Cokethorpe alumna and playwright Grace Bartle (Harcourt, 2019) is bringing her new play, Mercy of Sisters, to the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford this October, following a successful three-night run at a community venue in June.
Grace’s journey into playwriting began during her time at Cokethorpe, where she studied Drama A-level and discovered a particular enjoyment in devising and creating her own work. In her final year, she wrote and directed Harcourt House Drama, an experience which gave her a taste for production and helped to shape her ambitions for the future.
During her Gap Year, Grace worked as a teaching assistant while developing her first play through the Playhouse Young Writers programme. In 2020, she went on to study for a BA in Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where her talent for scriptwriting was recognised with the Malcolm Bradbury Prize. The scholarship enabled her to continue her studies with a Master’s in Scriptwriting, during which she began writing Mercy of Sisters.
A dark comedy centred around Floss’s 50th birthday party, the play explores family relationships, resentment and intergenerational trauma. After 25 years as the sole carer for her ill mother, Floss wants nothing more than to finally leave home. What she expects to be a simple request to her siblings soon becomes considerably more complicated, as long-held secrets, resentment and illicit affairs come to the surface.
For Grace, the production also represents an opportunity to return to the Oxford stage with a piece of work that has developed through several years of study and writing. Grace credits her Cokethorpe Drama teacher, Claire Hooper, and her former Head of Harcourt House, Geoff Lawson, for their encouragement and for always believing in her.
Mercy of Sisters will be performed at Pegasus Theatre, Magdalen Road, Oxford, on 24 October at 7.30pm.
Find out more and book tickets for Mercy of Sisters at Pegasus Theatre
