London Drama Book Club: Buckled by Helen Jeffery

Join our fun and friendly book club where we will spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon reading plays together from the comfort of home wherever that may be and in doing so be transported into new territory or old favourites.

On Sunday 1st November 5-6pm on Zoom, led by Helen Jeffery, we will share and discuss four or five scenes of her play, Buckled, with opportunities to ask questions and unpick key themes in a safe and supportive space.

About Buckled
Two years into sobriety, writer, Helen Jeffery, was commissioned by Unity Theatre, Liverpool, to create a piece which explored the question: ‘How do you navigate sobriety in a world which revolves around drink?' Funny, unsettling and deeply humane, it looks at addiction not as an abstract issue but as something lived day by day: in families, in friendships, in missed chances, in shame, in silence and in the long, uneven work of trying to change.

Themes of Buckled
Addiction, sobriety, mental health, family, friendship, recovery

Why the session will be good to come to
Helen is open to discussing taking the play from commission to publication, what it was like to act in the piece (alongside writing and directing it) and how the performers worked with a movement director to bring some of the non-naturalistic scenes to life.

About Helen Jeffery
A graduate of the Playwright’s Programme at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre, Helen has had several plays produced including, The Brink and Gun Metal Blue, which won the Blink.Theatre Award for New Writing in 2017. Her play, Buckled, was commissioned as part of the ‘UP NEXT’ Festival at Unity Theatre, Liverpool in 2023 and has since toured twice. In May 2026 Buckled was published by Salamander Street and a launch event took place as part of WOWFEST26. Helen is the Director of ‘Sober Scribbles’ and a recent recipient of Arts Council England ‘Developing your Creative Practice’ funding. She is a board member at Unity Theatre, Liverpool and is committed to supporting emerging writers in the development of new work for stage.

Book Club is an original idea by Rosie Devine
Rosie is a Goldsmiths PGCE Drama graduate and is now Subject Leader of Performing Arts at Kingsley Academy in Hounslow.