F**ked Up Bedtime Stories (for Adults)

Written by Sonya Kelly

Read by Justine Mitchell

Directed by Richard Twyman, with sound design and composition by Xana.

The theme tune was composed by Max Pappenheim.

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and is recommended for people aged 16+

Tim downed his Don Perignon, and headed for the lift, out of the life he’d been living, and into the unknown.

His future was in the wasteland.

Tim leads a sad little life, working in a sad little office. But that's all about to change. Tim is dreaming big now - about to make his mark on the world, and on the future. All he has to do, is go out there and tame the wastelands...

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Written by Kwame Owusu

Read by Jamael Westman

Directed by Jennifer Bakst, with sound design and composition by Helen Atkinson.

The theme tune was composed by Max Pappenheim.

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and is recommended for people aged 16+

The world's on fire. Temperatures rising. Costs rising. Cruelty rising. We've had enough.

When Jeremiah is captured at a protest, he finds himself transported to The Factory, where nightmares beyond his wildest dreams lie in wait...

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Written by Yasmin Joseph

Read by Tamara Lawrance

Directed by Jennifer Bakst, with sound design and composition by Xana.

The theme tune was composed by Max Pappenheim.

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and is recommended for people aged 16+

You carry the wound. I'm so sorry. But you carry the wound. Lots of us do.

Sasha has just moved into her new home. Finally. Her own yard. What could go wrong? But just when she thinks she's on her own, she catches something moving in the mirror...

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Written by Chris Bush

Read by Sophie Melville

Directed by Jennifer Bakst, with sound design by Helen Atkinson.

The theme tune was composed by Max Pappenheim.

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and is recommended for people aged 16+

This refusal to be contained meant my people remained boundless – in geography and in imagination. A great-great-uncle on my mother’s side grew tired of the constraints of gravity, and opted to live amongst the clouds instead, where there are fewer walls and arguments. Not to be outdone, his sister began to proselytise against the tyranny of three dimensions, and through a combination of early morning breathing exercises and fish oil supplements managed to access a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, and at that point lost count, because numbers no longer understood her. 

The story of a giant - a vast, happy, enormous giant. But when a cataclysmic event changes the world and means everyone has to stay indoors for a while - even giants - something begins to change, things become tighter, smaller, and nobody knows if things will ever quite be the same... Can we ever feel as big and as free as we did before?

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Written by Francis Turnly

Read by David Harewood

Directed by Jennifer Bakst, with sound design and composition by Helen Skiera.

The theme tune was composed by Max Pappenheim.

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and is recommended for people aged 16+

Britain is full. Offshoring is the most practical and humane way for Britain to protect its borders. And I’m proud to have voted this policy through.

Home Secretary Robinson is proud to protect Britain's borders. But when he unexpectedly finds himself stranded on a distant shore with no way home, he begins to reconsider his beliefs - while facing stranger and stranger encounters in this strange land...

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Strange stories for stranger times. With the contemporary world being the troubled, complicated, messy place it is – difficult enough for us to wrap our conscious minds around – we want to interrogate the ugly underbelly of what haunts our unconscious minds.

F**ked Up Bedtime Stories (for Adults) consists of 7 stories from 7 writers, read by leading actors and put out as a podcast and listened to by audiences right before bedtime, all exorcising different and unique horrors from our world and from our lives.

Commissioned and Produced by ETT

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Heathstead

by Simon Stephens

Read by Stephen Mangan

Directed by Richard Twyman, with sound design and composition by Helen Skiera.

The theme tune was composed by Max Pappenheim.

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and is recommended for people aged 16+

I want to go home.

I’m sorry.

I want to go home.

I’m so sorry.

I want to go home.

I know.

A man wakes up in a world like his, but different. A world that's... shifted, somehow. A world without windows, without colour, without children. Desperately, he tries to unravel what's happened, and find his way home...

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"Listen only to my voice. Listen to the sound it makes. Concentrate on the next word: NUMB"

It's been a stressful time. You want to unwind. That's understandable. You want to escape. You deserve it. To lose yourself... Dissolve.. Disintegrate... Break down. Don't be scared. Just focus on the voice. The voice is the only thing you can hear. The voice is your whole world. Don't be scared... 

Amy Jephta's Breathe - An Audio Journey is an audio experience unlike any you've encountered before. So sit back, relax, and let us take you down the dark alleyways of your mind.

