“life is terror with a clown mask superglued on”
Lulla
This queer dream play by Ben reached the Top 100 longlist from 1060 entries for the 2017 Verity Bargate Award.
An extract was workshopped in April 2018 at Flux Theatre’s Actor Writer Gym in the Katzspace Studio Theatre (at Katzenjammers, London Bridge), directed by Miriam Higgins and performed by Lauren Moakes and Bess Roche.
lulla = an un/familiar fragment word, echoing “lullaby” and the sensations of sleep and childhood
Marin is 15 and has just had her first sexual experience with another girl. She thinks it’s love. But when her mum and dad find out, all hell breaks loose. Marin escapes her suffocating home life by flying out of her bedroom window. When she lands, everything looks uncannily the same – until she meets Lady Nightshade, her riddling, gender-shifting guide through this fantasy world, where nothing is ever quite what it seems. Marin journeys through surreal encounters with dream versions of her parents, and confusingly ambiguous erotic scenarios, armed only with a few fragments of half-remembered childhood lullabies. As she struggles to work out whether she needs to wake up or fall asleep, she’s faced with some difficult questions about her emerging identity. How much control does she have over her own fantasy life? And can you ever truly run away from home?