Alex river Clarke

Developed on the DYSPLA writing residency. First screened as part of the Earl's Court Film Festival​ in London.

 

C.L.A.W. delves into the pleasure gap using real women's words and lives to explore why most women don't experience sexual pleasure in the same way as men, yet are often under pressure to, and how this affects them.

 

Inspired by the research by Andrejek N, Fetner T, Heath M. Climax as Work: Heteronormativity, Gender Labor, and the Gender Gap in Orgasms.  Epub 2022 Jan 31. PMID: 35185280; PMCID: PMC8847982. 

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Created: Alex River Clarke

Directed: Lennie Varvarides

Film & Edit: Kazimir Bielecki

Physical Performance: Alicia Radage

VO: Daisy May Parsons 

VO: Kevin Layne

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6-part TV comedy series.

Developed as part of The BBC's Northern Voices.

 

Poverty-stricken Roberta lives with her con-artist mother, Angel, in the family car. Sick of being her mother's shill and fearing becoming her mother in the future, she decides to break free in the only way she knows how - by becoming a drag king. Totally reinventing herself comes easy, after all, a con woman raised her. But Angel, fearing she might lose her grip on her daughter, drags her into 'the biggest con in the world' and Roberta finds herself the ultimate sucker.
 

Production company: Warp Films.

BBC Radio 4 Drama

Winner of the BBC's Alfred Bradley Award.

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The Byrnes family face a sudden tragedy, throwing open the doors to the traumatic grief of their past. Blinded by the past pain, they are likely to repeat old patterns of behaviour unless they can recall their historical values.

 

Directed by Nadia Molinari

MARY ..... Michelle Fairley

SIOBHAN ..... Lucy Gaskell

ORLA ..... Sade Malone

GEMMA ..... Sacha Parkinson

FATHER ROBIN .... Joseph Alessi

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Produced by BBC Radio North.

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6-part magical realist coming-of-age mini-series. 

Winner of the Channel 4 and New Writing North TV Drama Writing Award.

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Grace is a maladaptive daydreamer. She has created a whole wonderland called The Below, where she spends her days with her imaginary friend Blod. No real school, no real friends, no real life. Until her family relocate across the country into a tower block, and she meets Shelley. Now Grace wants to be part of the real world. Only to discover that her family is not as loving as she thought. Below is a hiding place, Blod her only chance at surviving.
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Development commissioner: Lee Mason, Channel 4  
Production Company: Bonafide Films

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6 part TV drama series set in a women's refuge.

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Lizzie runs a halfway house for women escaping chaotic lives. When one of the women's exs seemingly attempts to abduct his own daughter, Lizzie takes matters into her own hands, uncovering police corruption involving her own estranged family, the Maloneys. Now she has her criminal family to deal with, and the police, pulling her back into a world she desperately wanted to escape. 

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Development commissioner: Jo McClellan, BBC

Production company: Dancing Ledge Productions.

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TV adaptation of Charlotte Amelia Poe's memoir.
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Charlotte's journey through high school is far from simple. Fandom, music, and art fill her life with joy as she navigates the difficulties of being neurodivergent in a neurotypical world. Intelligent, honest, and able to see the absurdity of life, Charlotte develops friendships with people who need her directness and authenticity. When the tables turn, those she once helped rally to support her and offer what she needs most: unconditional love.  

​BFI NETWORK Young Audience Content Fund.
Production company: Adapted Pictures

 

Six-part TV series.

Longlisted for the Thousand Films Writing Competition.
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After being cancelled from her own daytime TV show, Bella is lost. She tries apologising, grovelling, and bribing, but her career is over. She hits the bottle and her much younger boyfriend, and she is quickly becoming everything she hates. Her life descends into chaos, addiction, and resentment until her agent shows up with an offer too good to refuse, but all that glitters is not gold. The cancellation mob up their hate campaign, and this time, Bella decides to fight fire with fire, but with the odds stacked against her and fake friends working behind the scenes to take her down, she may have taken on a fight she can't win.

