Skip to main content Skip to footer site map

White Bear Theatre to Present Fergus Burnand's SAME AGAIN This Month

As the characters come together to untangle their thoughts, the stage becomes a hive of longings and laughter.

White Bear Theatre to Present Fergus Burnand's SAME AGAIN This Month

White Bear Theatre will present Fergus Burnand's SAME AGAIN February 15-18.

Fergus Burnand's new play, SAME AGAIN, takes a microscope to an afternoon at the pub. In a series of comic vignettes, punters and bartenders rub shoulders, argue, and generally put the world to rights. A barfly explains extreme wealth using grains of rice. One friend misdiagnoses another. Ex-lovers argue about suncream. Lonely drinkers reflect on the role that sofas played in their love-life. And all the while bartenders work tirelessly in the shadows of overheard conversations.

As the characters come together to untangle their thoughts, the stage becomes a hive of longings and laughter.

WRITER'S STATEMENT

When you work at a pub, after a while it starts to infect your mind. You wake up in the middle of night in a cold sweat, remembering you never gave table 5 their ketchup. As you try to fall back to sleep, half-heard conversations between regulars begin to replay in your mind. Your unconscious, starved of any meaningful experience outside of your job, restages whatever intriguing morsels it can find from the day just gone. And by the time your alarm goes off, finally dispersing all the voices from the day before, it feels like you've already done a double shift.

That's my experience anyway.

But if you're a writer, being surrounded by such a variety and density of voices every day is a kind of blessing. Or maybe not a blessing but it does allow you to listen to the way people actually speak to each other. You see how people try to hide behind certain phrases, what speech patterns they use to assert themselves, how their words carry them away into confusion or passion. You are surrounded by the constant din of people trying to make themselves understood. After a while, you can't help but listen. And laugh.

This play started because I couldn't get certain overheard phrases out of my head unless I wrote them down. Although I started out simply trying to amuse myself by writing comic scenes, a lot of the anxieties I felt at the time about not knowing what I was doing or where I was going crept into the writing. By the time I finished all the scenes, the play had a more complex tone and contained more of me in it than I anticipated. It's funnier and sadder and more ridiculous and more personal than anything I have written.

In the end, the play is a kind of impression of what it is like to work in hospitality. But it also contains the everyday comedies and tragedies that people find themselves in over the course of, say, an afternoon at the pub.



Review: WASTED, Lyric Hammersmith Photo
Running at around 50 minutes, it’s snappy and positively Gen-Z in pace and subject. Fernandes crafts a script that wanders from deliciously colloquial to slightly expository, but remains solid throughout. Mundane conversations about parties and cleaning rotas act as the foundation for the pair’s bond, which is bound to be tested and tried once Jacob’s actions are revealed. At its core, it’s a story of friendship and loyalty camouflaged as a crime drama exploring the stigmatisation of sexual violence.

Photos: First Look At English National Operas THE DEAD CITY (DIE TOTE STADT) Photo
See production images for the English National Opera's The Dead City (Die tote Stadt), running 25 March - 8 April 2023.

Review: OF MICE AND MEN, Birmingham Rep Photo
John Steinbeck's 1937 novel, set in California during the Great Depression, may be a period piece, but the parallels with current life in the UK are unmistakable. Dealing with themes of poverty, displacement, prejudice and the desperation for independence, Of Mice and Men makes a timely return to the Birmingham Rep stage in this new production directed by Iqbal Khan.

SWEENEY TODD - THE VICTORIAN MELODRAMA Comes to Wiltons Music Hall Photo
The story of Sweeney Todd first appeared on the stage in London in 1847 at Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, in a melodrama, 'The String of Pearls', based on a popular “penny dreadful” serialised story.


More Hot Stories For You


SWEENEY TODD - THE VICTORIAN MELODRAMA Comes to Wilton's Music HallSWEENEY TODD - THE VICTORIAN MELODRAMA Comes to Wilton's Music Hall
March 24, 2023

The story of Sweeney Todd first appeared on the stage in London in 1847 at Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, in a melodrama, 'The String of Pearls', based on a popular “penny dreadful” serialised story.

Photos: All New Portraits of the Cast of SHREK THE MUSICAL UK TourPhotos: All New Portraits of the Cast of SHREK THE MUSICAL UK Tour
March 24, 2023

All new photos have been released of some of the principal cast in character ahead of the upcoming Shrek The Musical UK and Ireland Tour.

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG At Southwark Playhouse Leads NYMT Season Of Summer MusicalsMERRILY WE ROLL ALONG At Southwark Playhouse Leads NYMT Season Of Summer Musicals
March 24, 2023

This summer, National Youth Music Theatre will present three major musicals. Learn more about the full lineup here!

World Première Of Raminder Kaur's BREADTH Will Open At Omnibus TheatreWorld Première Of Raminder Kaur's BREADTH Will Open At Omnibus Theatre
March 24, 2023

Sohaya Vision alongside Mukul and Ghetto Tigers have announced the world première of breaDth at Omnibus Theatre. Written by Raminder Kaur, Artistic Director of Sohaya Vision, and directed by Mukul Ahmed, Artistic Director of Mukul and Ghetto Tigers, the production opens on 17 May with previews from 16 May and runs until 3 June.

 Ally Pally Throws Its 150th Birthday Party In May Ally Pally Throws Its 150th Birthday Party In May
March 24, 2023

To celebrate 150 years since London's iconic Alexandra Palace first opened its doors back on 24 May 1873, Ally Pally will be hosting a massive free party, for all ages, featuring family entertainment, music and cinema, amongst a host of other activities.