who did not survive, to not be lost as living memory increasingly becomes becomes a history that must never be forgotten.“I sincerely felt very moved and grateful that the play so accurately represented my experiences, and the mood and political situation of the time is so accurately shown. It is most wonderful and I give you my legacy most willingly. Thank you so much.” Susan Pollack MBEDuration: 60 minutes approximatelyCast: 21 female / male, or 2 female and 2 male with multirolingSuitable for: Key Stage 3/4, BTEC, GCSE, A Level

Revised 2022 version including additional testimony from Ruth Dearnley (CEO of STOP THE TRAFFIK) One Million to STOP THE TRAFFIK tells true stories of people who are trafficked. Sunni and Whinney, at just six and eight years old, were sold by their parents and their story inspired the formation of the charity STOP THE TRAFFIK. Their mantra? ‘People should not be bought and sold’. One Million to STOP THE TRAFFIK goes on to tell the incredible true story of the charity’s determined quest to get 1,000,000 signatures to enable them to go to the United Nations and call on governments to fight human trafficking. ‘I was blown-away. It was like watching Slumdog Millionaire only this was live theatre... the young actors’ hearts are beating and breaking in front of you. One Million to STOP THE TRAFFIK should be recognised as Mark Wheeller’s most far-reaching, insightful and accomplished play to date.’ Paul Mills, Head of Drama, Westgate School, Winchester ‘The hour long show was spellbinding and quite disturbing... it was one of the best productions I have seen in a long time, anywhere.’ Ian Murray, Chief Editor Daily Echo Duration: 70 minutes approximately Cast: 20 characters The play is suitable for a large cast and multi-roling is also possible.

I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won’t Die tells the tragic true story of the death of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs following an MDMA overdose.I hadn’t realised how much scope for creativity there was with a play taken completely from other people’s words. Jacob Spargo-Mabbs - Daniel’s elder brother.Fiona told her story like a piece of music. I remember crying as I related it to my wife - not because it was sad, but because it was brimful of love. Paul Ibbott - Composer of the underscore for the OYT production This book offers a unique and fulsome guide for teaching/studying this play and includes a detailed scheme of work for teachers using the play as a set text in the GCSE Drama examination.When Harry (playing Dan) left the cast I remember thinking ‘What are we going to do now?’  The hoodie symbolising Dan was such an amazing concept to show everyone had a part of Dan in them and they were also a part of him and… Dan could be anyone. Alysha Jade Patis - OYT performerThis poignant and eminently readable biography of the play is drawn from interviews with Dan’s family, friends and the OYT company.

Pandemexplosion shares positive journeys through the pandemic, contrasted with the horror of the 2020 Port of Beirut explosion, as a verbatim play. Commissioned by International School of London, Pandemexplosion offers a diverse ensemble cast ample opportunity for imaginative theatrical interpretation typical of a classic Wheeller play.Commissioned by The International School of London.An actor (Top Boy), a rapper, a group of school students, a university scientist and two NGO activists from Beirut have little in common but their lives are all affected by Covid-19. Mark Wheeller’s new verbatim play tells their stories. It is explosive and fascinating in turns… it is not only their story… it’s ours too.These recollections offer positive journeys through the pandemic, contrasted with the horror of the 2020 Port of Beirut explosion, included as one of the student’s family decided to return to their Lebanon home during lockdown. This story provides the most heartbreaking moments.Duration: 75 minutes approxCast: 20 (8f, 9m, 3m or f) The style of the play enables performer gender flexibility. It works with a larger cast or with doubling a smaller cast.‘The script is a prime example of what a powerful medium theatre can be… sharp ensemble worked seamlessly together, choreographed like a modern day Greek chorus… slick theatre conventions were visually striking… transported between a party and a grizzly accident scene with just a few banged up car doors and props.’Catherine Smith - Timaru Herald - New Zealand Mountview High School’s production of Mark Wheeller’s Too Much Punch For Judy