NHB Modern Plays
8 total works
'I bet it's dead clean in Ikea. I bet they have a proper breakroom with a fridge just for water, and an actual coffee machine. I bet they don't even have mice.'
The apprenticeships are only meant to last a year - there were never any guarantees beyond that. For Ava, Liv, Mason and Trent, they're just trying to get through the day. They don't know why there's an endless stream of strangers passing through, but no-one ever tells them anything. In a couple of months they'll be kicked out anyway, and God knows what happens after that. Who's looking out for them?
Scissors is a play about family, heritage and legacy, and is part of Chris Bush's triptych of plays about a Sheffield manufacturing family, Rock / Paper / Scissors. The three plays were first performed simultaneously with the same cast moving between three theatres in Sheffield – the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio – as part of Sheffield Theatres' fiftieth birthday celebrations in 2022.
'I'll fight for this. I'll fight to leave something behind. Tell me you can see it. Tell me you can hear it. Close your eyes and it just comes pouring out of the walls.'
Susie used to be a rocker. Susie used to be a radical. Susie was the future once, but that was a long time ago. It's been fifty years since her father bought an old scissor factory, and handed it over to her brother to run. Now Eddie's dead, and finally it's her time in the spotlight. She has big plans for it. She's turning up the volume. She's going to make this city sing again, if it's the last thing she does.
Rock is a play about family, heritage and legacy, and is part of Chris Bush's triptych of plays about a Sheffield manufacturing family, Rock / Paper / Scissors. The three plays were first performed simultaneously with the same cast moving between three theatres in Sheffield – the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio – as part of Sheffield Theatres' fiftieth birthday celebrations in 2022.
'People don't need scissors. They don't need beautiful, handcrafted, ninety pound scissors, however impressive they might be. But they do need somewhere to live.'
Faye and Mel have been together forever. Two kids, a mortgage and a diabetic hamster. A regular, unexceptional existence. They work hard, they get by, they do their best. So if it's true - if Faye's father really has left the factory to her - they'd deserve it, wouldn't they? The site could be worth a fortune - not for making scissors, but ripe for redevelopment. It could change everything. But first they need the paperwork.
Paper is a play about family, heritage and legacy, and is part of Chris Bush's triptych of plays about a Sheffield manufacturing family, Rock / Paper / Scissors. The three plays were first performed simultaneously with the same cast moving between three theatres in Sheffield – the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio – as part of Sheffield Theatres' fiftieth birthday celebrations in 2022.
Poppy wants to escape her old life in London. Joy and Jimmy want to spend the rest of their lives together. Rose and Harry want the new life they've been promised.
A history of modern Britain told through the stories of one Sheffield housing estate, Standing at the Sky's Edge charts the hopes and dreams of three generations over the course of six tumultuous decades. With a book by acclaimed playwright Chris Bush, and set to the irresistible songs of legendary singer-songwriter Richard Hawley, it is a heartfelt exploration of the power of community and what it is we call home.
Standing at the Sky's Edge was first performed at Sheffield Theatres in 2019, when it won Best Musical Production at the UK Theatre Awards and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Theatre. It was revived in 2022, before transferring to the National Theatre, London, directed by Robert Hastie.
It won Best New Musical at the Olivier Awards 2023, with Richard Hawley and Tom Deering's work also awarded Best Original Score or New Orchestations.
