LEAVE A MESSAGE

Two friends, Ed and Sarah, travel to the small squalid bedsit where Ed's father passed away a few days earlier. As they wade through the debris, the fragments of one lost life begin to coalesce, just as another starts to show signs of cracking. Will we be remembered for anything more than the mess we leave behind? Either way, the carpet is beyond saving.

A brand-new play, based on an actual afternoon.

Performance venues

• Edinburgh Fringe, UK - summer 2019
• Vaults Festival, London, UK - February 2019

Director's notes

Leave A Message is based on a real life story, but it begs us to look at how we are living now, the relationships we are making and those we are throwing away. Are we investing our time wisely? Do we have time, and desire, to change? I hope so.

Creative team

• Writers: Ed Coleman and James Mitchell
• Director: Jessica Rose McVay
• Set and costume design: Sarah Mercade
• Lighting and sound design: William Alder
• Photos: David Monteith-Hodge

Cast

• Ed: Ed Coleman
  
• Sarah: Eleanor Fanyinka
• Linda: Denise Stephenson

Reviews

“The writing is sharp and witty. The set makes good use of every inch. A well written and engaging exploration of a real-life experience.” – Fringe Review

“Thoughtfully structured and features three genuinely empathetic performances.” – The Stage

“A touching story of facing your demons. The writing is sharp and witty with plenty of humour despite the seriousness of the subject. The set makes good use of every inch. A well written and engaging exploration of a real life experience.” – Fringe Review

“The ambiguous ending works because it is so believable, and, in its own way, relatively simple. It would be easy to manipulate the audience to tears, but director Jessica Rose McVay holds back here, and it works to her advantage.” – The Reviews Hub

“It focuses on a specific moment in time and takes the audience through all the emotions associated with grief, loss, denial, anger and friendship. Both lead actors were strong and had a great chemistry on stage. The set was perfect. It added even more feeling and depth to a tragic story. A great new play.” – Voice Magazine

“Crackles with taut, witty dialogue, coaxing plenty of laughs out of what could so easily be a maudlin tale of self-destruction. The performances are uniformly engaging, the actors breathing real life into their respective characters. Leave a Message is a cracker.” – Bouquets and Brickbats