What do you think?
Rate this book
All the Little Lights
Joanne and Lisa were like sisters. Then Lisa left. Now she's back for one last birthday party by the railway tracks. Can their relationship be rekindled or will the ghosts of the past haunt them forever?
Packed with crackling dialogue and laugh-out-loud humor, this play considers where we find family and how easy it is to slip through society’s cracks.
Packed with crackling dialogue and laugh-out-loud humor, this play considers where we find family and how easy it is to slip through society’s cracks.
- GenresPlays
64 pages, Paperback
Published October 3, 2017
4 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Jane Upton
6 books1 followerI’m a writer from Nottingham.
In 2011, my nana died, my first play sold out in Edinburgh and I split from my long-term partner. It was one of those times when everything sort of shifts. You know what I mean.
A few months later, I left my marketing job after eight years and moved to the Isle of Wight to work as a waitress for a while. When the cafe closed for the winter, I started to write full time. At first I was writing marketing copy, but for the last few years I’ve been writing plays and learning about the world of theatre.
It’s a steep learning curve, and at the moment I’m gathering experiences and finding out how different processes work and what it really means to be a writer (apparently it ain’t just about spewing your inner turmoil onto a page). And amazingly, in 2016 I was jointly awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and nominated for a Writers’ Guild Award, which made everything a lot more real.
In 2011, my nana died, my first play sold out in Edinburgh and I split from my long-term partner. It was one of those times when everything sort of shifts. You know what I mean.
A few months later, I left my marketing job after eight years and moved to the Isle of Wight to work as a waitress for a while. When the cafe closed for the winter, I started to write full time. At first I was writing marketing copy, but for the last few years I’ve been writing plays and learning about the world of theatre.
It’s a steep learning curve, and at the moment I’m gathering experiences and finding out how different processes work and what it really means to be a writer (apparently it ain’t just about spewing your inner turmoil onto a page). And amazingly, in 2016 I was jointly awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and nominated for a Writers’ Guild Award, which made everything a lot more real.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 6, 2023
A devastating play by Jane Upton that respectfully and tactfully rolls away a stone to expose horrifying realities of our times. It premiered in 2015 at the Nottingham Playhouse before being opening in London in 2017 at the Arcola. I must have just missed it when I was there that year.
All The Little Lights is a short three-hander that packs a powerful punch because of the horrifying tension that ominously builds towards its shocking climax.
Tellingly, the play is set at dusk, when the shadows lengthen and the sun disappears. Amy is just 12, Lisa 15 and Joanne an extremely world-weary 16. They meet on a hill next to a railway line overlooking a nondescript town to celebrate Lisa's birthday. Yet her birthday was four days earlier, and right from the beginning we sense the disquiet. The truth that unfolds is unspeakable as these children try to survive in a society that has failed to protect them.
For a narrative that thrives on metaphor, allusion and suggestion, this interchange spoke very loudly to me.
Amy: Would you rather marry a spider or kiss a frog?
Joanne: Kiss a frog.
Amy: Yeah but if you kiss a frog you might get diseases. Marry a spider then you can stamp on it after the wedding.
Joanne: No cos all its spider friends will come and f*** you up for murdering their mate.
There are lights in the sky, in the town down below and on the cake where the candles never go out. But all the little lights in this world are the ones of childhood innocence which are, unlike the candles, being snuffed all too soon.
Thank you, Jane Upton, for writing this brutally important play.
All The Little Lights is a short three-hander that packs a powerful punch because of the horrifying tension that ominously builds towards its shocking climax.
Tellingly, the play is set at dusk, when the shadows lengthen and the sun disappears. Amy is just 12, Lisa 15 and Joanne an extremely world-weary 16. They meet on a hill next to a railway line overlooking a nondescript town to celebrate Lisa's birthday. Yet her birthday was four days earlier, and right from the beginning we sense the disquiet. The truth that unfolds is unspeakable as these children try to survive in a society that has failed to protect them.
For a narrative that thrives on metaphor, allusion and suggestion, this interchange spoke very loudly to me.
Amy: Would you rather marry a spider or kiss a frog?
Joanne: Kiss a frog.
Amy: Yeah but if you kiss a frog you might get diseases. Marry a spider then you can stamp on it after the wedding.
Joanne: No cos all its spider friends will come and f*** you up for murdering their mate.
There are lights in the sky, in the town down below and on the cake where the candles never go out. But all the little lights in this world are the ones of childhood innocence which are, unlike the candles, being snuffed all too soon.
Thank you, Jane Upton, for writing this brutally important play.
December 13, 2025
Read this as I’m now teaching higher drama students and one group are performing scenes from this play. It’s a brutal play, the characters are well developed and believable. As you discover more about the background behind each character, you can’t help but get a lump in the back of your throat.
May 6, 2019
Short, seems unremarkable, then punches you in the nose at the end.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews