Still (NHB Modern Plays)

'Folk say you can trick a brain. Placebo power. I'm going to stand up and it'll feel better.' Across Edinburgh, five souls stagger towards each other, hoping to be transformed. Gaynor's got to leave the house if she wants to meet her newborn granddaughter. Stillness has been the only way to deal with her chronic pain but now it's time to move. Gilly's not sure what her dying dad's feeling but the one thing she knows from experience is that it's best not to Google it. Dougie and Ciara have spent their last NCT class preparing for the labour pains ahead, but now it's time for one last night on the dance floor. And then there's Mick, who wakes up on Portobello Beach in the early hours of the morning with two gold rings in his pocket. He can't remember what they're for but he knows it's something important. He'll work out what if only his old pal, Pat, will stop buying him drinks... Full of tenderness and humour, Frances Poet's play Still is a cathartic story of life, loss and joy. It was premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2021.

Frances Poet is a Glasgow-based writer. Her stage work includes: Still (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2021); Maggie May (Leeds Playhouse, Leicester Curve & Queen's Theatre Hornchurch co-production, 2020); Fibres (Stellar Quines & Glasgow Citizens Theatre, 2019); Gut (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2018); Adam (National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre, 2017); Faith Fall (Òran Mór and Bristol's Tobacco Factory, 2012) and What Put the Blood (Abbey Theatre, 2017). She has also written a number of free adaptations including Strindberg's Dance of Death (Citizens Theatre, 2016) and Molière's The Misanthrope (Òran Mór, 2014). Her TV and radio work includes River City and The Disappointed, aired on BBC Radio Scotland in 2015. Her short film, Spores, screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival and Bogoshorts Festival, Bogotá, in 2016.