 

Stage play (magical realist comedy)
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Owlpie and Beetletrousers are sisters bound together by a difficult childhood. As adults, they live a life of barely functioning drug dependence, haunted by the children they once were. After their disability benefits are stopped, the sisters don't see a way of coping in the real world and embark on their final grand journey to find their mother, who drowned when they were only girls. The problem is that neither sister can swim, and only one of them wants to. Perhaps the Midnight Berries can keep them afloat?

Director: Roni Ellis
​Staged: Salford Arts Theatre as part of their new writing festival celebrating playwright Shelagh Delaney. 

 

Stage play (magical realism)

​Longlisted for the Old Vic 12 (2019)

 

​Bess is a teenage runaway - frightened and hungry, she makes her home beneath an abandoned railway bridge in East Manchester. Her only friend is Our Lady of the Moss, a face in the stone walls of the bridge who soon knows all her secrets. Until one night, "The Goats" arrive and destroy her efforts for safety. As they trip-trap-trip-trap over her bridge, she must decide whether to flee or fight. When neither option works, Our Lady of the Moss takes matters into her own hands. 

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Stage play (black comedy)
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Desire for fame is a drug; becoming famous is a near-fatal overdose. Salford-born Eileen left England for Hollywood in the 50s looking for fame and fortune and found it. Seven movies, six marriages, and three hit TV sitcoms later, she's seen it all. But has not worked for decades. She needs it back and has sought her heyday like a pig after truffles ever since. A diagnosis of early-stage dementia brings Eileen to a crossroads: return to Salford to make amends with the family she left behind or try for one last big hit, a live-streamed 'Deathday Party' for her remaining fans and the ghoulish. She wants to go out the way she came in - singing and dancing. It's left to her long-suffering PA to change her mind, and failing that, sabotage her efforts.

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Staged: The Park Theatre, London. (As part of the 2012 women's writing event)

Company: the salon:collective

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Stage play (comedy)​

Winner: 24/7 theatre's 'next big idea' competition 2012.

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​Siblings JD and Devon are under orders when their mum, Queenie, is at work; if the bailiffs knock, 'swallow your gold and hide letters from the dole'. They don't think the day will arrive; they're too busy wondering who the flag-waving young men are who have arrived on the estate. Why is everyone so angry all of a sudden? JD tries to avoid the politics, whereas Devon develops a crush on the principled, smooth-talking flag-waver. Distracted, when the fateful bailiff day arrives, Devon chokes on her pinkie finger gold ring. Revived by paramedics, she's a whole new girl - the second coming of Jesus, or so she says. While Queenie ferries Devon to the medical examiner and to CT scan after CT scan, her life quietly falls apart. Whereas her son JD's life is just getting louder, as the entrepreneur of the family, he decides to set up a pay-as-you-go miracle service from the kitchen. He could resolve the family's financial woes and unite the estate through Devon, or perhaps it will kick off.

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Staged:  24/7 theatre festival, Manchester and a rehearsed reading at The Cockpit Theatre, London.

Company: the salon:collective 

 

 

​Madeline grew up in a perfect family, in an ideal village. She's an average student, a faithful Catholic, an empathetic friend, and a loving daughter. Yet she is haunted by a baby crying, first at night, then during the day, soon all the time. Then come the owls, when she closes her eyes, she meets theirs - black and staring. She keeps the torment to herself. Until she finds herself arrested and interviewed by the police. Soon, what is kept in the dark comes to light, and Madeline has a choice to make: tell the truth or embrace the soft cushion of madness.

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Production company: Missfit Productions (2009)

 

 

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​Albert has recently died. He was knocked off his pushbike by rogue landlord, Simon. If he had died in any other way, he would have happily entered through the pearly gates, but Albert is a stickler for doing things right, and he just can't let it go. He needs to find a medium; the problem is that the only real one in Manchester is a young girl called Fay, and she's afraid of ghosts. Can he really convince her he's an angel? Is it right to deceive a child? When rogue landlord Simon takes over Fay's family's tenancy, he decides it is not only morally right, but also his divine calling to meddle, causing untold trouble for the living and the dead.​​

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Runner up in Commonword's (2008) New Northern Novelist Competition.