Welcome to our backroom project page.
The Widening Pool
The Widening Pool .… formerly “How to Start a Knife Gang” is the 2019 Bruntwood-longlisted tragedy we began pitching before the pandemic, about knife gangs, love and family.
The Widening Pool (aka “HTSAKG” ) combines the high intensity interspersed multilayered verbal dialogue of SU’s The Last Lunch, (Best New Play, New Writing South 2012), the pacey energy reminiscent of Trainspotting mingled with the vibrancy of hip hop beats, touching on the issues surrounding diverse communities, battling with expectations, ambition, poverty, identity, issues of masculinity, and self betterment.
Longlisted: The Bruntwood Prize 2019
Selected: for the “Pitch Up” Event @ The Place, London, hosted by Farnham Maltings & House Theatre Org.
Rehearsed Reading: Lewes, Sept 2019.
In the top 20% of plays submitted, Verity Bargate Award 2022
“(your play) championed by a number of readers on the reading team, and reached the later stages of the competition, incredibly impressed” Gillian Greer, Literary Manager
Rehearsed Reading, Fitzroy House, Lewes.
“…powerful, gripping, touching… “ Giulia Menichelli, writer/performer
“…a powerful performance, with wonderful acting.” Maya Cockburn, artist
“…an outstanding piece of work about gang culture, knife crime, racial divides and moments of childhood shame that you never truly shake off” Brad Glen, actor
Download the script
Download
We are Something Underground:
Founded in 2006 by Jonathan Brown, SU has created multiple projects,
from solo theatre to plays for casts up to 10 players.
We have won or been nominated for a variety of awards,
& in 2019 received substantial Project Grants Award from ACE for our play Of Our Own Making
Our most recent mid scale (pre-pandemic) project:
Of Our Own Making
In 2019 Something Underground ran a £60K budget, ACE-funded, mid-scale project “Of Our Own Making” …a play about refugees, radicalisation, home-grown terrorism, ISIS, Brexit, tabloids and more.
Developed in partnership & support from Pitch Up & Farnham Maltings, South Hill Park, Tara Theatre, many Wandsworth Youth Groups, ABandOfBrothers (who work across the country, with young men at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system) and Helen Parlor of MOTUS dance.
Within the Project we ran free dance & physical theatre workshops for local boys alongside Helen Parlor …and youth mentoring organisation A Band Of Brothers and we incorporated the boys’ work within the production……a visceral performance that ran 20 performances (Feb 2019) at award-winning Tara Theatre…& with music specially composed by Dirk Campbell (RSC, Harry Potter, The Mummy).
Click here for a full & deeper overview of our OOOM Project.
What we seek from venues….
We’d like to be able to run The Widening Pool for 2-3 weeks at a venue that gives us enough of a “deal” that we can present that venue realistically to ACE as a creative partner (one offering sponsorship, in-kind or otherwise) in a funding bid to ACE (of a comparable scale to our OOOM project – about £40-60k of funding).
- Use of the venue for the run at a deal which shows the venue is sufficiently invested as a partner (either as a commission, a meaningfully-discounted hire rate, or other deal which demonstrates this)
- Sufficient Use of the venue for rehearsals at a deal which demonstrates the venue is sufficiently invested as a partner (either free, AND/OR a meaningfully reduced hire rate) (e.g. free for some, and reduced for the rest)
- Any use of the venue for the proposed attached community outreach workshops, at a deal (either free, AND/OR a meaningfully reduced hire rate).
- In-kind Issue specific Marketing & audience devpt (print, mailing) (basically help with marketing the show.)
- In-kind Workshop specific PR & networking ( help with marketing and populating the workshops.)
- In-kind Touring / Producing Consultation (some nominal time with an in-house practitioner at the venue who can give some input/insight on production considerations)
- In-kind Dramaturgy input (some nominal time with an in-house practitioner at the venue who can give some input/insight on directorial/dramaturgical considerations)
More about the play….