Written by Amy Jephta

Read by Amber James

Directed by Jennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and explicit descriptions of disordered sleep and sleep paralysis.

For more information please visit: https://ett.org.uk/watch-and-listen/fked-up-bedtime-stories-for-adults-episode-7-breathe-an-audio-journey-by-amy-jephta/

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"This wasn’t the life Mr and Mrs Olanrewaju conjured up in their dreams. When they thought of Stratford, they pictured the Olympic Park, not a cramped flat in a rat-ridden tower block"

Rotimi is born to loving, if poor, parents. When they see an opportunity to provide him with all the things they never had, they take it - at which point things take a very dark turn indeed. Part horror, part satire, Dipo Baruwa-Etti's Then I Heard a Black Man Cry is a terrifying new fairy tale for a disturbed age. 

Written by Dipo Baruwa-Etti

Read by Paapa Essiedu

Directed by Jennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains strong, offensive language including use of the n-word as well as violent imagery, gun violence, and references to multiple forms of trauma and abuse, including self abuse, racism and exploitation

Dipo Baruwa-Etti is a playwright, poet, and filmmaker. Currently Channel 4 playwright on attachment at Almeida Theatre, his forthcoming play AN UNFINISHED MAN will premiere at The Yard Theatre, published by Faber & Faber. For screen, he is developing several TV projects and a short film as writer-director with BBC Drama and BFI.

Paapa Essiedu’s theatre credits include Pass Over (Kiln Theatre),TheConvert (Young Vic),Pinter One(Harold Pinter Theatre),Hamlet, King Lear(RSC, Kennedy Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York - Ian Charleson and UK Theatre Award winner for Best Actor), Racing Demon (Theatre Royal Bath), The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Mouse and his Child (RSC), You For Me For You(Royal Court Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Tobacco Factory), King Lear (National Theatre), Black Jesus (Finborough Theatre), Outside on the Street (Pleasance Theatre), and Dutchman (Orange Tree Theatre). For television, his work includes I May Destroy You, Gangs of London,Press, The Miniaturist, Black Earth Rising, Revolting, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kiri,Not Safe for Work and Utopia; and for film, Murder on the Orient Express and Women at the Well (Screen International Star of Tomorrow 2017).

Creative Associate at English Touring Theatre Jennifer Bakst is a director and dramaturg. She was previously New Work Associate at Kiln Theatre. Her theatre credits as a director include Dear Future Generation(Kiln Theatre Young Company), Armstrong’s War (Finborough Theatre) and theatre work with young prisoners for the Synergy Theatre Project. Her credits as an associate director include Handbagged (Kiln Theatre/59E59 New York) and The Great Wave(National Theatre)

Max Pappenheim's theatre includes The Night of the Iguana (West End); The Way of the World (Donmar); The Children (Royal Court/Broadway); Waiting for Godot (Sheffield Crucible); Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre); Dry Powder, Sex with Strangers, Labyrinth (Hampstead); Ophelias Zimmer (Schaubühne, Berlin/Royal Court); Crooked Dances (Royal Shakespeare Company); One Night in Miami (Nottingham Playhouse); Hogarth’s Progress (Rose Theatre Kingston); The Ridiculous Darkness (Gate Theatre); The Gaul (Hull Truck); A Kettle of Fish(Yard Theatre); CommonWealth (Almeida); Creve Coeur (Print Room); Switzerland, Spamalot, The Glass Menagerie (English Theatre of Frankfurt); Mrs Lowry and Son(Trafalgar Studios); My Cousin Rachel, The Habit of Art, Monogamy, Teddy, Toast, Fabric, Invincible (National Tours). Opera includes Miranda (Opéra Comique, Paris); Scraww (Trebah Gardens); Vixen (Vaults/International Tour); Carmen: Remastered (ROH/Barbican). Radio includes Home Front (BBC Radio 4). Associate Artist of The Faction and Silent Opera.

ETT tour theatre across the UK and internationally, collaborating with visionary artists to create engaging and imaginative work which interrogates and celebrates contemporary England and reflects the diversity of our nation. ETT won the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015, 2016 and Best Play Revival in 2019.

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"He sits in the middle of her room, dizzy and weirded out. He stares at her. Neither of them knows what to do with the other. This goes on for a number of days until the man’s mother takes action. She decides to love him."

This is a story about a dog. It is also a story about love, and abandonment, and hope. About anger, and bitterness, and whether the fish are coming back. About guilt and shame and pride. But mostly, it is a story about a dog. 

