State Red
'You have to realise your decisions have consequences not only for you but for all of us – most of all your father!’
It’s late. Richard and Joyce have just returned home from the House of Lords – another boozy, gruelling but important social event that further cements Richard’s chance of being promoted to Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
To their astonishment, and relief, they find their estranged son, Luke, fast asleep on the sofa. After a year’s absence – and with only one email letting them know he was safe – where has he been? More importantly, why has he come back? And will Luke’s demons play hell with Richard’s promotion?
Atiha Sen Gupta’s fiery family drama challenges the ‘family always comes first’ ethos and boldly confronts the fissures in our modern multicultural society that infiltrate through to the highest ranks.
Atiha Sen Gupta has written short plays, long plays and everything in between since she was 13. Her first play Eternally Grateful was a terrible dilemma play about a couple (one secular, one Jehovah’s Witness, of course) whose daughter suddenly and conveniently needs a blood transfusion. It didn’t end well. Her first full-length play What Fatima Did was commissioned when Atiha was 17 and part of Hampstead Theatre’s drama youth group ‘Heat and Light’. In 2012, Atiha won the prestigious ‘JugendStückePreis’ award for Fatima at an awards ceremony in Heidelberg. Atiha was part of the writing team on E4’s SKINS for three years.