Better Yesterday at Bread and Roses

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2. Better Yesterday

One evening in 1977, married stage actors Harold and Sylvia return home after performing in Macbeth. Over the course of the night, they come to blows over the exhausting pressures of fame, faithfulness, and emotional game-playing.

In an exchange that swings between kittenishness and cruelty, the couple discuss overprotective neighbours, voyeuristic headlines, lewd limericks, method acting, seafood risotto, and the exploitative public and press. However, as the friction between their personalities starts to generate heat, confessions are made and dark secrets brought to light. Harold and Sylvia must face up to the subjects they have always avoided, digging to the heart and guts of their relationship and unwrapping the bandages of untreated wounds.

Better Yesterday is a dark comedy that explores the boundaries between public and private; between passion and revulsion; between what is genuine and what is performed. The play won Oxford University Dramatic Society’s 2023 New Writing Competition, judged by award-winning playwright Sophie Swithinbank.