Lucy Alder @ The Writers Room 2026

Up first in this year's celebration of our MA Drama Writing Class of '26 is Lucy Alder.

Signature Script: 

Wail by Lucy Alder 

Directed by Alys MacGregor

A whale washes up on Whitby beach in 1753 and 2026. Each community must come together to decide its future, before everyone suffocates under its weight.

Short Play:

Free Diver by Lucy Alder

Directed by Bradley Lomond

A Tudor salvage diver recalls his past while bringing up the cannons of the Mary Rose.

A bit about Lucy Alder: 

Lucy is a writer from the West Midlands, interested in how storytelling can allow the past to speak to the present (and vice versa). After graduating from the University of Warwick with a First Class degree in History, Lucy has brought her passion for the subject into her creative work.

More about The Writers' Room:

New Stories. New Playwrights. New Worlds.

Welcome to The Writers' Room. Twelve brand new plays by this year's MA Drama Writers, performed as staged readings at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

From Wednesday 1st – Friday 3rd July, our graduates’ scripts will transport you between Cornish mining villages steeped in myth and magic, the beaches of Yorkshire whaling towns centuries apart, women-only gyms empowering members to avenge injustices, and a Friday night dinner with some very unexpected guests.

Exploring environmental collapse, contemporary Jewish identity, motherhood, faith, who claims our narratives, how we fight to win them back and what it means to reshape the world around us, these diverse new plays ask the most urgent questions about what it is to be alive today.

We can’t wait to welcome you to the school for a fantastic celebration of new writing by our talented students.