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Presented by Stephen Joseph Theatre & Tara Finney Productions
Written by Christopher York
Directed by Paul Robinson
Starring Serena Manteghi
Designer Helen Coyston
Lighting Designer Ben Cowens
Composer & Sound Designer Simon Slater

Yasmin is a bright 16-year-old from a small seaside town. In an instant, her world is turned upside down when she becomes pregnant with her son, Jack. Suddenly her life isn't sandcastles, arcades, and donkey rides. Abandoned by both the father of her child and her alcoholic mother, Yasmin faces one of life's great challenges completely alone - but can the thing which threatens to ruin her life actually be the thing which saves her?

Winner of awards at both the Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringe Festivals Build a Rocket is a powerful and uplifting play about triumph over adversity.

"Best New British Play of the Year" 
Richard Jordan, The Stage

A Word From The Writer, Christopher York -
“I am a product of teenage pregnancy, I spent my early life in a bedsit with my mum and dad. I have grown up around teenage pregnancy, and seen it demonised in the press, but that's not the reality of what I saw growing up; I saw brilliant, positive, funny young women, raising children, even without the privilege of another parent.... continue reading

Build A Rocket Freesheet - Download

Build A Rocket Freesheet

What critics and audiences have to say

Serena Manteghi

Serena Manteghi is an established theatre practitioner and performer, working extensively in new writing, devising and physical storytelling. She is the recipient of the following awards; BankSA 'Best Theatre' Award for Build A Rocket, BankSA 'Best Theatre' Award for Eurydice, The Sunday Mail’s ‘Best Female Solo Performance’ for Build A Rocket, 'Honourable Mention' by Critics Circle Award for Build A Rocket and she was shortlisted for the Norman Beaton Fellowship Award in 2016.

Her theatre credits include; Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre), Salty Irina (Ovalhouse), Eurydice (Holden Street Theatres, Adelaide), Build A Rocket (Stephen Joseph Theatre/Various), The Terrible Infants (Wiltons Music Hall), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Echoes (Brits Off Broadway), My Mother Said I Never Should (St. James Theatre), The Railway Children (Kings Cross Theatre), HEART (Traverse Theatre), Mucky Kid (Theatre 503), Agammemnon (Southwark Playhouse).
Musical theatre credits include; Some Small Love Story (Arts Theatre/Streatham Space) and The Beggar’s Opera (York Theatre Royal).
Television credits include; Mrs Wilson (Bronte Films/BBC).
Film credits include; Miss Jihadi (Heavy Wait Productions), and This England (George Taylor Film).

"A breathless, swaggering hour of female endurance and defiance” ★ ★ ★ ★

The Telegraph

Build A Rocket

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  • Arts Council England
  • Community Foundation
  • European Regional Development Fund
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