“When Ella Hickson wrote Eight in 2008, Britain was on the cusp of a major recession. As youth unemployment rocketed towards record highs, a whole generation of twenty somethings was plunged into a crisis of debt and emptying out of spiritual coffers. Fast and cheap consumerist highs were subbing in for something deeper: in the excess of choice, there thrived an absence of faith. Yet Hickson was itching to tell a different story about, and for, her generation. Eight emerged from the rubbles of interviews conducted with friends, colleagues, peers and strangers, as Hickson crafted eight cannily drawn characters wrestling with their own articles of faith. Aged between their late teens and early thirties, Mona, Danny, Astrid, Jude, Millie, Andre, Miles and Bobby struggle with their capacity to believe – in something, anything.

This play smashes together theatrical frameworks and subject positions. Hickson offers you a smartly wrapped bag of mixed lollies to choose from – do you want to hear the story of the ballsy single mother, the pent-up soldier lad, the slick corporate guy, the flighty London lass? From eight monologues, just five are selected to be performed each night. Pick a flavour, any flavour, based on not much more than a vague understanding of type.

Yet there’s something bigger, sadder, more urgent swirling underneath this survival of the fittest framework. Hard questions about choice, faith, individualism. The commodification of tragedy, the hollow bones of capitalism, the faith instinct. The need for something to hold onto, anything, in this saturation of choice and shortage of feeling.

Tonight you are seeing a version of Eight that will never be repeated in our short season. We hope you enjoy tonight’s pick.”

– Anna Houston, director