Alice Josephs

Aged 18 and fresh out of school during World War 2, a teenager dreams of glamorous RAF exploits. Instead he's conscripted down the mines, one of a forgotten army called up to maintain the country's coal supplies, where he must hold his own amongst the veteran miners and when, in the midst of a mine collapse, singer and actor Paul Robeson arrives

Written for but rejected by Theatre 503 Rapid Response September 2013

A heist goes wrong and a desperate youngster in hock to a criminal gang finds himself in the hands of the neighbourhood pawnbroker - and fence.

In 1944 an aristocratic widow receives an unexpected visitor, the childhood friend of her dead son, a soldier killed in the first Great War. With missionary zeal, the younger woman extols the hopes for a new post-war welfare state, but finds she has underestimated the bereaved mother's grasp of Realpolitik.

Written 2013

A small nation invites a monarch, whose family was toppled from power when he was a babe in arms, back to rule the land. But is it prepared to welcome a king with a republican soul and a son who also breaks the mould?

Inspired by a true story, an unfunded Second World War dance company brings ballet to the masses under the guidance of a British prima ballerina and a White Russian ballet master. Years later, its almost forgotten archives, kept safe by Madame, hold the key to the original 19th century staging, thought to be lost forever.

An age old fairy tale - a princess awakes from a hundred-year sleep to marry her prince. But this time, she’s been evicted from her palace on a shabby couch and a group of 21st century professionals have her life in their hands.

15 minute comedy.

The result of a drunken college bet comes back to haunt Charlie and Tania - and to demand a share of the profits.

Written 2008

An exploited media intern finds his dream job with an acclaimed movie director comes at a hellish cost.

Written 2015

The female cousin of a soccer star discovers their lives are entwined in ways neither could ever have imagined.

Monologue for middle aged woman

THIS PLAY HAS CHARACTERS WHO USE RACIAL SLURS. (Full Length Play)

Pre Credit Crunch, pre Brexit London - lawyer Hugo and accountant David are building up, by hook or by crook, a property empire - the properties, the dosh, the bank loans, the accounts in the name of Monica, David's girl friend - if only she knew. Hugo's French girl friend, Annick, still hopes Hugo will turn out to be a chivalrous Hugh-Grant type. Little does she know. But now hit man Max wants to become his own boss in the global market place and even a senior with a sweet tooth turns out to be one adversary too many. A 21st century tale but, with the wheel of fate turning like the London Eye, how will it all end?

Written in 2007 as Briefcase Encounter.

Everybody's talking about Johnny Ciro - star of the biggest soap on prime time TV. But the higher they rise, the harder they fall - unless he can create enough intrigue to make a comeback.

Written 2008

A Brit playwright on the cusp of American success finds his career scuppered in the 1970s when his name is used by a Marxist group on a leaflet. Fast forward to the 21st century and a prospective deal in the crazed London property market brings victim and perpetrator together.

Written for Theatre 503, London Rapid Response but rejected April 2014

Locked Up For Life Through No Fault Of Her Own - Is She On Your Family Tree?

A healthy patient harbours a deadly disease. Over sixty years later an anonymous email draws together five women to uncover family and state secrets in a derelict asylum. Inspired by a BBC investigation, For The Public Good explores the hidden tragedy behind draconian measures to protect the nation's health.

Written and staged in a month in 2008

Panic buying leading to fuel shortages. A row between a Facebook group admin and a poster about garages with petrol takes an unexpected turn.

Marking the anniversary of their first massive hit movie, a celebrated actress and director stretch the truth about the secret of their success.

Originally written as Thick As Thieves 2007
Revised as Happy Ending 2008

In 1960s' Switzerland the renowned German author of a wartime classic novel and his American movie star wife knock back the liquor and bicker during their self imposed tax exile. Yet even in their jetsetting world, they still have to face the realities of love and death.

Based on a true story.

Written for but rejected for a reading by Actors and Writers London 2008

Rehearsed Reading directed by Jennifer Davis with Lucien Morgan and Jeanne Golding RealDeal Theatre 2013

A dangerous Disunited Kingdom - sometime in the future. A native-born stringer for the foreign media finds herself stranded, fearing for her and her family’s survival, when occupying troops withdraw.

Cheated out of his land, an honest farmer tries for the rest of his days to regain the family property.

The portrait of a new General Secretary, commissioned by the bigwigs of a UK trade union when a woman takes the helm, goes down in history as an enormous leap forward. But curiously much of the paperwork on this pivotal moment has disappeared …

A young boy embarks on a journey of discovery about his town and family’s past in post World War 2 Germany.

A couple split by their work - one forced to retire, the other kept on. Tensions rise after the death of a pet when a frank exchange reveals a web of family secrets and lies.

An executive seeks to revolutionise broadcasting in a top secret project but doesn’t count on an element turning automatons into humans - money!

In the 22nd century, a husband is home on leave from his peace keeping job overseas. But when the lights go out, he soon learns from his ditzy but savvy wife much has changed.

