Silk Road (How to Buy Drugs Online) and Rules for Being a Man

Description

How is it delivered? That's the best bit! Royal Mail. Postman Pat brings your smack to your door with a smile and his black and white cat is none the wiser. Bruce is nineteen, unemployed and living with his Nan. A struggling young Geordie tech-head, he's the unlikeliest international criminal mastermind you can imagine. But sucked into an underworld dark web of new-age pirates, local gangsters and tea-cosies, it isn't long before Bruce discovers how easy it is to buy narcotics online. Prompted by the arrest in October 2013 of the alleged owner of Silk Road, and the first play ever to be funded by bitcoin, Alex Oates's play is a biting black comedy about how simple it is not only to buy, but also sell drugs online. Published alongside Rules For Being a Man, a stirring new play that uses silent disco technology to create a vivid soundscape and take the audience into the head of three generations of men as they struggle with mental health issues and contemplate suicide. Rules For Being a Man depicts the everyday battle of masculinity, whilst these men go about their lives and struggle to hold on. Three different generations of men come to terms with love, life and other peoples expectations. Living in a society where the scars of toxic masculinity are becoming more and more visible on the cultural landscape, Rules For Being A Man looks at the marks men create in themselves, and others. Following three generations of a family centred around one pivotal action, this honest new play attempts to try to come to terms with the different pressures men face going through life trying to be a man and the damaging toll they take on their mental health. Inspired by interviews with survivors of suicide and The Samaritans.

Alex grew up in the North East of England and studied theatre and playwriting at Middlesex University and S.U.N.Y New Paltz. On graduating he was selected to be part of the team who would write the Webby award winning TV series and online drama E20 for the BBC, Alex wrote the first episode and then for every subsequent series of the show. Alex took part in the Old Vic New Voices 24 hour plays and Time Warner Ignite program. His first play Fan Fiction was workshopped with Russell Tovey, Iwan Rheon and Rebekah Ryan. Alex's play Silk Road, the first play to be funded by virtual currency 'Bitcoin', was a critical success at Assembly venues in Edinburgh, as was his third play Pig written for Silent Uproar at Hull Truck/New Diorama. Alex is currently developing a screenplay with Constant Productions.

Gritty and very well written by Old Vic New Voices playwright Alex Oates, 'Silk Road' is the best thing to come from its namesake * Three Weeks * This is new writing at its best, well-staged and brilliantly acted, if only more festival shows were like this. * The Public Reviews * It's a long time since I have been quite so enthralled by a piece of theatre. But enthralled I was by this. It succeeded where other shows have so often failed. * The Fringe Guru *