On the joys and disappointments of monogamy versus the thrills and spills of polyamory…
A queer, modern love story about romantic love between two women, Juniper and Jules is a play which explores the joys and disappointments of monogamy versus the thrills and spills of polyamory…
Our two characters, Juniper and Jules meet at a party of a mutual friend and immediately there is a delicious attraction, fun and passion between them.
The play follows them through the first days of their relationship, into the mild boredom and comfort of monogamy and then finally into the unchartered waters of a poly relationship…
I was so excited by the audience we attracted during the play’s first try-out in March 2018. The audience was full of LGBTQI+ women. We were so happy to stage this play for them. Several of our audience members told us that they wouldn’t usually go to the theatre.
Of course, why would you go to a theatre which doesn’t tell your stories? Why does the theatre so often tell the same stories about the same sort of people – aka not queer women?
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Lesbian narratives are so rare in our theatres, and when they do appear it’s usually Victorian bodice-ripping. Now, of course I love a good bodice-ripping romp but it’s time for more modern love stories about how we live and love today.
This last 12 months has seen a brilliant explosion of lesbian plays. Team Juniper and Jules loved Grotty, written by Izzy Tennyson and well as The Funeral Director by Iman Qureshi both directed by excellent Hannah Hauer-King.
And of course on our (silver) screens at the moment, we have lez/bi narratives in Colette, Disobedience and The Favourite – how thrilling that Juniper and Jules is happening as a part of this tide.
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A universal love story for everyone and about everyone’s relationships, the play is simultaneously a specific story about romantic love between two women in 2019.
Juniper and Jules explores bisexual identity and the invisibility of the letter B in LGBTQI+. I’m also interested in exploring why the word “bisexuality” is considered by some such a "dirty word" or "half-way house" to something else, rather than an identity in it’s own right.
It’s been such a pleasure developing the play with our fabulous actors Gabriella Schmidt and Stella Taylor.
There’s a wonderful movement in theatre at the moment of writing and creating the stories and characters that are absent or lacking. Instead of waiting around for the people in charge to wake up to the absence of female stories and lesbian stories we’re filling that gap ourselves:
Being "the change we want to see” is a useful and lovely phrase for this – see you in the audience.
Juniper and Jules runs from the 23-27 January 2019 at VAULT Festival. Tickets can be booked here.
Steph is a writer from London whose previous plays include Joy (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and Alkaline (Park Theatre). Current projects include Nymphs; a female LGBTQI coming of age comedy-drama for television.
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