The Storyteller Sequence

The Storyteller Sequence is a series of one act dramas written for young people by Philip Ridley. The plays, all set in east London, use fairytale stories and theatrical conventions to reveal the traumas of their young protagonists. To date there are five plays in the sequence, although Ridley has intimated there will eventually be seven. The five written to date are Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece, Sparkleshark and Brokenville; note that although this is not the order in which the plays were written and performed chronologically, it is the order Ridley intends the finished "sequence" to run.

An anthology bringing together the plays so far in the sequence was published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama in late 2015.

Karamazoo is a fifteen-minute monologue from an east London teenager called Ace. Two versions of the play exist, for male and female actors respectively. Ace is the most popular boy/girl at school, waiting at a bus stop for a date. Through his/her interaction with the audience, we discover that Ace's recent surge in popularity is the result of a personality "makeover" following the death of a parent; in recounting the fairytale stories told by the dead father/mother, Ace reveals how much the loss still haunts them and realises the vacuousness and selfishness

In Fairytaleheart, two 15-year-old youths deal with ruptured families and homelessness by embracing their hopes and fears in a derelict community centre.

Kirsty's mother died two years ago, but she is still grieving whilst watching her father announce his engagement to her 'stepmother' she flees her own birthday party and sits alone in the community centre that was once her mother's 'kingdom', where she then meets Gideon: the complete opposite to popular, pretty, pretentious Kirsty. He's a scruffy boy with 'rat tails' for hair. Together by the cathasis of storytelling they entre the magic world of karamazoo and search for the 'luminous butterfly'. Finally finding it in themselves to see their problems in a new light. The story ends seeming as though they are about to kiss.

Sparkleshark is a play about a teenage boy called Jake. As he is sitting alone, on top of the block of flats he lives in, writing stories, a troubled girl who is polly (she's a carer for her younger brother) who has started in his school, who recently moved into the block of flats comes up to quietly fix a satellite dish. At first he is abusive and defensive but lightens to her when she compliments his work. More people come up to the roof for different reasons. Natasha, the popular girl, goes up to find Polly; Carol, the wannabe, follows Natasha after getting bored. She then calls up Russell, the school Bully and his two friends Buzz and Speed Follow, as well as "emo" Shane, Natasha's ex-Boyfriend. As Russell and his boys go to dangle Jake over the roof they are stopped by the offer to hear a story by Jake, at first a little hesitant to tell one as it was Polly's idea, but eventually he does, and as he does the others start acting it out. It is a fairytale about a Prince (Russell) and his Horses (Buzz and Speed), a Princess (Polly) her father (Jake), a Witch (Tasha) and a Wizard (Shane) and a Frog (Carol) at the end of the story they are attacked by a dragon known as "Sparkleshark" due to its shiny scales, who is played by Finn, Polly's Grunge brother. The story has a happy ending with all being resolved and the play ends with all the group promising to meet up on a regular basis to read and act out stories.

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