About the Play:

On the Shore of the Wide World is a full-length drama by Simon Stephens. A working-class family tries to regroup after a course-changing event in this domestic drama. A parable about what we inherit and what we leave behind, On the Shore of the Wide World spans nine months, three generations and a life's worth of missed opportunities.

On the Shore of the Wide World focuses on three generations of the working-class Holmes family, which has long resided in Stockport, a suburb of Manchester. Eighteen-year-old Alex is ready for adulthood and ready to leave his home town. He is preparing to introduce his girlfriend Sarah to his parents. His younger brother Christopher is immediately and completely smitten with her. Their parents, Alice and Peter, are unnerved by how quickly Alex has grown up. Grandfather Charlie is mastering card tricks and keeping his smoking a secret from his long-suffering wife Ellen. Something is about to happen that will change all their lives irrevocably, as the honest scenes of domestic family life melt to reveal a sad picture of disconnection, fragile relationships and missed moments. On the Shore of the Wide World explores themes of love, family, and the size of the galaxy.

On the Shore of the Wide World premiered in 2005 at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and transferred to the National Theatre in London. It won the 2005 Olivier Best Play Award. The play has been performed in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 5 male

What people say:

"'I thought Simon Stephens's play On the Shore of the Wide World was sensational. I was thrilled when it won the Olivier because I thought it was really underrated." — David Eldridge, playwright

"Anguished lyricism ... It is as if Edward Bond's world has been occupied by Wordsworth." — The Guardian

"A major new voice in British writing ... A brilliant writer of immense imagination with an acute observation of people's foibles." — The Independent

About the Author:

Simon Stephens is an Olivier Award-winning English playwright. He has written many plays that have been translated into more than 30 languages and produced all over the world. He is a professor of playwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University, an associate playwright at the Royal Court Theatre, the artistic associate at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, and the Steep Associate Playwright at Steep Theatre in Chicago.