The Play

"I found it to be a powerful and emotional interpretation of Elizabeth’s book and it had a profound effect on myself and my husband."

It Is What It Is Productions

It Is What It Is Productions are a Theatre Company based in the North West of England.

Founded by artists; Carmel Baines, Sophie Tickle & Daniel Woods, the company are known for producing theatre and delivering workshops which provoke thought and inspire conversation with the intention of stimulating change and challenging their audience to think about social issues from a different perspective.

Promotional Trailer

Mum, Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid
Performance & Workshop Package

It Is What It Is Productions are thrilled to partner with DrugFAM to present this Performance and Workshop Package of Mum, Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid? What Drugs Did to My Family.

This is a package which gives audiences the opportunity to watch the play and then take part in a workshop which explores the themes which arise within the performance.  The content of the workshops is flexible and has been created in a way which can be adapted to suit the needs of 4 different audience groups:

  • Families of those who are addicted to drugs/alcohol
  • Young people in secondary or higher education
  • Addicts and individuals in recovery
  • Professionals who may work with those who are addicted to drugs/alcohol

In recent years the play & performance package has been successfully presented throughout the UK, being performed in theatres, schools, prisons, rehab facilities & community centres.

About the Play

Adapted from the memoir ‘Mum, Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid? What Drugs Did to My Family’ by Elizabeth Burton Phillips MBE Founder of DrugFAM, this one-hour play tells the heart-breaking story of Nicholas and Simon Mills.  It follows their journey into Heroin addiction, from school age through to adulthood and the strain their addiction placed on their family and their relationship with each other. 

About the Workshops

These one-hour workshops are specifically designed to suit the needs of our 4 different audience groups and use different characters and scenarios from the play to explore the issues most relevant to that audience.

Through these workshops we aim to: provide a safe environment for the discussion of issues; offer the potential for the changing of perceptions; demonstrate the universality of the issue; challenge perceptions & stereotypes of addicts and of families affected by addiction to seek and ask for appropriate help.

How To Book

If you would like to book the play and accompanying workshops or would like more information about the package, please email It Is What It Is Productions at info@iiwiip.co.uk.

You can also find more information and a booking form in the production pack pdf below.

Lives Worth Talking About: Tales of Recovery - The Monologues

It Is What It Is Productions were delighted to work in partnership with DrugFAM, to present this project during lock down.  Lives Worth Talking About is a digital series which tells the true stories of everyday people told through a series of monologues.

The episodes created focus on tales of recovery, sharing the experiences of those who have battled an addiction and detailing their journey of recovery. 

Whilst touring the UK with ‘Mum, Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid?’ in recent years, the team have always been touched when individuals felt comfortable enough to come and share their own experiences of addiction with them at performances. 

It became apparent fairly quickly just how many stories are out there and how many people are affected by the issue.  It Is What It Is Productions felt that they were in a fortunate position to give these people a platform to share their stories and also help tackle the social stigma that’s attached to addiction.

Following a call out for individuals who would like to get involved, people from across the country came forward to share their experiences of addiction and their recovery from their own perspective.  Through a series of virtual meetings, the team met those interested and started the process of obtaining these stories and using them to create a series of monologues which could then be filmed from home to create Lives Worth Talking About: Tales of Recovery.

Episode 1: Elizabeth & Leo

Episode 2: Jess & William

Episode 3: Michelle & Howard

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