Open Works Festival presents a rehearsed reading of Jack and Gill.

Jack and Gill is a moving and uplifting story of friendship and connection in a fading Humberside care home. We meet an ensemble of characterful elders who, from their armchairs, tell stories that take us around the world and around the corner. From Jack, the sheet metal worker who can trace his life’s journey from the window, from the council estates of his childhood to the rise and fall of the high street, and the looming ghost of the steelworks that shaped his community. To Gill, a feisty, jetsetting former-businesswoman who now makes other people’s gossip her business. From their overworked carer who longs for home, to her daughter who awaits her arrival. Thrown together, this diverse community begin as reluctant companions who begin to bond over unexpected common ground.

Jack and Gill is a tender, funny and honest exploration of ageing, community, and the ties that bind us, on the edge of our towns, and until the end of life.

Jack and Gill was first commissioned in 2024 for Middle Child's festival of new writing, Fresh Ink. Playwright Grace Waga Glevey returns to develop the idea in a rehearsed reading for Open Works 2026.

Part of Open Works Festival