Vivienne Franzmann's beautiful and haunting The Man, the Man's Mother, and the Dog is a return to classic fireside storytelling. Plug in and immerse yourself in the dark magic of this story of a dog's life. Don't worry. The dog lives.

Written by Vivienne Franzmann

Read by Amber James

Directed by Jennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains violent imagery and some upsetting scenes.

For more information please visit: https://ett.org.uk/watch-and-listen/fked-up-bedtime-stories-for-adults-episode-5the-man-the-mans-mother-and-the-dog-and-the-uninspired-title-yeah-sorry-about-that-by-vivienne-franzmann/

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“Don’t panic, it’s not real. Don’t move, it’s can’t hurt you. You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to, it’s your dream, you can go anywhere."

Vee suffers from sleep paralysis. No big deal right? Loads of people do. Except, nothing is quite as it seems - and with the barriers between worlds becoming more and more porous in these troubled times, things start creeping through that shouldn't be here. Hungry things. Join Vee as she has a chat with her very own demon in Matilda Ibini's comic yet terrifying Don't Panic. Don't Move. Don't Stay.

Written by Matilda Ibini

Read by Paapa Essiedu

Directed by Jennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains disturbing scenes and explicit descriptions of disordered sleep and sleep paralysis.

For more information please visit: https://ett.org.uk/watch-and-listen/fked-up-bedtime-stories-for-adults-episode-4-dont-panic-dont-move-by-matilda-ibini/

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"You'll never be a grown up if you can't face the dark, it said. Be brave. Be brave"

When his marriage fails to survive the lockdown, a man moves into his Mother's empty house. It's too big for one person - a strange and unsettling place to isolate in. But something far stranger - and infinitely more terrifying - is about to occur. Anthony Neilson's The Ground Floor takes you on a classic journey of poetry and terror: eerie, haunting, beautiful, and straight out of the uncanny valley. 

Written by Anthony Neilson

Read by Paapa Essiedu

Directed by Jennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains scenes some people may find disturbing

For more information please visit: https://ett.org.uk/watch-and-listen/fked-up-bedtime-stories-for-adults-episode-3-the-ground-floor-by-anthony-neilson/

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"The story begins The Day The World Stood Still. Do you remember that day? The day time stopped"

Maggie is a magpie of a person - she loves pretty her some pretty thangs. She loves admiring pretty thangs, collecting pretty thangs... When lockdown begins, Maggie decides to buy a sewing machine, determined to surround herself with beautiful clothes, made by her very own hand. She and the machine start a perfect relationship together. But pretty soon, the machine begins consuming more than just fabric... A rollercoaster of a piece - fall down the rabbit hole with AJ Yi's darkly comic folk tale for a new age.

Written by AJ Yi

Read by Amber James

Directed by Jennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim

CONTENT WARNING - this audio drama contains references to mental health, descriptions of blood and strong language.

For more information please visit: https://ett.org.uk/watch-and-listen/fked-up-bedtime-stories-for-adults-episode-2-the-machine-by-alissa-anne-jeun-yi/

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"The government had been looking for an angle, they said. These things would become symbols of hope. Ninety of them. From Plymouth to Carlisle."

This is not a heartwarming story about a sweet old lady. This is not a story about heroes, and martyrs, and knights of the realm. This is a story about the true meaning of dedication. A sharp satire bursting with dark humour cutting insight - Tim Crouch's Milky Drinks is an unsettling story for unsettling times.

Written by Tim Crouch

Read by Amber James

Directed by Jennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim

CONTENT WARNING - This audio drama contains some upsetting scenes and deals with COVID-19 and death of the elderly.

For more information please visit https://ett.org.uk/watch-and-listen/fked-up-bedtime-stories-for-adults-episode-1-milky-drinks-by-tim-crouch/

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F**ked Up Bedtime Stories (for adults)features seven short stories written by Alissa Anne Jeun Yi, Dipo Baruwa-Etti, Tim Crouch, Vivienne Franzmann, Matilda Ibini, Amy Jephta and Anthony Neilson.We asked these 7 brilliant and provocative writers to tackle the strangeness of our nighttime imaginings and twist the familiar form of bedtime stories into something uncanny, dark and surreal.

Read by Paapa Essieduand Amber James

Directed byJennifer Bakst

Sound, Music and Editing by Max Pappenheim.

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