Ready to leave school, it is Tamsin’s 16th Birthday which promises to be an exciting celebration she has long anticipated….presents, parties, boyfriends. Yet there is something that her family are not telling her. Why does her brother freeze up when her Dad’s name is mentioned? And why is her Mum making such a big fuss about her present, whatever that maybe?
Hidden in the wardrobe, there is a suitcase that reveals all the things that her Dad, Martin, wouldn’t, couldn’t but wanted to tell his daughter, about a relationship that Tamsin knew nothing about but the consequences of which had a major impact upon everyone she loved. Why had no-one ever told her?
A powerful, moving, often funny, musical play that had huge resonances in the 1990s as it told the story of a family and the communities around them in the context of HIV/AIDS.
Always With You built on the company’s extensive work at the time exploring HIV/AIDS and sexual health awareness which was gained from the workshop programme Positive Knowledge – a drama-in-education project originally commissioned by Tower Hamlets Health Promotions Service.
You can access the script of this play via the British Library’s MPS Modern Playscripts Collection.
David Belshaw was Theatre Team Director at Half Moon Young People’s Theatre in the 1990s. He talks about Always With You, a play for teenagers which dealt with the issue of death and how sometimes it was tough performing in youth clubs. Interviewed by Rio Puffett.