'Di and Viv and Rose' by Amelia Bullmore

Amelia Bullmore’s funny, touching play about three very different women was previously produced as a wonderful rehearsed reading at the Theatre Royal in 2017.

From its opening scene, at a northern university’s hall of residence during the early 1980s, to its close in 2010, a simple, strong thread runs through this drama. It is the thread of friendship that has brought together a seemingly incompatible trio of female students – bookish and serious Viv, sporty Di and sexually voracious, albeit strangely vulnerable, Rose.

The skill of Bullmore’s script is the way it picks away at what friends are, why friendship endures or falls apart, and how vital it is to life. And there is so much that audiences will recognise – the nostalgic 1980s soundtrack, the sharply drawn characters, the baggage we all gather as time passes, the way events can suddenly derail us…

‘An unpretentious but stealthily potent play that leaves you smiling, teary and gloriously uplifted’ The Times