Sonya Hale and John Stanley were first- and second-prize winners of Synergy Theatre Project's Prison Writing Competition.
Synergy is a theatre company whose artistic mission is to create ground-breaking work across theatre and the criminal justice system which inspires change by capturing the imagination, affecting the feelings and attitudes of the performers and audience.
These two plays - the winners of Synergy Theatre Project's Prison Writing Competition - tell the tense but often funny stories of drug users and the stress their habits place on their relationships.
In Glory Whispers, we see Mina visited by Glory after many years away. Hopeful of seeing Glory's little boy, Mina overlooks Glory's drinking and possible drug use. But when Mina's boyfriend Jonno returns unexpectedly, the troubles and pressures of their relationships see the illusion fall away.
The Monkey sees Terry on a rampage trying to reclaim the £500 his friend Alan (aka 'Thick-Al') owes him. Terry's unpredictability, the result of an accident many years before, drives the piece in dark, violent but often hilarious and unexpected ways.
These plays were published to coincided with a 2017 production at Theatre503, London, by Synergy Theatre Company.