A critical essay and original play entitled ‘the canary and the piano’

This thesis contains two parts. Part A is a critical analysis of an original work. Part A explores the process employed in writing, beginning with the initial ideas and inspiration for the play through developing the characters, a theme, plotting a story and redrafting. Part A is segmented into the writing process of each of the five drafts. Part B is the original work of the play entitled The Canary and the Piano. The play is set in a new flat on the redevelopment of a former Victorian asylum in Menston, West Yorkshire. The play follows the character of Ruth, a seventeen year old, sent to do community service on a memorial garden for the hospital’s patients as a consequence for breaking into the derelict asylum. While working on the garden Ruth stays with Maud, a retired psychiatric nurse. Ruth’s visit forces Maud to face the guilt and regret with which she is plagued as her past returns to haunt her