Alison Skilbeck Will Tour Lockdown Drama To OSO Arts Centre In Barnes

Critically acclaimed writer and actress, Alison Skilbeck, brings her award nominated show "Alison Skilbeck's Uncommon Ground" to the OSO Arts Centre in Barnes from the 3 July to the 5 July.

Skilbeck thrilled Edinburgh audiences last summer with the premiere of her play at the Assembly Rooms, garnering a 5-star review from journalist and broadcaster Mark Lawson and his fulsome recommendation that "this superb work must go further." She was nominated for an OffFest Award after receiving several four- and five-star reviews.

This is the fourth play Skilbeck has written and has gained a lot of attention with her five-star reviewed solo show "Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London", which she performed at the King's Head in 2015, and a sold out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016 and 2022. She is also known for her comic study of Shakespeare's older women, "The Power Behind The Crone" in 2017 and her serio-comedy, "Are There More of You?", described by playwright Alan Ayckbourn as "brilliantly observed, richly comic characters, all played to painful perfection. Wonderful!", in 2018.

Skilbeck's new play, Alison Skilbeck's Uncommon Ground, is about six wildly different people, coping and connecting during one year on the Common, telling their unexpected tales of love, life, death, and downright dottiness, while a seventh character lurks mysteriously. It is directed by Gareth Armstrong, with music by composer Simon Slater (Constellations, Royal Court/West End/Broadway) and lighting design by Mark Dymock (Once, UK tour).

Written during Lockdown and partly inspired by glimpses of people Skilbeck saw on her daily allotted walk on Clapham Common, it is a response to the feeling of isolation during COVID, and the search for connectedness. It reflects on the human need for the solace of nature, for healing laughter and silliness, and for love in all its forms surviving.

Alison Skilbeck is an Associate Teacher at RADA, specialising in directing Shakespeare, and serving on the Admissions Panel. Her television includes Sherlock Holmes, The Beiderbecke Affair, Miss Marple, Head Over Heels, Soldier Soldier, New Tricks, Doctor Who, Lovejoy, Midsomer Murders and Call the Midwife. She can currently be seen in series five of The Crown on Netflix.

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