I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won't Die (Plays for Young People)

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In Jan 2020 Wizard Theatre produced the 4th professional tour of ILYM, after COVID the 5th and 6th tour took place in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

The moving performances combined with Daniels’ parent’s filmed conversations explaining how they felt about their son and their depth of grief explores in detail the devastating impact and void which is felt by everyone who knew him.Here, he was sold a lethal dose of MDMA (the powdered form of ecstasy) after which he suffered multiple organ failure. Schools where students are studying or performing the play are able to book a conversation online with Fiona, and prepare questions to help them understand the story, the people, and the process behind the making of the play. Mark Wheeller is familiar to most Drama teachers, whether through his most well-known play Too Much Punch For Judy, his drama schemes and lesson plans, or from his inclusion on set text lists with Missing Dan Nolan (OCR), Hard To Swallow and, most recently, I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won't Die (both Eduqas). This play, which runs at around 90 minutes with no interval, is a love letter to Daniel Spargo-Mabbs. Susan Elkin paid a visit to Half Moon theatre in London’s East End to chat with CEO Chris Elwell about their extensive education outreach and innovative theatre programmes.

Life is made of moments, memories and conversations and the strong theme running throughout this production is the strength people get from all these once there is nothing left and we can no longer speak to the person who has died. This poignant and eminently readable biography of the play is drawn from interviews with Dan’s family, friends and the OYT company. Having Mark Wheeller’s interviewer words written into the script gives as a clever narration that helpfully shaped the dialogue into a narrative helping the audience follow the story.Drama is an incredibly powerful way to communicate important messages to young people, and Mark Wheeller’s play has become a core part of our vision to enable young people to understand the risks, and potential consequences and impact of experimenting with drugs. A verbatim play written by Mark Wheeller using the testimonies of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs’ friends and family. I Love You, Mum ensure Daniel lives on (he would have been twenty-five now) and reminds the audience that behind every statistic and flat Daily Mail headline is a human soul and story. Amy Zoldan demonstrates incredible versatility as she glides from drama teacher to immature teenager to deeply in love girlfriend.

Instead, this play focuses on those who knew and loved him and the impact that this tragic event had on them. The mission of this play is to spread awareness, educate young people and their families and potentially avoid more unnecessary deaths. With three separate Lucian Freud exhibitions currently on, Graham Hooper took time to visit and here is his review of these contrasting shows. Wheeller used transcripts from Dan's friends and family covering his life, experiences and the fateful night on which he died. As a parent of a teenage daughter I try to educate her in the dangers of drugs amongst other things but sometimes feel that I get the “Yeah Mum.We are delighted to be touring the full-length version of this powerful and emotional story,” says Elliot Montgomery, Octopus Dream Theatre Artistic Director. We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers.

Alysha Jade Patis - OYT performerThis poignant and eminently readable biography of the play is drawn from interviews with Dan’s family, friends and the OYT company. In January 2014 16-year-old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs went to an illicit all-night rave, overdosed on ecstasy and died. By Easter it will have reached around 55,000 young people, and is a core component of our drug education programme.Although the play revolves around Dan he has no lines and he is imaginatively represented throughout by a blue zip-hoodie that is sometimes worn by the 15-strong cast who play him in turn. And this number doesn’t include the times it’s been used in GCSE or BTEC assessment pieces, or drama lessons.