Writer David Shopland talks upcoming play ‘Cul-de-Sac’: “I see a lot of people who fell into lives that don’t feel like they were made for them”

London’s Omnibus Theatre hosts the world premiere of this new coming-of-age play exploring the trials and tribulations of the millennial generation. Guillermo Nazara chats with its author, to learn more about the development of a show booming with everything but zee-mple matters.

How did the idea for this play come about?

Quite differently from most of my other work, funnily enough! I’ve been writing plays and musicals for nearly 2 decades and generally I start with a concept, a plot outline, even specific characters or relationships and began the script crafting process from there. However, with Cul-de-Sac it all started when I overheard 2 people on a Victoria Line train discussing the practicalities of the street lamps on their road. It sounds like it would be a mundane concersation, and in truth, it was. What inspired me was the unintentional poetry in the rhythm of their sentences And the beauty of their descriptions. It made me excited about how ‘ordinary’ dialogue might have the power to tell great stories, and so I rushed home that same day and wrote down as much as I could remember. From there, the script organically grew into the full play that exists today.

The show is finally arriving to the stage after approximately 7 years in the making. What has made of this piece such a lengthy process?

Unfortunately it’s not the most exciting answer, but it is the honest one: money. The sad truth is that it is becoming harder and harder in our current financial landscape, coming out of nearly 15 years of debilitating arts cuts, to put work on that would be considered large scale. One of the really difficult things about existing as a professional fringe theatre company, that is neither commercial nor a charity, is that funding is incredibly scarce. 99% of trusts and foundations will only fund theatre made by companies who are registered charities, and commercial investors rarely invest money into smaller scale Off-West End or Fringe work. This means you are wholly reliant on the Arts Council as a means to see your work realised in a professional way, where everyone is paid fairly. It took 7 years not only to raise the money, but for me to gain the necessary experience as a producer to raise the sufficient funds needed to bring the production to the public. Also, creatively I wasn’t sure there was a market for this kind of play. I was worried there was something somewhat ‘old fashioned’ about a naturalistic 5 person comedy drama in a world of experimental solo theatre (much of which I adore and continue to make myself). Then last year I saw Beth Steel’s masterpiece Till The Stars Come Down, and it made me believe there is an audience for theatre like this. Thankfully, the uphill climb has been more than worth it to finally be able to share this play with London audiences, and hopefully beyond in the future!

What creative challenges have you found during its development?

This has been a very different way of working for me as a writer. Without storyboard or narrative arc ideas in place, writing the first draft was very much an exercise in ‘flying blind’. I had no idea where the story was going to go or how many characters would appear in it, or what their relationships would be. The hardest thing was perhaps not knowing exactly ‘why’ I wrote it until I’d finished. It’s probably the most personal thing I’ve ever written – and, therefore, the hardest. Finding myself through the fog to the crux of the story, I wanted to tell was an arduous journey, but also the most rewarding.

A play about the broken millennial suburban experience. Is the show intended to be a comment on this generation?

It’s funny, one of the most common pieces of advice given to writers is “write about what you know”. I’ve spent about 18 years running as far from that notion as possible! Some of my previous work has included a 19^th century Scandinavian-set drawing room drama, an homage to 1930s American Film Noir, and an intense family 2 hander centring on the Troubles in Northern Ireland set on the day of the Good Friday agreement – when I was about 9 years old! I think in truth I spent a long time running away from introspection, but as I rapidly approach my fourth decade myself, this play felt like the right time to sit with what it means being a Millennial in 2025.

The title alludes to an aimless path. In which way does that concept translate to the narrative?

Well spotted! Indeed there are two main definitions for the term ‘Cul-de-Sac’; the well known name for a dead end suburban street, but also ‘any situation in which further progress is impossible’. Whilst the play is indeed set on the former definition, I think each of the five characters you meet over the course of one evening all eventually show themselves to be very much grappling with that second definition in their own lives. With people in my age group, I see a lot of people who fell into lives that don’t feel like they were made for them, but have embedded themselves in these lives so much that it feels like there’s no way through. I wanted to spend an evening with people like this, and see how their respective impasses may be the thing that another person needs to move to boulder out of their path.

The show is also described as “peeling back the layers of Millennial civility with unflinching honesty.” In which way will we see that sincerity in the script?

The people in Cul-de-Sac are very much fictionalised extensions of me, my friends, people I used to know, and people I’d like to know again. So much of their dialogue has come from real conversations over the years; listening to those of my generation, that I hope it exudes sincerity without necessarily trying. In terms of themes within the script that don’t come from my own firsthand lived experience, I have worked with the ridiculously talented Roann Hassani McCloskey as a dramaturg, who has been able to add authenticity and provocation; speaking from direct experience on what it means to be a woman, to be queer, to be from an Arabic background, and generally helping ensure the sincerity of the script; keeps me honest and accountable.

What other themes have you tried to explore through the plot?

Cul-de-Sac is set over the course of one night, in near real time. It is a play that is largely built around conversation, in the same vein as Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage or Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party. Therefore, it tackles many different themes, such as mortality, religion, grief, infidelity, islamophobia, class, gentrification, depression, and much more. It is also (hopefully) very funny too!

What makes this piece stand out from others exploring a similar subject?

That’s a good question… I think one of the driving factors behind my desire to get this play produced is the seeming decline in new State-Of-The-Nation Family dramadies like the ones I mentioned before, or Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Again, I think because the economics of producing plays is so hard, the predominence of one and two person plays has grown exponentially, especially on the fringe. So I think even simply having a play with a cast of 5, that runs over 2 acts across 2.5 hours, is quite an unusual offer outside of the West End or big regional theatres. Beyond that, I’d like to think that I’m offering something new to the cultural conversation of what it means to be ‘Millennial’.

Why come see Cul-de-Sac?

Come if you want to laugh. Come if you want to think. Come if you want to argue with friends and family afterwards. And especially come if you want to do all three! I’d also like to give a shout out to my unbelievably talented cast; Shereen Roushbaiani, Ellis J. Wells, Lucy Farrett, Callum Patrick Hughes and Behkam Salehani are five of the most exciting, dynamic performers working in British theatre today, and I can’t wait for everyone to experience how they breathe life into this script!

Cul-de-Sac will play at London’s Omnibus Theatre from 27 May to 14 June. Tickets are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara