Cassie and the Lights (NHB Modern Plays)

By Alex Howarth

When her mother disappears, teenager Cassie wants to care for her sisters on her own. But can kids be parents? Or should Cassie let foster parents adopt her sisters and create a new family?
Alex Howarth's play Cassie and the Lights is a tender and playful examination of what makes a family and what holds it together. Based on real-life events and interviews with children in care, it celebrates the resilience of young people and the power of sisterhood.
The play has been performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, VAULT Festival in London, 59E59 in New York City and Adelaide Fringe Festival in Australia. It toured the UK in 2024, produced by Patch of Blue and 3 hearts canvas, in association with Southwark Playhouse and Verse Unbound.
'Glows in the darkness… a thoughtful, warm, moving hour that will leave you wanting to call whoever you think of as family' - Guardian
'Bursts with life and quirkily observed truths' - The Stage

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Apr 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9781788507868

Alex Howarth

Alex Howarth is a theatre director and writer based in London. He is the Artistic Director of multi-award winning Patch of Blue, who create original theatre pieces with live music for festivals and touring. His plays include Cassie and the Lights, written, designed and co-directed by Howarth (VAULT and Adelaide Festivals, 2020; Edinburgh Fringe, 2022; Brits Off Broadway, New York, 2023; Southwark Playhouse and Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2024).

Book preview

Alex Howarth

CASSIE AND

THE LIGHTS

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Characters

Setting

Notes for Performance

Cassie and the Lights

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Cassie and the Lights was first performed at VAULT Festival, London, in 2020. It was subsequently performed at Adelaide Fringe, Australia; Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe and the Brits Off Broadway season at 59E59 Theaters, Off Broadway, New York, before transferring to Southwark Playhouse, London, from 3rd April 2024. The cast was as follows:

Characters

CASSIE, seventeen years old

TIN, ten years old

KIT, seven years old

MUSICIAN

Setting

Yorkshire

Notes for Performance

Other characters are recorded voices.

A slash ( / ) indicates an interruption.

A lack of punctuation at the end of a line indicates an unfinished thought.

In the original production, animation of the sisters was projected to represent Cassie’s animation project. If you choose not to create this, the line referencing it may be cut.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

The sisters – CASSIE, TIN and KIT – greet the audience. CASSIE finds someone to read the court hearing, TIN finds someone who she’ll talk to in the ‘The Audience’ section, and KIT offers around Party Rings. The MUSICIAN plays fun space related songs.

TIN (to the lighting operator). Are we ready ______? Okay. (Into a mic, to the audience. Clears her throat.) Hello everyone, my name is Tin and welcome to my TED Talk, or, Tin Talk, because my name is Tin and I’ll be talking. And today, what I’ll be talking about is… trinary star systems.

KIT. Tri means three.

TIN. It does. (Comes off the mic and turns to CASSIE.) Cassie – did we put new batteries in the fairy lights?

CASSIE. Duracell…

KIT. Love the bunny

TIN. And Kit did you practise?

KIT. Yeah, Elephant and Mr Potato Head said I did dead well.

TIN. Okay sorted. (Turns back to the audience and talks into the mic again.) Then the Tin Talk will begin.

Scene One – Trinary Star Systems

Beautiful electronic space music. As TIN speaks, CASSIE and KIT illustrate what she’s saying using homemade props. Although they have made it themselves, it should be beautiful and spectacular, as if we are taking a voyage inside their heads.

TIN. A trinary star system is three stars that travel together in the sky when we look at them through our telescopes. Each one of the three stars orbits, which basically means flies, around the centre of the mass of the system (or the middle bit), pulled together by gravity, usually in what is called a ‘hierarchical arrangement’, which basically means that two of the stars are super-close, and one is a little bit further away – because if it wasn’t a little bit further away the system would get unstable and one of the stars would be thrown out of the system forever and ever, amen. If you don’t have the little-bit-further-away star, the system becomes what is called a ‘trapezia’ which does ‘chaotic behaviour’, which is very complicated