BLUE DEPARTED
Blue Departed charted the lives of two heroin addicts who's stages of using and recovery are intrinsically linked. The play took on the narrative form of Dante's Inferno and couples that with a fever dream come down sequence that could last two hours or twenty years.
Blue Departed underwent R&D with director Henry Krempels and actors Mark Conway, Richard Clarke and Rose Lucas at The Bush Theatre and with the Script Readers at Theatre Royal Stratford East. It debuted at The Vaults Festival in January 2019. It was then picked up by the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and underwent extensive development with literary manager Eleanor White and Artistic Director Gareth Nicholls. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the play was shown online.
SCANDI NOIR
Serafina worked with international theatre company No Comment Theatre in Copenhagen to create a full length piece which examines the Scandinavian Noir genre and transposes it to the stage.
She worked with 12 European actors and one director to distill all of the Scandi Noir tropes and make something accessible to an international theatre audience.
GREEN MATTER
Green Matter was written under commission for Wimbledon College of Arts in collaboration with Director Monique Touko and Designer Kerri Woods to create a piece that is as beautiful to watch as it is to listen to.
Green Matter was performed at Wimbledon College of Arts in February 2018.
SQUIRM
SQUIRM followes Rory, a hungover 25 year old, as he recounts in lucid detail his first and only love, who although was fifteen when he met her he will be quick to tell you that he didn't sleep with her until 16 and that was not the reason he liked her anyway.
This intense one man show played at The King's Head, C Nova, Theatre 503 and The Bread and Roses Theatre. It was first directed by Oliver Yellop and Matt Bulmer starring Nathanial Fairnington and then was directed by Chris Davis starring Nick Finegan.
FULL CONSENT TO SPEAK
ON MY BEHALF
Written for Good Wolf, Full Consent to Speak on My Behalf takes interviews with care leavers and excerpts from the media to fully investigate the life of a care experienced child.
Featuring voices from Scotland to Croydon from people in their Teens to their Fifties the process for this play has been formative, each interview has inspired the next.
Full Consent To Speak on My Behalf was at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019 and toured London on it’s return.
Failing at failing
Failing at Failing is a love story set in group therapy.
Failing at Failing was first produced as a short piece at Theatre 503, directed by Chris Davis. Serafina then developed into an hour-long play that went on to be performed at The Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at The Royal Court directed by Hamish Pirie. It starred Mickey Workeye and Lauren Lyle.
Hurricane Force Jan
Hurricane Force Jan is a collaboration between Serafina Cusack and Arianna Beadie.
The show bridges the gap between theatre and character comedy. Hurricane Force Jan was written in a workshop style with both Serafina and Arianna meeting regularly to try ideas and see what could make them laugh the hardest. It is both relatable and surreal as it focuses on office worker Jan who is fired from her job in a handrail manufacturing company for decking her coworker.
Hurricane Force Jan debuted at The Miller and enjoyed a sold-out run at The Brighton Fringe in 2019.
Thanks I love you, xx H
Thanks I love you, xx H played with the form of kitchen table notes and poetry, describing 10 years of the fall of Western civilisation in only five notes asking for mainly groceries. It was inspired by a line about the price of shower gel in Chris Thorpe's Victory Condition. Serafina took this idea of how slowly a political apocalypse may happen and what material things that might start to affect first.
Thanks I love you, XX H was a short play written as part of a day-long event at The Royal Court called The System and was directed by Grace Gummer.
This is Matty, and he is fucked
This is Matty, and He is Fucked is the teenage cousin of Serafina's other work. Written in its entirety on a seven hour train journey it is as fast paced as it is formally interesting. Running at only fifty minutes it chronicles a liquid three years in the lives of bored rich kid Lucas and his cool and dangerous older friend Matty as they make it to the top of the London rave scene knowing their only option will be to jump from the top.
This is Matty played at The Winemaker's Club (at the time, Matchstick Theatre) in October 2016. It was directed by Jesse Angelo and the cast included: Craig Talbot, Joe Phelps, Bronte Tadman, Martha May Bennet, Tom Lincoln and Emily Thomson.
It then went on to be performed at The Vaults Festival 2019 directed by Henry Krempels and staring Joshua Jacob, Rose lucas, Deshay Gayle and Nicole Jebeli.
sense
SENSE was a site specific promenade piece that took two small audiences at a time to figure out the mystery of a man who had lost his identity and was trying to regain them through finding familiar senses.
Serafina collaborated with playwright Benedikt Päffgen to create an oversaturated and dreamlike experience. It played at The Site at The Royal Court Theatre and was directed by Grace Gummer.
small talk
Although Small Talk was written with two characters the only speaking role was for a pair of clippers.
Serafina wanted to write about the things we do to our hair whilst going through break ups and wrote a silent break up scene set in a hairdressers.
It was written as part of Anima theatre Company's Place to be at The Rosemary Branch and was directed by Henry Krempels. Small Talk returned to the Vaults Festival in 2018 with Place to Be.