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Football! Wait no soccer - Soccer!

This Pulitzer-nommed play from 2016 follows an U17s indoor girls soccer team as they warm up for various games. Very little happens, and it's one of the most devastating plays we've ever read.

We talk teen archetypes, coming of age, and (unfortunately) whether or not certain play-structures are mimicking of the male bedroom experience.

Content Warnings: Death/racism/bullying/sports

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'The trashiest play we've ever done.'

Content Warnings: Murder/Drugs/Classism

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Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood on various
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool2 on Instagram (and go find @rootlingtheatre for his puppet antics)

Theme music this episode: Spooky music by Victor_Natas -- https://freesound.org/s/560181/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

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After an infamously terrible debut, this classic Russian play went on to define naturalism, changing how we make theatre in the West forever. It is also full of sad theatre makers, which may go some way to explain its enduring popularity with theatre makers.

We talk 3D characters, endurance, and theatres first goth icon.

Content Warnings: Suicide/Ageism/Infant death/Mortality

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Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood on various
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool2 on Instagram (and go find @rootlingtheatre for his puppet antics)

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A travelling 'Odditorium' is struggling to make ends meet, and as a change of tactic the performers start trying to make themselves as normal as can be. If you can see how bleak this is about to get, then congratulations on having more insight than Riley, the owner of this circus.

We talk fables, otherness, and the futility of trying to fit in.

Content Warnings: Domestic abuse/Transphobia/Ableism/Child Abuse/Forced Surgery

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Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood on various
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool2 on Instagram (and go find @rootlingtheatre for his puppet antics)

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Cillian Murphy somehow remains looking beautiful through this deeply intense and gruelling play - first performed in 1999 by Walsh himself, we very specifically take a look at the revised/updated 2011 version which took the intimate one-person show and blew it up to National Theatre size.

We talk the victim mentality, routine as self-expression, and bootleg theatre recordings.

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Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood on various
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool2 on Instagram (and go find @rootlingtheatre for his puppet antics)

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Is this a play? Performance art? Essay? Real or not real? This play/text/email chain was originally presented as a live performance and digital experience combination, then printed onto paper, and now thrust back onto the internet by us in the form of audio podcast exploration. Heavy.

We talk chronic illness, the digital body, and the horrors/freedoms that the internet brings. Also, how cool Eve Leigh is in general. Eve Leigh we love you, if you see this please hit us up.

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Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood on various
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool2 on Instagram (and go find @rootlingtheatre for his puppet antics)

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East coast round 2!

We talk aliens, village gossip, and the strange prescience of this play written in 1973 about 1907 when being read in 2025.

FAIRYTALE UPDATE:

I have searched and can find nothing substantial about this fairytale or why it is the birth of drama in children. If anyone has any ideas please get in touch.

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood on various
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool2 on Instagram (and go find @rootlingtheatre for his puppet antics)

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Once again we dive into a time bending play about sad women. This time it's Lucy Kirkwood's 2020 play The Welkin; set in 18th century Suffolk/Norfolk, 12 women must decide the fate of another in this epicly jam-packed courtroom(ish) drama. We talk oppression, class solidarity, and jokes about Lowestoft.

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood on various
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool2 on Instagram (and go find @rootlingtheatre for his puppet antics)