The Changing Room (NHB Modern Plays)

By Chris Bush

Set in and around a swimming pool, Chris Bush's play The Changing Room follows a group of teenagers full of excitement, impatience and uncertainty. They know change is coming, but not what it'll look like.
Written specifically for young people, The Changing Room was part of the 2018 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers opportunities for a large, flexible cast of any size or mix of genders, and incorporates chorus work and music. No swimming pool required.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jun 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781788501903

Chris Bush

Chris Bush is a playwright, lyricist and theatre-maker. Her plays include: Rock/Paper/Scissors (Sheffield Theatres, 2022); an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 2022); (Not) the End of the World (Schaubühne, Berlin, 2021); Hungry (Paines Plough, 2021); Nine Lessons and Carols (Almeida Theatre, London, 2020); Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong, Lyric Hammersmith and Birmingham Rep, 2020); The Last Noël (Old Fire Station, Oxford, 2019); Standing at the Sky's Edge, a musical with music and lyrics by Richard Hawley (Sheffield Theatres, 2019, revived 2022 and at the National Theatre in 2023, West End 2024); The Changing Room (National Theatre Connections, 2018); Steel (Sheffield Theatres, 2018); an adaptation of Pericles (National Theatre, London, 2018); The Assassination of Katie Hopkins, written with Matt Winkworth (Theatr Clwyd, 2018); What We Wished For and A Dream.

Book preview

Chris Bush

THE CHANGING ROOM

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Author’s Note

The Changing Room

Music

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

For Dad, who took us swimming

Acknowledgements

Huge thanks to Anthony Banks for bringing me in, Tom Lyons for the dramaturgy, Joel Fram for musical guidance, Matt Winkworth for the arrangements, Alex Thorpe and Emily Hutchinson in Sheffield, Tom Hughes, Caroline Steinbeis, Ned Bennett, Holly Aston, Adele Geddes, Conor Hunt and everyone else who worked on NT Connections.

In 2018, The Changing Room was performed by thirty-eight brilliant young companies up and down the country. They were:

1812 Youth Theatre

Aberconwy

artsdepot Youth Theatre

BDC Company

Bilborough BTEC P.A.

Borders Youth Theatre

Cast Youth Theatre

Chickenshed Kensington & Chelsea

Corn Exchange Newbury Youth Theatre

Cornwall College*

Curve Young Company

Eden Court Young Company

Freddie’s Connect

Further Stages Theatre Company Wimbledon

Gulbenkian

Lakeside Theatre

Lavington School

Leicester Theatre Group

Matthew Arnold Amateur Dramatics (MAAD)

Millais Productions

Mishmak Youth Theatre

Montage Theatre Arts

Mr. Sands Youth Theatre

NMPAT County Youth Theatre

Norwich School

Ormiston Rivers Academy

Outloud Productions

Queen’s Park High School

Robertsbridge Community College

Sheffield People’s Theatre

St. Mary’s Catholic College

St. Thomas More Catholic School

Stagedoor

The Garage Youth Theatre Company

The Lowry Young Company

The Playing Space

The Questors Theatre

Thurso High School – Eden Court Creative

*Selected to perform at the National Theatre.

I’m incredibly grateful to all the young people who gave their time, their talent and their hearts to staging a production, and all the adults who helped them achieve it.

Author’s Note

The Changing Room is a choral piece written for thirteen- to sixteen-year-olds (or thereabouts). It can be performed by a cast of any size and a mix of any genders. There are sections of more naturalistic dialogue where parts have been noted for clarity of reading, but for the most part each production will decide who says what. (NB in these sections where parts are assigned by letter, that letter only applies for each individual snippet of dialogue, e.g. The actor playing ‘A’ in one scene need not play a different character labelled ‘A’ in the next.) Lines denoted as ‘COMPANY’ are not all designed to be spoken by everyone together, but to be divided up as seen fit.

These company sections are mostly written in a free verse. This should be attacked, not revered. Play with it. Find the rhythms. Experiment. It can probably go faster than you think. Line breaks