Year
2016
Language
English

About

A sensitive, delicate and powerful play that asks what our labour is worth and how life can be lived when the system is stacked against you.
Tamsin packs boxes in a warehouse, on the clock, to a target, with a zero-hour contract. Her brother Dean is housebound, working to obsessive-compulsive rituals of his own.
When Dean is declared fit for work, their benefits are cut. There are phone calls to make, appeals to lodge and endless forms to fill in. Tamsin must pack faster, work harder, and fight to get the support she and her brother so desperately need.
Katherine Soper's play Wish List won the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and was co-produced by the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and the Royal Court Theatre, London. It premiered at the Royal Exchange in September 2016 and the Royal Court in January 2017.

Related Subjects

Reviews

"'Lays bare social iniquities without resorting to melodrama… its motivating spirit is the same as a Ken Loach film: this isn't fair, and attention must be paid'"
Financial Times
"'A beautifully compassionate, tender and at times gently humorous piece of work… in its clear-eyed look at the interplay between two dehumanising systems, it arouses due political indignation. A heartening debut'"
Independent
"'A sad, beautiful drama about austerity Britain… Wish List is sad and upsetting, condemnatory of the way in which automated systems replace humanity. But it's not an angry rant, and ultimately it feels celebratory of humanity'"
Time Out

Extended Details

Artists