Bright Places
I was 23 when it came crashing into my life; without warning, just when everything was going so well, just when I was really, really happy…
A three-woman, one-woman show about Multiple Sclerosis, MS for short, not to be confused with M&S or S&M.
With 90s pop, a costume box and a whole heap of glitter! – The Peggy Ramsay Award winning Bright Places is an honest, funny and autobiographical story about growing up in the shadow of chronic illness.
Price
From £10
Presented by
Carbon Theatre, in association with Birmingham Rep, and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Acknowledgments
We are proud to be working with charity partner, Shift.ms: the digital community for people with MS.
The play was originally commissioned by Birmingham Rep in 2020, with generous support from the Sir Barry Jackson Trust.
Written by
Rae Mainwaring
Directed by
Tessa Walker
Age Guidance
12+
Please note, no under 5s will be admitted to the auditorium.
Content Advice
Please note this production contains strobe lighting and scenes some people may find upsetting.
Access Performances
BSL Interpreted: Thu 31 Oct, 7.45pm (interpreted by Harjit Jagdev)
Creative Captioning & Embedded Audio Description
Each performance includes Creative Captioning (with captions integrated into the design on stage) and Embedded Audio Description (with audio description included in the writing of the script).
Running Time
Approximately 1 hour 15 minutes with no interval.
Special Offers
3 for 2: Add 3 shows into your basket and at checkout enjoy 33% off each production for selected productions. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Fees and Charges
Please note, there is a transaction fee of £3.50 on all payment types.
Venue
Rehearsal Photos
Photography by Graeme Braidwood.
Photography by Graeme Braidwood.
Photography by Graeme Braidwood.
Photography by Graeme Braidwood.
Photography by Graeme Braidwood.
Photography by Graeme Braidwood.
Photography by Graeme Braidwood.
Cast
Lauren Foster
Lauren has appeared in numerous stage productions including Rebel Music directed by Alex Brown, From Morning to Midnight performed at LIPA and Noughts & Crosses directed by Monique Touch.
Film and TV credits include: BBC’S Holby City and Doctors, as well as Three Day Millionaire directed by Jack Spring.
Aimee Berwick
Aimee is a performer, writer and musician.
Performing credits include: My Name is Leon (BBC2); Chase Tales Trail (Birmingham Rep/Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles); Jazz in the Jungle/ Oscar at the Opera/the Christmas Moon Cat (Joey Walter/Ning-ning Li); The Decision (Birmingham Opera Company), Bright Places workshops (Birmingham Rep).
Rebecca Holmes
Rebecca trained in Musical Theatre at SLP College and graduated in 2009. After graduating she worked mainly on commercials and has worked in several feature and short films, most notably as the Bride in Ben Wheatley’s Kill List.
Her most recent theatre credit is: Florence Nightingale in one woman show Kissing Miss Nightingale’s Shadow.
Rebecca was diagnosed at the age of 21 with relapsing and remitting MS and is honoured to be playing a role in such an important piece of theatre shedding light on an often misunderstood condition.
Natallia Bulynia
Natallia is an actress, writer and a director originally from Belarus. In 2005 she moved to Seoul, South Korea, where she started her acting career. In Seoul, she graduated from Chung-Ang University with an MA in Performing Arts. In 2018 she continued her studies at East15, UK.
Her acting credits include: BBC’s Killing Eve, Disney/Marvel’s Secret Invasion and Netflix’s Kpop drama, Queen of Tears.
Her directing credits include: La historia de Fernando (SIFFA, Rewind International Film Festival) and Fly (Walthamstow International Film Festival, Diaspora Film Festival NewYork).
Natallia is a Multiple Sclerosis patient.
Creatives
Writer
Rae Mainwaring
Rae Mainwaring
Rae Mainwaring is a disabled Writer from Birmingham. She was part of The Rep‘s Foundry 2019 cohort and is an alumni of Graeae’s Beyond program and BBC writers room Cov voices.
In 2023, her play Bright Places won the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 bursary award. Her play, ‘The Last (plastic) Straw‘; written for young performers, was commissioned by the Playhouse project and performed in several regional theatres.
Rae has a series in early development for screen with Left Bank Pictures and has taken part in a Netflix writer’s room.
Director
Tessa Walker
Tessa Walker
Tessa has been an Associate Director at Hampstead Theatre and at Birmingham Rep.
Birmingham Rep productions include: The Whip Hand by Douglas Maxwell (also Traverse Theatre), Circles by Rachel De-Lahay (also Kiln Theatre) and Folk by Tom Wells (also Hull Truck and Watford Palace).
Recent productions include: Northanger Abbey, adapted by Zoe Cooper (Orange Tree Theatre and tour), Biscuits for Breakfast by Gareth Farr (Hampstead Theatre) and Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann (Pilot Theatre).
Previous productions include: Ravenscourt by Georgina Burns (Hampstead Theatre) Big, Big Sky by Tom Wells (Hampstead Theatre), The Glad Game by Phoebe Frances Brown (Nottingham Playhouse and tour) Symphony of Us created with Paul O’Donnell (Coventry Cathedral, Coventry City of Culture).
Designer
Debbie Duru
Debbie Duru
Debbie is a designer for performance spaces. She is a recipient of the Black British Theatre Award 2023 for Theatre design, an Offie Nomination as Costume designer for Alice in Wonderland, and was a Linbury Prize finalist 2019.
