I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won't Die (Plays for Young People)

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I remember crying as I related it to my wife - not because it was sad, but because it was brimful of love.

Half Moon Theatre sits in the heart of Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, spitting distance from the DLR and mainline station.I was sitting in the same row as the people who were being re-created on stage and it was an unusual experience.

Sean Radford gives an outsider’s view of the events of that night as Jack who turned down drugs and – to his eternal shame – refused to ride in the ambulance.Since then, it has been being studied, taught and performed in schools, colleges and community youth theatres across the UK and as far away as Australia, Tasmania and Vancouver. During Spring 2022 ‘I Love You, Mum’ was performed for the 500 th time, an incredible achievement in just five years since publication. This poignant and eminently readable biography of the play is drawn from interviews with Dan’s family, friends and the OYT company. Whether that's putting new work on stages across the world or supporting our outreach and learning programmes, every purchase you make really does make a difference. It would also be interesting to see how different directors would approach it – there are a variety of staging choices that could bring this tragic story to life.

In January 2014 16-year-old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs went to an illicit all-night rave, overdosed on ecstasy and died. In moving and impactful scenes told with dialogue, physical acting, empathy, respect and humanity we learn that Dan enjoyed playing in the garden as a young boy, took part in everything at school and had already begun to support important causes. I hadn't realised how much scope for creativity there was with a play taken completely from other people's words. His friend, Jack while dealing with the trauma feels gratitude that they were together in Dan's last conscious moments and yes, in those last conscious moments, He was happy. uk) and over the last 18 months they have worked with playwright Mark Wheeller to have Daniel’s story turned into a verbatim play as a performance to educate young people – they want the production to tour schools so that ‘many good things can come from this very bad thing.An abridged version has toured to many secondary schools across the country and has been seen by thousands of young people, but we always wanted to share the full version with a theatre audience. Scott-Ward and Colley become the parents, Zoldan Jenna and Radford Jacob, the elder brother, as we explore the heartbreak of the next few days – and beyond. Susan Elkin paid a visit to Half Moon theatre in London’s East End to chat with CEO Chris Elwell about their extensive education outreach and innovative theatre programmes.