Dark Sublime (NHB Modern Plays)

Oli arrives at the door of Marianne, a now-forgotten sci-fi TV icon, impatient to make an impression, to make a friend. Marianne, a jobbing actress, knows about waiting - for the phone to ring, for her best friend to see her differently, for her turn at something more substantial than a half-remembered role on a cult TV show. He wants an autograph; she doesn't want anything from him - or so she thinks. Yet as they start to explore each other's worlds, they begin to discover what every good relationship needs: time and space. Exploring the complexities of relationships, especially in the LGBTQ community, and the contrast in lived experiences across generations, Michael Dennis has crafted a story that is as much about joy and heartbreak as it is about quarries and transmat beams. Dark Sublime is a love-letter to British sci-fi television - those that make it and those that adore it. It premiered at the Trafalgar Studios in June 2019.

Michael Dennis is a writer whose plays include Dark Sublime (Trafalgar Studios, 2019) and the short monologue play A Grand Day Out, part of Queers curated by Mark Gatiss (BBC Four and Old Vic, London, 2017).