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Sophy has co-written four musicals for Make Theatre Company 'Retail Therapy' 'O is for...' 'Stop' and 'Wedding favours'. All plays were performed in Somerset, enjoying a rural tour in locations such as a church, a cafe, a martial art club and of course the usual village halls and theatres. The first three musicals also toured the Edinburgh Fringe and 'O is for...' qualified for a sell out laurel.
'Frank and Maysie' is Sophy's first radio play and Havisham is the first full length script that Sophy has written independently.
Havisham
The Greatest Expectation
The spectral figure of Miss Havisham is impressed upon our minds since childhood. She haunts her family home surrounded by decaying wedding decorations still wearing her wedding dress that now hangs in tatter as it drags along the floor. Her bitterness and sense of betrayal poisons all around her and poor Pip becomes the subject of her revenge.
We know that story, but what of Miss Havisham’s life before that terrible day?
This is a story of how true friendship is ignored in favour of empty words and false flattery. Following her father’s death Amelia Havisham fails to listen to the earnest advice of her oldest and dearest friend, and choses to place her trust in a trickster and conman instead.
Music composed by Sam Baker.
Script development youth workshops took place August 2021
led by Helena Payne Creative Director of Pleasure Dome Theatre Company.
Part funded by Take Art, the Brewhouse and Fusion Young Performers
Frank and Maysie
A play for radio
Frank and Maysie was aired at the Brewhouse as part of Takearts BARNfest on Thursday 24th October 2019 in the theatre foyer. It was played through headphones on a continual loop.
This new radio play was written by Sophy Layzell with Ken Steed playing Frank and Celia Crookes playing Maysie. It was recorded at Action Track Studios, Taunton with funding by Take Art Barn Project.
Frank and May have been married for 65 years. This 15-minute play shows us their protectiveness of each other and their determination to retain their independence despite increasing frailty.
They are both vulnerable but in different ways. We see them in their day-to-day activities as they compensate for each other’s failings.
Inspired by my parent's relationship this play includes anecdotes, heard so often they became a refrain; intrinsic to their identities. Therefore, some sections are almost verbatim while others are imagined and entirely fictional.
"Frank and Maysie" was first broadcast on Friday 14th October on Radio10 live on Pauline Homeshaw's Community Show.
Alzheimer's Society I hope will include the play for their e-learning course that will be developed for Spring 2020,
‘Many of team have now listened to the play and all agree it is very good in reflecting the experiences of a person with dementia and also how family members around that person feel.’
Charlotte Wilson, Senior National Programmes Officer, Alzheimer’s Society