“IT HAPPENED ON A TUESDAY. WHICH IS WEIRD, COS NOTHING INTERESTING EVER HAPPENS ON A TUESDAY. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT.”
“Absolutely brilliant … a funny and flexible text for young performers with a surprising plot” ★★★★★ – Drama and Theatre Magazine
“a daring challenge that leaves plenty of room for out-of-the-box thinking and imaginations to run wild” – Unrequited Scene
TUESDAY is light, playful and nuanced in tone. And a little bit sci-fi.
The play centres on an ordinary Tuesday that suddenly turns very weird indeed when a tear rips across the sky over the school yard. Not only that, but it starts sucking up pupils and staff while at the same time raining down a whole new set of people. But then, that’s what happens when parallel worlds collide!
Confusion reigns as the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ try to work out what is going on. How are Ash and Magpie identical? Can Billy cope with having his sister back? Who is Franky?
Eventually, though, cracks appear between the two groups. As the air here starts to disagree with the ‘Them’, the race is on to try to get things back to how they were and safely return everyone to the Universe they came from.
The play explores friendship, sibling love, family, identity, grief, bullying, loneliness and responsibility. And in the process we might just learn something about ourselves as well as some astronomical theories of the multiverse!
Cast size: 9 – 50, any gender. Suitable for all ages.
Tuesday was commissioned for the National Theatre Connections Festival 2020-2021, and returned as part of the 2023 Connections Portfolio.
Tuesday is part of the 2020 and 2023 Anthologies from Methuen Drama.
It is published as a stand-alone playtext by Nick Hern Books.
If your Youth Theatre, school or group are interested in performing Tuesday, please email rights@nickhernbooks.co.uk.
Header + production photographs by Jimmy Lee (of Plough Youth Theatre performing at the National Theatre in June 2023). Artwork: National Theatre; James the Scribe; Nick Hern Books
Alison Carr 