STICKY - A NEW PLAY WITH MUSIC (75 MINUTES)
When memory fails, music becomes the only language left between them.
Fractured memories. Forgotten faces.
A daughter challenging the boundaries of time.
about alice - the writer
ABOUT Alice O’Hanlon
Writer/Performer - Alice trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and has worked primarily in Musical Theatre and Dance.
Sticky is her debut play, developed on CFT’s Artist Development Programme with mentorship from Phillip Porter.
ABOUT Sticky
STICKY is a bold and tender actor-musician led play, told through shifting timelines, surreal humour, and raw honesty.
This poignant story, based on lived experience, explores a father-daughter relationship reshaped by young-onset Alzheimer’s.
It follows Charlie as she navigates the emotional labyrinth of her father’s diagnosis, and her own sense of identity - exploring what happens when those timelines collide and what it means when there is no space to fully share yourself before that connection disappears.
From 1970s Belfast to a care home in Bognor Regis, Sticky is a kaleidoscopic look at how the past shapes us, what we take with us and the ‘sticky’ ways we try to hold our families together.
MY INSPIRATION
Sticky is inspired by my own experience of my dad’s diagnosis. At the time, I was a teenager just beginning to explore my own identity and sexuality. The reality of my truth is that I never had the chance to share my whole self with him - I was pulled into an immediate and adult world of emotional responsibility and care decisions which led the process of self-discovery unshared. My experience is not unique but rarely spoken about. By telling my story, I hope young people affected by dementia who sit in an invisible gap: carrying significant responsibility and emotional burden at such a young age, can feel seen and heard. - a sentence about sticky’s previous life & connection with CFT & previous ACE support
CREATIVES
Director/Dramaturg
Fiona Dunn has a long standing history with Chichester Festival Theatre both as a performer for three years with Steven Pimlott and Martin Duncan, Associate Director to Richard Eyre and Jonathan Church,
and Director of Sticky at The Nest (CFT).
Associate Director at the Donmar Warehouse.
Principal Assistant Director at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Associate Director on Mark-Anthony Turngage’s new opera of ‘The Railway Children’.
Creative Director of ‘The ReFramed Project’ working with dementia support hubs and theatre spaces to make work inspired by the voices and words of people living with dementia.
Sound Designer
Eamonn O’Dwyer is an award-winning composer, lyricist and sound designer of Guyanese-Irish heritage, recently nominated for a Black British Theatre Award for Best Sound Design. His work spans genres from live orchestral to electronica, contemporary musical theatre, film, video games & attractions. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, and to date his works have been performed in the US, Russia, Australia and Japan. Selected credits include: Sticky (The Nest @ CFT), Troilus & Cressida (The Globe), Spitfire Girls (MAST & UK Tour), Never Let Me Go (Rose Theatre Kingston & UK Tour), The History Boys (Bath Theatre Royal & UK Tour), Guy Fawkes (York Theatre Royal), Flesh & Bone (National Theatre Studio), Grimm Tales & Peter Pan (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Freelance Producer
Laura Dickens' recent credits include Shakespeare’s Women (R&D Exchange Theatre) Trojan Horses (R&D Byline Times) Mid Life (Diverse City, UK Tour) SW!M (Diverse City) Women's Writes Festival (Arcola & Vault Festival).