The Kitchen Sink

by Tom Wells

This is a very good place to come from. Cos it’s knackered and funny and it’s falling in the sea… But it’s not a good place to end up

Things aren’t going to plan for one family in Withernsea. Pieces are falling off Martin’s milk float as quickly as he’s losing customers and something’s up with Kath’s kitchen sink. Billy is pinning his hopes of a place at art college on a revealing portrait of Dolly Parton, whilst Sophie’s dreams of becoming a Jiu-Jitsu teacher might be disappearing down the plug hole.

Amid the dreaming, dramas and dirty dishes, something has to give. But will it be Kath or the kitchen sink?

An irresistibly funny and tender play about big dreams and small changes, by Bush Associate Playwright Tom Wells.

The Kitchen Sink is supported by the Simon Gray Award.

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"It's always salutary to be reminded that the best plays can be about the smallest things. While so much drama focuses, rightly, on events of personal or political magnitude, Tom Wells takes as his deceptively small-scale focus four members of a largely happy family whose lives all require a gentle change of gear. The result is comic, poignant and utterly gripping...outstanding"
Evening Standard
"One of the best new plays I have seen anywhere this year, and I cannot recommend it too highly"
Telegraph
"With no Gavin & Stacey Christmas special this year, people needing a reminder of why families are so brilliant should look no further than The Kitchen Sink. While life may not always be quite so uplifting, this is a reminder that life’s small victories really can be wonderful"
Official London Theatre Guide
“A promising, funny, touching play”
Financial Times
“An unsentimental hymn to changing communities, exasperated family love and tentative young ambition... Confronting a changing England without rage or patronage, the play rings truer and deeper than many with a bleaker view. Honour to it”
The Times
"[Tom] Wells has done for the kitchen sink what John Osborne did for the ironing board"
The Observer
“There's nothing post-modern or pretentious about Tom Wells's lovely new play, premiered now in a beautifully acted in-the-round production by Tamara Harvey that does detailed justice to its warm humour and delight in human quirkiness… Go, go, go”
The Independent
Designer
Sound Designer
Lighting
Assistant Director
Director
Writer

Cast

Steffan Rhodri
Lisa Palfrey
Leah Brotherhead
Andy Rush

Andy plays Geoff.

Training: Birmingham School of Acting.

Theatre includes: THE KITCHEN SINK by Tom Wells (Bush Theatre), HELLO/GOODBYE by Peter Souter (Hampstead Theatre), LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (The Lamb Players), SENSE by Anja Hilling (Made by Brick), ANNA KARENINA (Arcola Theatre), ROMEO AND JULIET (Cheltenham Everyman).

Film includes: Here and Now (Small But Tall Films Ltd).

Television includes: Holby City (BBC), Wizards vs Aliens (BBC), New Tricks (Wall To Wall Ltd), Casualty (BBC).

Ryan Sampson

@bushtheatre

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