BARROW & IRELAND
Ben is also part of a long-standing musical theatre writing partnership with good friend Lucy Ireland - the two met at the Guildford School of Acting in 2016 and have been working together ever since. To date, they have written three full musicals (with a fourth very much in the making!), and also produced two large-scale 'virtual choir' videos during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. For any Barrow and Ireland enquires, please email barrowandireland@outlook.com.
FROM HERE
Do we long more for a happy ending or for a new beginning? From Here explores how reaching for the end of one chapter, or the beginning of the next, may not always provide us with the results we expect. From struggling to find friends in a school playground, to first dates, to learning to live again after finding yourself alone, these often musically-interwoven stories tell of five characters trying to decide whether to run headfirst into trying again or whether to stay put and hold fast.
This contemporary hybrid of new musical and song-cycle is a poetically conversational guide. From Here offers the perfect opportunity for audiences to reflect on where they are and where they’re going. And as we continue to navigate an ever-changing landscape, it offers a chance to appreciate the middle of a moment too.
From Here made its world premiere at the Chiswick Playhouse in 2021, to an overwhelmingly positive response. The show received 4* reviews from
The Guardian, The Stage and
BroadwayWorld UK, as well as a 5* review from
All That Dazzles, who claimed the show to be 'one of the best [smaller shows he'd] seen.'
AVA & ELSIE - WORKING TITLE
Recently, we have started to develop our latest project as a writing partnership - Ava and Elsie (working title), a new musical. Ava is 12 years old, and has a reputation for making everyone she meets smile. Elsie is 78 years old, and definitely does not. When the two become neighbours, Ava decides to make Elsie her ‘project’: she will make her happy by the time she’s done. When the two suddenly find themselves as the centre of attention on social media, what will they learn about themselves and what they can give to each other? This musical explores the ideas of intergenerational communication and what it really means to be able to make someone happy. It’s a tale of two families, and two worlds colliding - inspired by the storytelling of Pixar films, and with a contemporary musical theatre score which also features hints to the cinematic.
If following this project's development, or supporting it in any way, is of interest to you - please do contact us at barrowandireland@outlook.com - we can't wait to continue to write it in the coming months!