Plays 2: The Gift / Clubland / Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads

by Roy Williams

Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads: Tensions erupt in a South London pub as England lose against Germany at football.

Clubland: Ben is married to Denise but on the pull, Kenny's looking for someone who's "right", Ade's with Sandra but playing the field and Nate's a proud father, in this urban drama of race and sexual politics in West London.

The Gift: Since her childhood, when she left Jamaica for England, Heather's sister has claimed to have the gift of raising spirits from the dead. When her son is murdered, Heather returns to Jamaica and begs her sister to bring him back to life.

Genres: Plays

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Born and brought up in Notting Hill, London, Roy Samuel Williams became a full time writer in his 20s after he took a theatre-writing degree at Rose Bruford College. His first full-length play was The No Boys Cricket Club, which premiered in 1996 at Theatre Royal Stratford East, since when he has had plays produced at the Royal Court, The Bush Theatre, The Hampstead Theatre and the National Theatre.

Williams has done work in television, including adapting his own play Fallout and also co-wrote the script for the 2014 British film Fast Girls. He has also written a police procedural series for BBC Radio The Interrogation.

In 2011, Williams received the best play award for Sucker Punch at the Writers Guild Awards. In 2020, he received an RTS nomination for Best Writer for Drama and BAFTA nomination for best short form Drama, both for Soon Gone, A Windrush Chronicle. In 2018 Williams was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Reviews

[Rachel O'Brien]

I only read Clubland

[Claudia]

(NOTE: I only read Clubland, but that doesn't seem to have a separate listing on here) 2.5/5 I can't really get past the sexism in this one, it's really upsetting.