Meet Flint, an excluded teen, starting to deal on the streets, elevate his status with weapon upgrades, and get back into the good books of old childhood sweetheart, Book. Flint = Ben Cawley (in our rehearsed reading)
Meet Book, a studious teen, babysitter for Flint’s younger sister, keen to exit the deprivation of her road, study her way to become a surgeon, move to the suburbs, and keep clear of the skanky Flint, who’s def gonna bring her chances… down. Book = Nicole Acquah
Meet Bragg, street dealer, a boy beyond redemption, egging on young crew member Flint to ever deeper commitment to the fam, to higher value sales, and to proving his colours by not just carrying a shank, but using it… properly. Bragg, = William Neam
Meet Shania, pregnant teen, friend to Book, and member of Bragg’s crew. How Shania was initiated into the gang, holds the food, and meets the dealers is nothing to some of what she’s witnessed. Now, she doesn’t sleep. Shania = Laura Graham Clarke
Meet Chantal, mother to Flint, and decoupage expert. She worries about Flint, never sees him, but isn’t about to easily let Flint’s dad back into his life. Chantal = Vanessa Cruikshank
Meet Danny, Childline listener, outreach worker, gardener in the suburbs, former dealer, gang member, convict and estranged father to Flint. Danny’s on a journey back to his son. Will he find Flint before Flint loses himself? Danny = Brad Glen
Meet Carol, outreach & youth worker and girlfriend to Danny. Carol hears the worst of people’s stories and maybe about to experience the worst excesses of Shania’s baby’s father. Carol = Claire Johnson
Meet Angel, gangland chief, and psycho anti-mentor. He’ll initiate all his boys and girls into the tribe and hold them close with disturbing gratification. Angel’s about to invite Flint round for darjeeling tea, to elevate his sales techniques, and help him with a monsta weapons upgrade. Angel = Jonathan Brown
What now?
Our next project (The Widening Pool) is about friendship, loyalty, gang culture, family & knife crime..
Although the project revolves around text, we again wish to include visceral dance, music & physicality.
We would like The Project to have two strands:
(i) Performance: Something Underground wants to… Rehearse & perform The Widening Pool , either at venues throughout the UK, or for extended runs at fewer venues.
(ii) Community Engagement:
We will:…
Either
Engage young people from the area, integrating & partnering local youth groups daily dealing with the issues.
Run a series of free day-long workshops for young people on issues of knife crime, gangs, youth culture.
Workshop those participants also in krump- and/or hip hop related dance.
Include support from youth mentoring projects, YOT’s, county lines professionals & youth groups.
Culminate by including joint public performances by the participants and the professional performers.
Create a legacy of ongoing connection between local dance teachers & young people.
And / Or….
Co-produce the piece with a company that has a pre-existing youth crew who have the skills to cope with the demands of the text.
We have…
Held a Rehearsed Reading
Been Longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize and reached top 20% for the Verity Bargate Award.
Sought and found Partners, Leaders, Collaborators (ongoing, paused during pandemic, re-opened now )
Been commended amongst the top 20% of entries for the 2022 Verity Bargate award.
We will…
Apply for significant Project Grants funding, with partners (funding application process likely through late 2022/early 2023)
Run the Project. (mid-late 2023)
Reflect and Help develop legacy experiences for participants.
We’re particularly interested to work with Krump dance teachers / choreographers , and with the possibility of working with local live musicians on stage (as seen for example in films such as Birdman here and here), and with assistant directors, with venue managers who would like to programme us, with youth advocacy groups, and with youth offending teams.
Potential Partners (have expressed strong interest in involvement) to date:
Hakeem Onibudo @ Impact Dance: Youth Dance Partnership
Sunanda Biswas @ Grounded Movement: Youth Dance Partnership
David Mowat: Music Consultant / liaison / Trumpet
Nick Cohen (BBC, RSC, NT): Associate Director / Script Consultant
A Band of Brothers: Mentoring and participant development.
Brighton Youth Offending Team: Consultants / County Lines issues
Anthony Hately: Lighting Design.
Paul Thomas Tech Operation
Millfield Arts Centre/London Borough of Enfield: Some performances & offer of rehearsal space.
Laura Graham Clarke, Ben Cawley, Nicole Acquah: Youth culture, script consultants.
Please do get in touch for more information including scripts.
A trailer from the wonderful film Rize that explores how the phenomena of
Krump have helped re-invigorate and support LA precincts
struggling with deprivation, gang culture and crime.
AND……..
For those venues feeling very ambitious!
Young, Gifted and Backstage
“Young, Gifted and Backstage” is a second, parallel play, played simultaneously, with the same cast, in an adjacent auditorium, & that features the backstage machinations of the cast from “The Widening Pool “, touching upon the survival of creative arts in the pandemic, BLM issues, cancel culture, the 2020 US elections, creative competition, love & trauma, & an insight into the intense rapport an ensemble develops over time.
Written by Jonathan Brown during the pandemic, “Young, Gifted and Backstage” simultaneously reveals the backstage life of the cast of The Widening Pool , with forays into race identity during the BLM upsurge, middle-class creatives fuelling the drug crisis, tragic misuse of stage prop weapons, cancel culture, battles with our creativity, theatre during covid, alongside love and trauma.
Young, Gifted and Backstage features the same cast as in The Widening Pool but now we see them as the actors, backstage, between scenes of , and so with different characters. (In 1999’s House and Garden, Ayckbourn kept the same characters as they move between the plays.) The Widening Pool They come back stage excited or annoyed after each scene from The Widening Pool they squabble, they celebrate, they bitch, they laugh, they worry, they talk about what’s happening on stage, or about the actors who are out there. Then they disappear again to their next scene in The Widening Pool, to be replaced by the actors who have just been on and a new round begins.
Back has now also received a successful online Zoom rehearsed reading in January 2021, and is now reached a 6th draft.
“…really excellent, gripped by the whole thing. Well done all of you.” Penny Melville Brown, OBE.
“…I really enjoyed watching your play. The cast are incredible, I didn’t disconnect a minute, very engaging. Thank you.” Nuria Calucho Junca, writer, actor.
“…Thanks for the invite Jonathan. Loved it, More power to you all!” Bill Horrocks.
Meet Vinny, a gay young man (plays Flint in “Front”), torn between impressing his impresario father and being taken seriously as “black enough” by his colleagues, especially those that have been getting themselves along to BLM rallies and events. Vinny joins others of his young cast in being terrified of risking being “cancelled”.
Meet Agatha, a young, gifted and black woman (plays Book in “Front”), keen to be taken seriously as an actor and writer herself. She is completely self assured, knows her lines perfectly, but… might have a crush on an older member of the ensemble.
Meet Will a keen young actor, (plays Bragg in “Front”) who likes a surreptitious smoke of da weed. He’s been getting over enthusiastic in the scenes where he plays violent, and the women have been noticing it. Will he hear their feedback? Can he kick old habits?
Meet Nat, (plays Shania in “Front”) not fully out the closet yet, as far as one of the others in the cast is concerned, but she’s been putting more into the recent BLM movement than into finding work, having half given up on her career. Alongside Will, Book and Vinny, she’s terrified of not being fully PC on stage, facing cancel culture, and together they’ve tried to sanitise the script. Is Nat reliable? Will she bail?
Meet Ira, (plays Chantal in “Front”) a bitter woman, she’s been in too many soaps to feel she needs to listen to any half-arsed and inexperienced stage directors. She dishes out the directorial and barbed comments left, right and centre, and enjoys what’s in her “water” bottle just that bit too much.
Meet Brad, (plays Danny in “Front”) another TV soap regular who’s forgotten how to do stage work and is very nervous. He’s happy with the script, but not with how fast and furious the action comes, and with no second takes.
Meet Carol, (plays Carol in “Front”), She’s fielding barbed comments from Ira, seeming sexual rivalry from a younger colleague, and deep insecurity that she only got the part cos she’s banging the boss.
Meet Tom, (plays Angel in “Front”) who’s wearing waaaay too many hats, including writer, director, actor, producer and lover. Everyone expects him to be perfect, except perhaps Ira, and mostly he stays calm, keeps all the plates up in the air, and even manages to remember his lines on cue. But when he’s pushed to the brink…. he snaps.