The Project
Montague Terrace is a new play by Brass Works Theatre’s artistic director Adrian Harris in which four strangers, two in the present and two in the past, meet in a rundown Victorian terrace.
We have the play, which combines onstage action with an innovative approach to recorded sound design, pencilled for our next production.
Learn more here about the Montague Terrace story and the play’s development.
The Play
Four strangers, two in the present and two in the past, meet in a rundown Victorian terrace that’s been converted into small flats.
A soldier, medically discharged with PTSD, returns to London in 1944 to find his home has been blitzed and his wife has run off with a Canadian pilot taking their daughter with them. He’s re-housed at Montague Terrace, where he meets Helena, a Czech refugee, who, despite being through hell to escape Europe only to spend a year in an internment camp, faces each day with renewed strength.
In the present day, David has lost his home and business in the pandemic, and so finds himself at Montague Terrace. He’s determined not to let this be the end and strives to face the new challenge. It’s there he meets Sarah, the victim of an abusive marriage who has been using the empty flat as a small refuge from her husband who resides upstairs, while her daughter stays with her grandmother.
Four lives displaced by extraordinary and extreme circumstances, separated by decades. Each deals with isolation, personal demons and adversity to raise the questions: How are we different? How will we find our way?
The Podcast
Adrian won a freelancer grant from the West of England Combined Authority to research and develop a new theatre play, exploring and expanding his scriptwriting and sound design skills in the process.
Join Adrian in the debut four episodes of the Playing with Words podcast in which he discusses the project with sound designers Alison Bown and Tim X Atack; explores his characters’ psychological backgrounds with emotional counsellor Sarah Cunliffe; gets feedback on an early draft of his playscript at a Southwest Scriptwriters meeting; and puts the play through its paces in an experimental reahearsal with actors Chris Yapp and Georgia Rona.
Listen to the podcast below or subscribe by searching for ‘Playing with Words’ where you usually get your podcasts.
A Scene from 1944
Adrian worked on a draft of Montague Terrace with actors Chris Yapp and Georgia Rona exploring the play’s characters and putting the dialogue through its paces in a three-day rehearsal process. Watch an early draft scene below in which, in 1944, Helena, a Czech refugee, tries to connect with Jim, a discharged British soldier.
