phelim rowland
Lives in Portsmouth.
Yorkshire
sarah creighton
sarahcreighton@mac.com
sarahcreighton@mac.com
Stella Maris
I sees them all come home. And I sees my man dancing to harbour, drunk as ever, and I sees my dead boy floating home, sewn in his sheets like a caul, borne on all the tides of the world's waters, home from every battle, from every shock and sickness, from every accident of storm and misread stars, from every rock and shoal and treacherous reef, my dead boys drifting home by heaven’s light.
Solent Peoples Theatre/ Portsmouth City Council 2000
Lionheart
Sickly baby, you were. The midwife didn’t want to slap you - she thought the shock might kill you. Scrawny little thing you were. No-one ever looked in your pram and went “Aaahhh”. Women’d glance in and look at me. Like it was my fault. It was the squint
put them off. Women want to ogle babies, Arthur. But the baby has to be able to look back. Both eyes. That was your father’s side - there wasn’t one of that family could look you straight in the eye.
Solent Peoples Theatre / Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh 1999
A Cup of Water & Evening Star
Liam filled the room, filled me. And he made me laugh. I used to watch him when I worked in the pub. I hated the place, but every night he’d watch me and smile. And one night he walked in and put a fluffy toy on the bar. Held a Swiss Army knife against its throat and said, “Love me or the teddy bear gets it.” You have to love someone if they do that, don’t you?
Solent Peoples Theatre 1998
The Shooting Ground
A youth.......perhaps one, perhaps a large number, not content with tossing each other, have been tossing things into our garden. And I have been tossing them back. Victor Tweddle is not a man into whose gardens things can be tossed lightly. The objects in this garden are the result of planning, hard work and careful nurture.....
Proteus Theatre Company 1998
Birds on a Salt Wind
I hear the murmur of oceans and the first soft breath of wind. You will remember this,
small heart. You will remember the coasts and the fall of mountains to water, remember
the jagged edges of the earth as it fractures to ocean.
Heaven's Light Project 1997
Dead Rise & Tumble Home
"I watch him for a long time, until he is silent and stares brooding at the water. When I push him forward, he says nothing, tumbles down into the dock. A splash, the ripples settle and it's quiet again. Come from water, home to water. I weep for the old man and all the sea's dead, all the dead of battles, shipwreck, fire and disease, all the men and boys who sleep with fishes and drift and tumble and rise again on the world's tides."
Solent Peoples Theatre 1996
Romeo & Juliet
Are you away off then, son? From what? Rosaline? That it? Eh? From a girl who wouldn’t talk to you? Dear God. Did you try talking to her? Were you scared she’d hear your accent? Your nice voice. Sad boy. Rejected and running away to university. Sure that’s all you’re running from?
(adaptation with composer Karen Wimhurst)
Solent Peoples Theatre 199
Roaring Boys
All these silly clothes and stupid words. It’s the past, Clive, and I’m not interested any more. Tomorrow’s much more exciting than yesterday.
Sandbach School/ National Theatre BT Connections/Edinburgh Festival 1994
Coming West
Waking, walking, water, bread and sleep. Waking, walking, water, bread and sleep. The litany of the days. Last night I came in the darkness to the water and could not sleep. This morning there's salt in the bread. Thalassa. La mer. Der See. See, Milo. Milo the walking man is here at the edge of the world where Khan waits for him. Khan! Lord! Look, Lord, Milo has kept his word and walked to the West! No roads now, only water.
Testing Testing 1992
The Deep Christ
Soho Poly Theatre 1991
Seeing Marie
Oh Christ. The blind boy in his scrunts and deaf as well. Your doors are open Wynn, the lights off - any fool could walk in off the street and listen to you singing, steal the house around you. Wynn! It's Kevin, come round to play after all this time.
North West Playwrights 1990, Bristol Old Vic, Angel Theatre Company 1994
Profane Images
Abominations. Travesties of the human form which is God’s perfect creation. Images, profane images which are a mockery of the fine craft, hollow mannequins animated by the foul desires of that showman and his creatures. When you do your penance in the Abbey, think on the majesty of God’s creation.
North West Playwrights Workshops 1989
Dancing in the Skin Clinic Carpark
North West Playwrights Workshops1988
Poetry, Radio, Theatre
5
"I watch him for a long time, until he is silent and stares brooding at the water. When I push him forward, he says nothing, tumbles down into the dock. A splash, the ripples settle and it's quiet again. Come from water, home to water. I weep for the old man and all the sea's dead, all the dead of battles, shipwreck, fire and disease, all the men and boys who sleep with fishes and drift and tumble and rise again on the world's tides."