PAST TENTS
The Play
PAST TENTS
SYNOPSIS
"The day from hell, just got a whole lot worse"
When Alan's (Seth Jones) car crashes in the middle of nowhere, his bad day (which started with the end of his marriage) gets worse.
After trudging through the muddy countryside, he comes across a campsite, run by the oddly eccentric Virgil (Mark Keegan).
Lost, with no phone signal, he has no choice but to stay the night. Unfortunately for him, there's only one plot left, situated in-between a sheep-poo bin and a tent that belongs to the extremely annoying Justin (David J. Keogh).
Justin is everything Alan despises - a positive family man with his life completely in control... or is he? Because things are not what they seem and as tension builds between them, they start to reveal their true selves... with hilarious and rather unfortunate consequences.
'Past Tents' is the story of two desperate people at the end of their tent ropes, forced into each other's company. Will they find redemption or kill each other first? And what exactly is Virgil doing with those sheep traps?
A funny, dark & moving comedy which Contains adult themes & language -
Recommended 16 plus - contains adult language and themes.
ABOUT US
WRITERS - DAVID J KEOGH AND SETH JONES
“We like our plays to come under the genre of
“Dramedy” – hilarious, silly and sometimes slapstick
comedy but with heart and deep meaning – dealing
with real issues such as mental health, grief and
depression. Our plays surprise audiences and
challenge them not only to face their own prejudices,
but also not to wet themselves with laughter.
The intent of this play is to help spread the message
of men’s (and others) mental health issues and help
people with issues such as
suicide/grief/depression/neuro-divergence and
illness through the lens of dark comedy“
THE CAST -
SETH JONES, DAVID J KEOGH AND MARK KEEGAN
Seth Jones “(playing Alan) is excellent as the distraught man that becomes dirtier as the play continues. He has a great stage presence and voice which allows for the emotions of the character to be portrayed from hope to faint desperation and takes the audience with him. Excellent facial expressions and gestures add to the piece and keep the intrigue going within the piece.”
Theatre credits include: Scrooge, Christmas Carol (European tour), Dill, To Kill a mocking bird (The Ashcroft Theatre)’One man show’ (Polly) South coast tour, ‘The Director’, Welcome to the Fringe’ The Moors Theatre. The fakir, cirque du-realism (Leicester square)Seth was the in-house writer and director of Moors Theatre (London) for four years. Since then his plays havetransferred and/or been rented across the UK and Ireland .Featuring in festivals and theatres such as The PARK theatre , Drayton Arms theatre among many others. Seth’s writing idols are John Sullivan and Ricky Gervais. Healso claims to be the funnier of the two, something David hotly disputes. Seth also won BEST ACTOR at the 2021 DV MIssion Film Contest.
David J. Keogh “(playing Justin) Is excellent as the slightly over enthusiastic and annoyingly calm character. He has brilliant timing and great line delivery. He creates a character which makes you, as an audience member, want to know more about him as you wonder why he is living as he is. Some great lines are added to by his mannerisms
enhancing the comedy or tragedy of the piece. “David is a multi-award winning screenwriter and actor, who starred in the indie comedy 'Destination Dewsbury',which he also co-wrote. He recently starred in a US TV Pilot (he also co-wrote) called John Sunshines’s Lost Rock ‘n’ Roll Tapes and the movie (I know, he co-wrote this too – what a legend) called Suspect which will be released in
2024. His previous stage performances include lead roles in Journey’s End, Vengeance: The Demise of Oscar Wilde,
T.S Eliot’s Murder In The Cathedral, Marlowe's 'Edward II', Shakespeare's 'Richard II' & Twelfth Night (all with
Scena Mundi) and the play '1 in 3', for which he achieved critical acclaim for his performance as Jeff, chemotherapy patient coming to terms with his cancer. He also won a Best Actor award
Although Mark Keegan didn’t start acting professionally until the tender age of 53, he’s certainly been making up for lost time. He has appeared in dozens of great theatre productions over the years; notable roles include: appearing as The Janitor in the UK debut of ‘Dry Land’ (Jermyn Street Theatre-2015); Campbell in ‘Sad Girls’ (Edinburgh Fringe-2017);
Dennis in Flutter’ (Wandsworth Fringe-2017/ and Soho Theatre-2018); Uncle Kev/ Danny in ‘Instanbul’ (Katzspace, London-2017 and Zoo Venue, Edinburgh Fringe-2018); George in ‘Precious Little Talent’ (Courtyard Theatre,
London-2018). Top of the list though (it says here!) is the chance to reprise the role of Virgil in ‘Past Tents’ (originally performed at The White Bear, Kennington-2019)!
TV credits include ‘The Windsors’ alongside Harry Enfield and Haydn Gwynne.