Lovedale

Fri 11 Oct

Lovedale is a piece of new writing that is being supported by Landmark Theatres. Written by Fiona Padfield and directed by Steve Keyworth 

“I understand you.  That’s what scares you about me.” 

After her father’s brutal murder Lara flees India for rural Wales to avoid testifying in court. Setting up a new life, living under an assumed name she keeps a low profile, that is until Ricky, local mechanic and self-proclaimed Rhondda-mafioso, appears on her track.  He’s been digging.  He knows who she really is and promises to redeem her father’s reputation. But at what cost? Soon he’s manipulating her, controlling who she sees, what she does.  To escape Ricky, she may need to return to India to confront much greater terrors.  What exactly brought her father’s killers to his door? 

LOVEDALE juxtaposes the sultry heat of Kolkata with the sodden hills of west Wales.  It examines obsession, dark family secrets and the cycles of coercive behaviour. 

 About the writer: 

In my early twenties I remember passing a young woman with a blackeye.  She was dragging a child behind her.  I thought, ‘go.  Leave’.  It seemed inexplicable that she would stay, until it happened to me. 

In my thirties I was forced into a refuge with my two young children.  When it was discovered I wrote I was asked to write about my experience.  I couldn’t.  It has taken me 20 years to tackle the subject.  Two of my relatives were stabbed in their beds on the same night in India.   LOVEDEALE weaves a thread of unresolved family trauma into the experience of domestic abuse in Wales 

Fiona Padfield is published by Oberon Books, Bloomsbury, Tangerine and Casa Forte Press. She’s had plays produced at the Lyric, Hammersmith and Manchester Royal Exchange and work broadcast by the BBC. Commissioned by Hampstead Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, and Carlton Warner Sisters, she was a recipient of the Wingate Scholarship for her play The Millennium Tapestry. She is part of the Paines Plough, Mercury Theatre cohort 2024/25.  

About the director: 

I first encountered Lovedale when Fiona submitted a scene for a Writers’ Guild scratch night at the Norwich Theatre Royal. I was attracted by her fascinating and often alarming characters, by the tightly written scenes and the sense of menace. I wanted to try and understand these characters and bring them to life. Most of my directing experience is in new writing, and it’s the most exciting aspect of theatre for me, helping a writer put their particular vision onto the stage. 

Stephen Keyworth has written 70+ episodes of Doctors, EastEnders and Casualty. Credits for Radio 4 include The Two Georges, The Princess Bride and The Man Who Fell To Earth. Stage plays include Mad For It (Royal Exchange Theatre) and Dog Well Done (Winner of the Amnesty Theatre Award). He was Artistic Director of 5065 Lift, who commissioned and produced new plays at Soho Theatre, the Pleasance, Edinburgh, and inside every pod on the London Eye for a one night arts festival. Other directing credits include Jack Thorne’s Fanny & Faggot at Trafalgar Studios and the world premiere of S-27 by Sarah Grochala at the Finborough Theatre.