Things I Know To Be True (NHB Modern Plays) (Frantic Assembly)

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As all this is happening, however, tragedy strikes. It is revealed that Fran had been involved in a car crash and was pronounced dead on arrival. She passes away without reconciling with Mia, emotionally connecting with Pip in person, forgiving Ben and taking Bob to South Africa. The children return to Adelaide to meet Bob and Rosie for Fran's funeral. It’s that invitation that initially makes Things I Know to Be True feel familiar and relatable, as Rosie’s monologue rings true with many nineties kids who left school and took a gap year that was meant to act as a launching pad into university, but instead ending being a tumble into a directionless life. Follow the schools rules on what they’re looking for (IE - no TV/film scripts, must be post-19XX etc)

That’s the world that Bob and Fran grew up in, the world where they knew they’d bought a home in Booragoon, a suburb that wasn’t the prime real estate of Applecross, nor was it the Homeswest housing of Brentwood. It was the land that invited the working class. Bob talks about paying off his home, creating an unknown nest egg for Fran and himself, while Fran’s job as a nurse has given her a longevity she may not have found elsewhere. If I were to make an educated guess, she would likely work at a private hospital, possibly St John of God Murdoch, a mere five-minute drive from Booragoon, making the ending of the play an even greater tragedy. https://theberkshireedge.com/theater-review-things-i-know-to-be-true-at-great-barrington-public-theater-through-august-14/

Kaz Kane is truly great here, giving a performance that navigates the difficult and painful terrain that comes with coming out to your family. Yet, they’re let down by Bovell’s script which treats her reveal as less of a character-building moment for Mia, and more as ‘the fears of boomer parents brought to life,’ with the text hinting at Bob and Fran’s generation being too old to understand the complexities of trans identities. Frantic Assembly have pulled together an outstanding cast, who work together so seamlessly as an ensemble that it seems almost wrong to isolate individual performances. However, Imogen Stubbs dazzles as matriarch Fran, the epitome of the hardworking and multitasking mother, who understands her children with a look and who functions as the family lynchpin. As her children rebel and struggle, she fizzes with anger, constantly delivering cutting remarks that are all the more painful as we know they are motivated by soul-consuming love. Her dynamic with her eldest daughter, Pip (Natalie Casey), is particularly mesmerising, their interaction stinging with pent up bitterness.

This section may require copy editing. ( August 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Both down to earth and gently magical. It’s the sort of uniquely theatrical evening that might just convert those suspicious that theatre doesn’t speak to them' The Times Again, another beautiful speech for people that don’t have RP accents! This is a slightly more comedic speech for anyone wanting a slightly lighter/contrasting monologue!Things I know to be true was first performed in Adelaide in May 2016 as a collaboration between Frantic Assembly and the State Theatre Company. It will feature from 2022 in the AQA GCSE exam Component 1: Understanding Drama, Study of a set text. Directors Geordie Brookman and Scott Graham state that Bovell is asking us, ‘What do the generations owe each other? Can the “sacrifice now, live later” ethos of our parents’ generation ever find a happy meeting point with the “live now” approach of the millennials? As well as examining the tension of the ties that bind us and how we must face our parents' imperfections as part of our own.’ The plot That feeling of bringing our own experiences to a play to bridge the emotional divide is not an uncommon one, leading Things I Know to Be True to thrive on those shared experiences that we all may have had. While the cast is uniformly great, they’re given characters that are spread too thin, leading to the amplified notion that we only get to know them by the traumatic event that has defined who they are. As parents, Bob and Fran would likely say they’re not truly religious, there’s enough of a remnant of a Christian-adjacent upbringing that causes them both to lead a semi-religious kind of life. They encourage monogamy and truth telling. They abhor stealing. Bob particularly dislikes swearing, even though Fran frivolously engages in spitting curse words in spiteful and horrid ways. While the performances and the direction are excellent, what hampers Things I Know to Be True the most is its structure, with each scene framed around an ‘issue of the week’ dilemma that each of the four children are going through: divorce, a search for purpose, financial malfeasance, and discovering one’s true gender identity. This removes the organic and cohesive familial unit feeling the Price family should have, and instead makes each of the children feel like an issue personified for Bob and Fran to react to. Don’t forget to follow the golden rules for looking at audition speeches when choosing your options: