Logline
Adam thinks he has invented a football betting system that will always win in the long run, but his extremely competitive best friend cautions him on investing so much money when he should be investing more time in his brooding girlfriend.
Five sentence synopsis
Adam is a happy-go-lucky 20-something living on a shoestring budget in rented accommodation with his girlfriend, Tanya, who yearns to be pregnant. Adam’s best friend, the eternally-single Dean, provides a cynical flipside to Adam’s enthusiastic outlook and his presence regularly creates an uncomfortable trio in Tanya’s eyes. When a drunken Adam believes in a moment of clarity to have devised a football betting system that will always result in a profit, Dean berates his foolishness, yet never leaves his side. As Adam gets further and further into debt as his bets repeatedly fail to pay out, his relationships with Tanya and Dean become strained, inadvertently pushing the two of them closer together. With his “genius system” poised on a cliffhanger at the final game of the season, Adam, pushed to the brink by medication and desperation, finds himself in the sort of situation his former carefree self could never have imagined he’d end up in.
Additional details,
Theatrical play, Drama, 70 pages, reasonably basic stage set up (mostly chairs and the odd wall / partition).
Why I’m qualified to write this
For many years of my life as a would-be writer with an addictive personality I had zero interest in gambling. Then one day I decided to take it on and try and beat the system. I failed, but I didn’t lose much money, only time and pride. However, I did get a play out of it.
Ten reasons why this could be a success
1. Young people are featured in this play and this country we worship young people to the point of deification.
2. Gambling and it’s addiction is a huge concern in the UK right now and this play highlights just how futile and destructive it can be.
3. Everybody loves an unexpected ending – no one will see this one coming.
4. The character of the Bookmaker brings a surreal touch to the action (and realistically, how long will it be before the Internet is represented in human form?!)
5. The story structure follows a similar theme to La Boheme, and that sold rather well.
6. Booze, drugs, sex are present in varying quantities, but never over-indulged.
7. The character of The Spare offers someone ample opportunity to extend themselves and demonstrate serious versatility in their acting.
8. Anyone who’s ever had to look in difficult places to find the money for the rent will be able to identify with the plights of these characters, and that’s quite a few of us once upon a time.
9. Genders and ages may be for the most part defined, but any ethnicity works with this story.
10. Features love. That’s always good. Right?