Rock / Paper / Scissors
'Three options, as I see it – they'll kill it off entirely, you'll let it die of natural causes, I'm going to make it live again.'
When the owner of a Sheffield scissor manufacturer dies, the future of the factory site falls into uncertainty. Can it be reborn as a fashionable music venue, converted into luxury apartments, or somehow reinvigorated so the old business can survive?
There's more than just money or bricks and mortar at stake. It's about knowing where you fit in the world – knowing that somewhere there's still a place for you.
Fresh, funny and heartfelt, Rock / Paper / Scissors are three intricately interwoven plays by Chris Bush about family, heritage and legacy. They were first performed simultaneously with the same cast moving between three theatres in Sheffield – the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio – as part of Sheffield Theatres' fiftieth birthday celebrations in 2022.
While the three plays can be enjoyed separately, they also offer a uniquely rewarding opportunity for any company looking to take on the challenge of staging them together.
Chris Bush is an award-winning playwright, lyricist and theatre-maker. She is Artistic Associate at Sheffield Theatres, where her other work includes Steel and the musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge (with Richard Hawley). Other plays include Faustus: That Damned Woman for Headlong, Hungry for Paines Plough, and an adaptation of Jane Eyre for the Stephen Joseph and New Vic Theatres.