Queer author debuts audio play about autism
Heather Peace stars in Crocodile, an original new work which tackles the subject of neurodiversity.
Crocodile Armitage (Heather Peace) is wisecracking, messy, and impulsive. She lives above a Chinese takeaway in London, she toasts her bagels using a blow torch, and she describes herself as bored and curious. She is so impulsive that she has taken to writing down all her ideas and burning them before she has a chance to act on them and get herself into trouble. Her best mate Beau (Sherise Blackman) tries to keep her on track and her irreverent sense of humor somewhat compensates for her erratic behavior. Enter Syd (Gurkiran Kaur), a decorator with a love of ice cream and looking for something more… Exit Crocodile, who is always looking for something different — until she isn’t.
A bittersweet play that navigates identity, neurodiversity, loss, love and mushrooms, Crocodile tells the story of a woman dealing with her recent autism (emotions are a mystery to her) and ADHD diagnosis (she can’t read an email longer than three lines), the death of her dysfunctional mother, and the start of a new relationship. Set in London and Yorkshire, the play uses flashbacks and insights from 8-year-old Crocodile to interpret the chaotic adult life of the lovable, complicated protagonist.
“In January 2020, at a writing course spent in a rain-washed farm in Totleigh Barton, I found Crocodile… 2.5 days to write
over 9,000 words and 70 pages later, hyper focus, here is my first play,” explains Samantha Grierson Schwarz who lives in Scotland with her wife and four children.
This UK comedy has a stellar cast including actor-singer songwriter Heather Peace (Lip Service, Waterloo Road, London’s Burning and Holby City, Sherise Blackman (EastEnders), Gurkiran Kaur: Actor and Mia Wray. Peace also sings the terrific theme song, “Hey Mayhem.”
Listen to Crocodile on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts.
Follow the show at https://www.facebook.com/socrocodile.
