“She kept us so close, too close. And we tried. We did. Tried and failed. Be perfect, be spotless. You think we’re monsters, keeping her body there, not telling anyone. But we couldn’t let her go, not before we’d done it, been spick and span like she wanted. And to let her go … to be alone.”

Old Vic New Voices TimeWarner IGNITE is a bespoke programme for alumni of The 24 Hour Plays.

Structured around The Old Vic’s productions, Ignite1 comprised of 4 short plays, each commissioned to use Noel Coward’s Design For Living as its basis.

My contribution was But Otherwise Went Well, a dark drama about sisters torn between their distressing reality and an idealised dream world in which they are beautiful debutantes of the 1950s. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for some photos.

The title comes from an extract from the diary of a real-life deb, “May 14: Photographed by Lenare 2.30 pm. Cocktail party in our flat for me. Rather empty but otherwise went well.” 

First produced by OVNV at Waterloo East Theatre, London, December 2010

The cast was as follows:

DEB; ‘dream debutante’: Deirdre Mullins
SISTER; Lib, would-be debutante: Lorna Beckett
SISTER; Bess, would-be debutante: Daisy Brydon
DANIEL; debs’ delight:  Ben Dilloway
MATTY; debs’ delight:  Ian Keir Attard

Directed by Alex Summers
Produced by Charlie Payne