... Origins...
by David Chafer, Producer/Actor
The first conversation between myself and Elliot about the idea to form a new theatre company, took place at the end of 2015. I was already running another new-writing theatre company at the time, as well as pursuing my own acting career and I was, in truth, somewhat sceptical about the plan. So what changed?
Elliot - a Head of Drama and Assistant Head Teacher at a secondary school in South Yorkshire at the time – had the foresight to spot a possible gap in the drama-specific theatre in education market. Around that time the specification for GCSE Drama was updated, re-introducing set texts. He was convinced that there would be demand for a new company to professionally tour one of the plays on the list.
“OK, let’s try a pilot tour,” I said after some gentle persuasion. “But which play do we choose?”
After reading a number of plays that could fit the criteria of a small-cast, touring production with minimal set and tech, but would still have a big impact, we eventually settled on Mark Wheeller’s ‘Hard to Swallow’, the tragic and powerful verbatim story of a young girl’s diagnosis, treatment and eventual death from anorexia.
Elliot contacted Mark to float the idea with him and he was delighted that a company would take up the baton of touring this play. Since that first connection, Mark has been a brilliant supporter and advocate of our work.
In 2018, the first pilot tour of ‘Hard to Swallow’ was launched visiting schools across England. Feedback to the production from teachers and students alike – and particularly to our style of work – was overwhelmingly positive. The 2019 tour of ‘Hard to Swallow’, saw us visit many of the previous year’s schools again and plenty of new ones.
A new opportunity
During the second tour Mark Wheeller came to see our production for the first time and brought with him Fiona Spargo-Mabbs, the Director of national drug education charity the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation. As a result, TiE It Up were invited to make a new version of Mark Wheeller’s ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’ for a pilot tour in Scotland in May 2020. This verbatim play tells the story of how Dan, a popular 16-year-old South London schoolboy, died after taking a lethal dose of MDMA (ecstasy) at an illegal rave in 2014.
As a result of the pandemic lockdowns and other Covid-related restrictions, that tour was delayed, but DSMF showed great faith in us and funded our new I Love You, Mum.. production, which was filmed. That ‘as-live’ production has gone on to be seen by thousands of students in schools and other settings across the country. It also aired on the Edinburgh Fringe Player in 2021 receiving a slew of 4* reviews.
With the first as-live film production under our belt and with Arts Council England funding secured, we produced an as-live filmed recording of Hard to Swallow in Spring 2021. Again, this production has been used as a valuable drama teaching resource in dozens of schools across the UK and as far afield as Australia!
A return to touring
With Covid restrictions lifted, we returned to live touring and since January 2022 our production of ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’ has completed:
· Three schools’ tours across Scotland
· Three schools’ tours across England
· A week’s worth of performances and workshops embedded in the American School of Paris
· A theatre tour of the full-length published version of the play
· A performance in the drug rehabilitation unit of HMP Perth
Across the 12 projects TiE It Up Theatre has undertaken since 2018, a total of 101 creatives have been employed. To-date, over 15,000 students and staff have watched our performances.
If you wish to know more about our work, just get in touch info@tiu-theatre.co.uk
