Royal Court premiere for Deborah Morgan's bittersweet tale

The Royal Court’s Stage Write initiative is celebrating its third premiere production this year.

Deborah Morgan’s Knee Deep in Promises – playing in the Roe Street theatre’s basement studio until October 19 – follows Laure Lees' Masquerade and Sarah Power's Pig which have already proved hits with Royal Court audiences after making the leap from page to stage.

Dean’s mum has just died. It’s OK though, he’s making her a coffin out of Weetabix boxes. It’s what she would have wanted. Probably.

Trish from next door is there to help. Dean needs to keep his promise to his mum about giving her a good send off, but he wants to talk first. About prom night. About lost love. About how people are and how they could be instead.

The bittersweet story about how difficult it can be to live a simple life stars Debbie Brannan (Cilla, Coronation Street), Lewis Bray (Cartoonopolis) and Sharon Byatt (Bread, Blood Brothers).

Lewis Bray and Sharon Byatt

Royal Court producer Jess Bolger says: “Knee Deep In Promises is the third play that we have produced this year that has started off at one of our Stage Write nights. The idea of the Stage Write programme is to create a space in which new work can be read and then developed.

"So far this year we have had Masquerade, Pig and now Knee Deep in the Studio as well as getting sneak previews of main house shows like Yellow Breck Road and My Fairfield Lady.

"The Stage Write nights are hugely valuable to us when it comes to programming and they benefit the writers too, who get to see their work performed by professional actors.”

Deborah Morgan is a Liverpool-based author, poet, creative writing tutor and a graduate of the Everyman and Playhouse Playwrights’ Programme.

She wrote her first novel, Disappearing Home, after giving up her job as a primary school teacher. Its opening chapter was the winner of the Writing on the Wall Pulp Idol competition in 2010.

Knee Deep in Promises is at the Royal Court Studio until October 19 and is aimed at audiences aged 14 and over. Tickets HERE