I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won't Die by Mark Wheeller

Mark Wheeller is familiar to most Drama teachers, whether through his most well-known play Too Much Punch For Judy, his drama schemes and lesson plans, or from his inclusion on set text lists with Missing Dan Nolan (OCR), Hard To Swallow and, most recently, I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won't Die (both Eduqas). He began his writing career as ‘one of us’: a Drama teacher, working collaboratively with his school and youth theatre groups to produce plays based on true stories.

I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won't Die is the true story of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, just 16 years old when he died of an MDMA overdose – the title being his final words to his mum. The play was commissioned in 2014, just four months after his death, by the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation, the drug education charity set up by his parents. It is far from a preachy ‘Don't Take Drugs’, PSHE-style lecture though, and as a dramatic work it serves as much more.