Theatre credits include:
as a Set & Costume designer: How I learned to Swim, (Roundabout/Edinburgh Fringe), Re.Discover Festival (Streetwise Opera), Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic), Run Rebel (Pilot theatre/Mercury Theatre), Ravenscourt (Hampstead Theatre), The White Card (Northern Stage), Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre), The Song Project (Royal Court), . . .cake (Theatre Peckham), Dagny Wants to Dance (Bureau of Silly Ideas), Josephine (Theatre Royal Bath).
as a Costume designer: Now I See, (Stratford East), Twice Born (Scottish Ballet/Theatre Royal Glasgow), Romeo and Juliet (The Almeida) and Alice in Wonderland (Brixton House)
as a Associate Set designer: include Mandela, The Musical (Young Vic), Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric Theatre) and Dick Whittington (National Theatre).
Sound Designer
Clive Meldrum
Clive Meldrum
Clive is also a visiting lecturer at University of Birmingham and BOA Stage & Screen.
Theatre credits include: Peter Pan the Musical (BOA Group), Love & Rebellion, Order & Chaos, Parklife, Uncommon Riches, GrimeBoy, The Play What I Wrote, Sky Comedy Rep, Blue/Orange, Stuff, Elephant, To Sir With Love, The Quiet House, The Rotters’ Club, Folk, Unknown Male, The Mother, Respect, Cling To Me Like Ivy, Last Easter, How To Tell The Monsters From The Misfits, Looking For Yoghurt, and Hopelessly Devoted (Birmingham Repertory Theatre). Faustus: That Damned Woman, Bad Roads, Serious Money, The Trojan Women, The Penolopiad, The Learning Lottery, How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Byrthrite, Animal Farm (University of Birmingham).
As Associate Sound Designer: Counting & Cracking – UK tour (Belvoir), Family Tree – UK tour (Actors Touring Company)
Audio work: Chase Tales Trail (Cannock Chase Council & Birmingham Rep)
Lighting Designer
Holly Ellis
Holly Ellis
Holly (she/her) is a graduate of LAMDA’s technical theatre course.
Her work includes; The Long Run (Touring), The Barber of Seville (Waterperry Opera) I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire (Southwark Playhouse) The Promise (Birmingham Rep and Touring), Errol’s Garden (Touring) The Naughty Carriage on the Orphan Train (Dundee Rep), Bitter Lemons (Bristol Old Vic), Spy for Spy (Riverside Studios), Blanket Ban (Southwark Playhouse) On the Ropes (Park Theatre), A Sherlock Carol (Associate LD, Marylebone Theatre), CASTEing (Roundabout), The Tempest (RCSSD), Autopilot (Pleasance, Edinburgh) Animal Kingdom (Hampstead, Downstairs); Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Southwark Playhouse) *Offie Nominated for Best Lighting Design*, Bobby and Amy (North Wall/UK tour/ Pleasance Edinburgh); Tokyo Rose (Southwark Playhouse/UK tour), Errol’s Garden (UK tour).
Creative Caption Designer
Virginie Taylor
Virginie Taylor
Virginie Taylor is a London based theatre video and creative captions designer, with a background in lighting design and fine art.
Video and lighting design credits include: Pajoma Collective (Bernie Grant Arts Centre), Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven (London Performance Studios) and Hummingbird (VAULT Festival).
Video design: Windrush the Journey, Roman Fever and The Human Voice (Pegasus Opera), The Odyssey (Unicorn Theatre), Wendy: A Peter Pan Story (the Egg – creative captions only), Press (Park Theatre), Charlie Russell Aims To Please (EdFringe/The Other Palace) and No Place Like Home (EdFringe/Camden People’s Theatre).
Creative Caption Consultant
Ben Glover
Ben Glover
Video design and creative captioning credits include: Antony & Cleopatra (Shakespeare Globe), The Promise (Deafinitely Theatre), Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre), High Times and Dirty Monsters (20 Stories High), A Spectacle of Herself (Contra Production), Surfacing (ASYLUM arts), Tubular Bells 50th Anniversary Concert Tour, NOISE (The Place), Little Bits of Ruined Beauty (Pentabus Theatre), The Lesson (Southwark Playhouse), The Paradis Files (Graeae Theatre), RED (Polka Theatre).
Production and Stage Manager
Jeanette Maggs
Jeanette Maggs
Jeanette has a background in Sound, AV and Production Management, and has been working in Theatre as Company Stage Manager and Deputy Stage Manager roles for the last ten years.
Recent credits include: Northanger Abbey ( Orange Tree Theatre, London / Octagon Theatre, Bolton / SJT Theatre, Scarborough / Theatre by the Lake, Keswick – Co Pro 2023), Little Red Riding Hood (The Rep, Birmingham 2023), Not The Last (Women And Theatre, Birmingham 2023), Biscuits For Breakfast (Hampstead Theatre, London 2023 ), and Run Rebel (Pilot Theatre, Tour, 2023)
Costume Supervisor
Ruth Bagnall
Ruth Bagnall
Ruth (she/her) is a Birmingham based costume designer, maker and wardrobe supervisor. With particular experience in vintage clothing and children’s costuming. Recent credits include costume design and creation for Open Theatre Company and costuming The Birmingham Bull in the Bullring. Alongside this she owns a children’s costume company A is for Alice, supplying handmade children’s costumes and accessories to boutiques, theatre and museum shops including The Globe and The Story Museum.
Movement Director
Steady
Steady
Assistant Stage Manager
Elliott Grant
Elliott Grant
Producer
Courtenay Johnson
Courtenay Johnson
Casting Director
Polly Jerrold
Polly Jerrold
Marketing
Cup Of Ambition
Cup Of Ambition
Press
Chloé Nelkin Consulting
Chloé Nelkin Consulting
Photographer
Graeme Braidwood
Graeme Braidwood
Filmmaker