The Pass

In a high-end hotel room, rising football stars Jason and Ade are living the dream. Goals, girls and glory. Tomorrow they make their first-team debut. But the game starts before you've even walked out the tunnel. Twelve years. Three hotel rooms. One last gamble. An agile new story about sex, fame and how much you're willing to lose in order to win, The Pass premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January 2014.

John Donnelly is a past winner of the Tom Erhardt Award, the PMA Award for Best New Writer and the NSDF Sunday Times Playwriting Award. His plays include The Pass (Royal Court), a version of The Seagull (Headlong/UK Tour), Little Russians (Tricycle Theatre/ First Blast: Proliferation Season), The Knowledge (Bush Theatre), Encourage the Others (Almeida Projects), Songs of Grace and Redemption (Liminal Theatre/Theatre 503), Showtime (LAMDA), Conversation #1 (The Factory/V&A/Latitude Festival) and Bone (Royal Court Theatre). John's work for television includes the short film Henry (Channel 4's Coming Up, 2013) and two episodes of Utopia (co-writer; Kudos/Channel4) and an episode of Glue (Channel 4/Eleven Films), both 2014. Most recently, he adapted his stage play The Pass for screen, produced by Duncan Kenworthy/Toledo Productions and starring Russell Tovey. The Pass was chosen to open the BFI Flare Festival before returning to BFI London Film Festival; it was the opening night film for NewFest and closed Twist: Seattle Queer Film Festival, all 2016.