Three Plays for Young Performers: On the Threshing Floor, The Grandfathers, Flood

I was very excited to read this collection of short student-friendly plays, as I am always eager to discover new texts that might be suitable for exploration in the classroom, as school plays, or for the scripted component at GCSE and A Level Drama. Thankfully this collection does not disappoint, and as I read, I found myself mentally casting the plays, highlighting useful monologues and noting pertinent extracts.

Rory Mullarkey has written these plays for young people, and it shows. Not because they are ‘dumbed down’ in any way, quite the opposite – the themes here are gritty and universal and there is just the right amount of bad language. They work for young people because they are written in a way that makes casting and performing them easy and accessible. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that they are therefore written for teachers and directors. There are no small parts, most of the characters are not gender specific, the cast sizes are large, but flexible, and each play is under an hour long.