I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won't Die (Plays for Young People)

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She had taught his plays for many years – Dan had studied ‘Legal Weapon’ himself at school – and she had witnessed the power of his writing on young people.

He began his writing career as ‘one of us’: a Drama teacher, working collaboratively with his school and youth theatre groups to produce plays based on true stories. The words of the title are the last ones spoken by sixteen-year-old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs to his mother. Mark Wheeller is familiar to most Drama teachers, whether through his most well-known play Too Much Punch For Judy, his drama schemes and lesson plans, or from his inclusion on set text lists with Missing Dan Nolan (OCR), Hard To Swallow and, most recently, I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won't Die (both Eduqas). by Louisa Reid Published by Guppy Books Cassandra, narrator of this powerful verse novel, is a reluctant sixth former in a prestigious mixed school, formerly all boys, where toxic culture simmers.There’s also links to the foundation set up in Daniel’s memory, ran by Fiona (his Mum) please take a look and see the work they are doing. In Jan 2020 Wizard Theatre produced the 4th professional tour of ILYM, after COVID the 5th and 6th tour took place in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

That fateful evening is told through the words of his school friends and family, divided into two hard-hitting acts in Mark Wheeller's verbatim play.It would also be interesting to see how different directors would approach it – there are a variety of staging choices that could bring this tragic story to life. We hope this will bring the play to many more drama studios and classrooms across the country and around the world, with its important messages of risk, choice and consequence, friendship, forgiveness, love and loss.

The play starts with video footage from his parents; the on screen texts we read are real, the photographs we see are of a once living boy, who brimmed with potential, his whole life ahead of him. We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Wheeller used transcripts from Dan's friends and family covering his life, experiences and the fateful night on which he died. By Easter it will have reached around 55,000 young people, and is a core component of our drug education programme.Instead, this play focuses on those who knew and loved him and the impact that this tragic event had on them. As well as the topical subject matter, the reality of Dan's story, and its great energy and emotion, this play is very accessible. Most telling of all Amy Zoldan as Alice wrestles with her conscience as the person who everyone blames for Dan’s death. This verbatim book draws on the testimony of the many people involved in creating the play, from Dan’s family and friends who gave their words, to the young people and team of Oasis Youth Theatre, who worked with Mark on the original production that became the published play. Perhaps this scene was built around the parting shot, the last time a loved one leaves the family home, a casual everyday gesture of slipping into a hoodie, forever after a sacred memory and the moments perhaps, when life stands still for those left behind.

Although the play revolves around Dan he has no lines and he is imaginatively represented throughout by a blue zip-hoodie that is sometimes worn by the 15-strong cast who play him in turn. Scott-Ward and Colley become the parents, Zoldan Jenna and Radford Jacob, the elder brother, as we explore the heartbreak of the next few days – and beyond. For more information on this play and future productions at the Brockley Jack Theatre, please use the links below. Conversations after seeing a play like this let the audience into the decision making process, problem solving and understanding the consequences. Towards the end of the play he performs the final moments between Dan and his girlfriend Jenna (Amy Zoldan) as she relives their final conversation.For ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’, Mark used verbatim theatre to take the actual words of Dan’s family and friends, recorded in a series of interviews, which were painstakingly transcribed and then turned into the script of this two-act play. This makes for an interesting starting point when discussing both how to utilise the ensemble cast and approaches to design. Alysha Jade Patis - OYT performerThis poignant and eminently readable biography of the play is drawn from interviews with Dan’s family, friends and the OYT company. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Many schools lack the capacity, knowledge and skills needed to deliver drug education effectively without resources and support.