Review: Tuesday by Alison Carr

When I first read the description of this play on the cover I wasn't entirely convinced. Set in a school playground on an ordinary Tuesday, the sky suddenly rips open and teachers and students are sucked up into a parallel universe. I really wasn't sure how on earth this play would work, but it's absolutely brilliant. I really thoroughly enjoyed reading it and it was a real surprise. Funny, interesting and original, Tuesday would be a great play to stage in a school, adaptable for a cast size of 16 to 60.

Originally commissioned as part of the 2020 and 2021 National Theatre Connections Festival, this is a great play for a young cast of performers. I really enjoyed Alison Carr's author's note at the start where she said she wanted to write ‘something that would excite, entertain and intrigue the young performers taking it on and set theatrical challenges to explore and overcome.’ She really encourages anyone producing it to tell the story how they would like and have fun with it, which is fantastic. ‘It's yours now,’ says Carr, which really encourages you to stage it as you see fit.

There are nine principal characters, (five female and four male) but you can easily change the genders as required. There are an additional seven named characters, plus an ensemble of as many performers as you wish. The dialogue for the ensemble is written in italics, often with direct audience address. It is fast-paced and fun, with no specific scene changes, so it flows from one section to another. You can allocate lines indicated with a – to individuals, or perform them as a chorus. There are lots of opportunities to create a range of different characters here within the ‘them’ and ‘us’ roles and it's easy to visualise just how many performers you could include.

There is also no specified set. In fact, given the pace of the scenes, anything you do put on stage would need to be moveable as the story progresses quickly. There are lots of props you could include in order to tell the story, but there are only two listed in the play – an orange and bag, which is extremely liberating.

Refreshing, witty, and a really enjoyable read, I enjoyed Tuesday so much that I think I'm going to have a go at staging this next year at my school.