Platform Plays – serie

‘They did not understand, you see, that what is stitched with a needle is not always innocent… Needles are dangerous.’The year is 1569, and in a cold, stone room in a Staffordshire castle, a group of women sew elaborate tapestries. Rich or poor, at home or held against their will, four women’s lives intersect on the point of a needle.Embroidery is their escape, their sanity, and their expression: of love, loss, artistry and power. For these women’s stitches have the power to change not just their own lives, but the course of English history.Inspired by the tapestries created when Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, The Glove Thief by Beth Flintoff is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books. Aimed at addressing gender imbalance in theatre, Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.

Mona is a young woman on the edge. All she sees is the Earth falling apart, but no one really seems to care. Amidst the chaos of competing and contradictory voices, she sets off on a kaleidoscopic journey to find solutions for the planet – and the truth about her family – in the hope that everything might start to make sense again.Lizzie Nunnery's Heavy Weather is a powerful, timely play featuring songs, about one girl's journey through a world teetering on the brink.The play is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books. Aimed at achieving greater gender equality in theatre, Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly, or all, female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.