Written for but rejected by Theatre 503, Rapid Response, London, October 2013

During the protectorate republic of Oliver Cromwell, two women meet and connect over an illegal business transaction.

A child rejoicing in a vivid imagination, shaped by fairy tales and movie superheros, discovers Nan has a real life past filled with treasure and love.

First there was Charles Ponzi, then Bernie Madoff … Now there’s Paul Stone …‘It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked.’ Warren Buffett, billionaire investor

Financier Paul Stone, journalist Zoe Maskill and investment manager Amanda Cardville-Smith all think they’re victims of the Credit Crunch -- they got found out!

The finance journalist disguised as a Pizza Boy disguised as a Brazilian maid (it's complicated) calling out to the police officer (who is the investment fund manager in disguise - it's complicated) outside the locked door "Meester Stone, he no here ... he in church, he pray, mucho pray ..."

One act play featured in the City Spy column of the London Evening Standard 3/4/2009, The Capitalist column of City AM ‘First Ponzi Inspired Play Hits The Boards’ 3/4/2009 and The London Paper's ‘One Of Three Plays To See’ 2/4/2009.

Tuesday March 31 - Saturday April 4 2009
Barons Court Theatre, 28a Comeragh Road, London
Catherine Potter as Zoe Maskill
Maggie Robson as Amanda Cardville-Smith
Mark Shaer as Paul Stone
Directed by Catherine Arden
Design by Amy Cartwright
Stage Manager/Assistant Designer/Scene Backdrop Will Seward
Lighting/Sound by Annabel Grundy
Camera Michelle Brooks

A young couple find that a 1950s’ home is the key to a tragic Cold War history.

There's one constant from the early days of the movie business in the back gardens of Walthamstow through British film studios to Hollywood. The ultra efficient 'continuity girl' insuring movies make sense in a senseless world! An informative romp through movie history.

Originally written for a mooted Walthamstow, London festival which never went ahead. 2014

The formula for a hit musical? A tone deaf singer, wisecracking producers, a songwriter who hits the leading lady, a clog dancing veteran, the gangsters and the broads who "put the broad into Broadway". The almost true story of how Guys And Dolls came to life, as told by a wise guy member of the chorus line.

Written during course at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch 2014 but rejected for final showcase

A financial whizz is on the brink of a huge breakthrough — and enormous commission payments. Overriding the veto on nations exploiting space for national gain with a multinational tied to no state, limitless wealth beckons. Until unexpected family ties bring him back to earth.

Handsome, irascible and hard drinking, Eddy Jagger is an Australian PhD student and bartender in 1960s Earls Court in London. Until one night on a drunken spree he falls downstairs -- and recovers, he thinks, only to find he is a ghost trapped in his bedsit as the decades roll by. Then along comes timid Toby and buys the rundown 'studio flat' and turns out to be Eddy's soulmate.

Episode 1 of a stage sitcom written in 2000.

Full length play.

"Jake and Penelope have flown from the US to their English seaside house to celebrate their wedding anniversary with two grown-up children and a baby grandchild in tow. But when American Jake wakes up to find a note on the pillow where his English-born wife should be, the family’s transatlantic idyll collapses to reveal a more complex and bewildering reality ...”

The songs included are not compulsory but it may show how songs can add an extra layer to the script.

This was written 2012/13.

A mysterious veiled lady disrupts with an ultimatum the choosing of paintings for a prestigious exhibition.

Hidden away for over 500 years in a secret forested valley somewhere in France, an unregistered community is in crisis. The aged baker has popped his clogs leaving no one to take over his role. When a gap year student seems to fulfil the criteria, life in the valley will never be the same again …

A mischievous vistor to a sleepy Edwardian English village determines to shake up a staid elderly couple's smug existence in a psychologically astute but disturbing hoax.

Adapted from Saki (H H Munro)
This is a disquieting but acute satire about credibility, manipulation of the press and bystanderism all still too relevant in the internet age.
See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1462169X.2007.10512065

The life and loves of poet, broadcasting personality and womanizer Louis Untermeyer as a Cold War recording of popular quiz show What's My Line? digs deep, excavating his wives, political past, rivals and the fate of his student son.

Written in July 2013

"We were brought up to brook no ambiguity – there was right and there was wrong and it would turn out like a novel or the newspaper headlines...'

A veteran of tabloid journalism tells a troubling story of his past when he uncovered secrets and lies a little too close to home.

Written for but rejected by Theatre 503 rapid response to Sam Potter’s Mucky Kid, London November 2013. Written therefore before the 2014 premiere of Richard Bean’s Great Britain about journalism which uses the phrase ‘What Would You Do’ in exactly the same way, breaking the fourth wall & some would say combines elements of my other play about hacking & journalism ‘Swimming Naked’

From cherubic seven year old at the zoo through student days to graduation into the world of work and fatherhood before life goes askew, Neil has one constant companion he can rely on. Wonderful Guy - Guy the Gorilla, that is ...