Circles

(Paperback)

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Description

So where you going And isnt it a little past your bedtime Coming from you This ain't no open top tourist thing you know Its the 11. Circling the outskirts of Birmingham on the Number 11 bus, two teenagers develop an unlikely friendship. Meanwhile a mother observes her daughter's attempt to leave a violent relationship. Against the backdrop of a changing city everyone involved is forced to re-examine what they thought they knew about love, trust, family and friendship. Rachels De-lahays vivid and powerful new play boldly explores cycles of violence and what it takes to break them, examining the effects of such violence on a generation of young women. Circles received its world premiere at the Birmingham Rep on 9 May 2014.

Reviews

De-lahay excels in writing streetsmart dialogue... -- Aleks Sierz * Stage on Routes *
Routes is a vigorous and dynamic piece. -- Henry Hitchings * Evening Standard *
This thrilling debut play by Rachel De-lahay plugs straight into the jittery heart of multicultural London today . . . De-lahay has an alert ear for comic dialogue and her portrait of mixed-race, upwardly mobile twentysomethings on the estate . . . crackles with wit as well as moments of deep emotion. The play raises the provocative question of whether it is possible to shrug off the fraught issue of racial identity . . . Its a play that combines sharp one-liners with a savvy sense of the way we live now . . . One leaves the theatre impatient to discover what Rachel De-lahay will come up with next. * Daily Telegraph on The Westbridge *
De-lahay's plot in the closing scenes twists and knots the pairs together to create a modern revenge drama . . . * The Times *
De-lahay is a writer who knows how to get from A to B in by the most direct means. * Guardian *
It's always a pleasure to hear from Rachel De-lahay, who specialises in sparky, often unsettling updates from the urban frontline. She won last year's Evenin Standard Charles Wintour Aeard for Most Promising Playwright and is back now with another characteristically provocative bulletin . . . De-lahay's undoubted talent deserves to be applied to a wider canvas . . . * Evening Standard *
It is a sad metaphor for the lives of the three generations of women in this sharp and ambitious... new work from rising star writer Rachel De-lahay. Each woman is dominated and abused by men we never see, and each one fails to break the cycle. * Time Out London *
The device of alternating scenes between the teenagers and the troubled grandmother works beautifully with the development of Demi and Malachi's relationship and its eventual shocking denouement. The perfectly pitched ear for dialogue which last year won De-lahay... an Evening Standard award... confirms De-lahay's status as a talent to watch. * Daily Telegraph *
Rachel De-lahay's deft new play... Circles swerves from sweet banter on the upper deck to far darker places... this short play offers an unsettling trip. * Sunday Times *

Author Bio

Rachel De-lahays debut play was The Westbridge (Royal Court, London), which opened at the Bussey Building in Peckham in 2011 as part of Theatre Local, before playing to full houses in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. It was awarded the Alfred Fagon Award, while still unproduced. Rachel was part of the Royal Courts Unheard Voices Writers' Programme and won the 2012 Writers' Guild Award for Best Play. In 2013 she was awarded the Evening Standard's Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright, for Routes, which premiered at the Royal Court, London in 2013.