Hannah Sowerby grew up in a small town in Cumbria and her one-woman play, which she both wrote and performs, is, as she says, “a comedy drama about the love/hate relationship of being a young person growing up in a rural area, where there is very little to do, and the ridiculous and creative things you end up doing to amuse yourself.”
She grew up in a town even smaller than Penrith (in which the play is set) where we are introduced to 19-year-old Jodie Bell, who hasn’t gone to uni like most of her friends, but has been forced into taking a job shelf-stacking by her very sweary Nana. We follow Jodie as she attends counselling with her "shit, yet hot," counsellor, keeps bumping into everyone she’s ever met in the local supermarket and is repeatedly invited to a very strange man’s static caravan…
The play is directed by Jonluke McKie who said, “Hannah has an amazing knack for exploring darker issues in a way that highlights the beauty and poignancy in life. It’ll make you think, make you belly laugh, bring a tear to your eye, and most of all give you a fantastic night out.”
10 Things to Do in a Small Cumbrian Town runs at Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre from 23 November to 11 December (not Sundays and Mondays) at 7:30 with Saturday matinees at 1:00. Tickets are Pay What You Feel and can be booked online from Ticket Source.