‘There was a fork in her face. An actual fork. He dug a fork into her face. A fork stood on end in her cheek. A fork.’
The smallest tremble. A smashed glass. The ripping apart of space and time.
Three couples. Thirty years. Mothers and daughters. Lovers, partners, husbands and wives. Babies, teenagers, birthdays, holidays, honeymoons, fireworks, near-misses, rain. This is a play about all of it.
A devastating and delicately woven piece about violence, love and loss, Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s Shed: Exploded View won the 2019 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. Partly inspired by Cornelia Parker’s stunning artwork Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, it was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2024, directed by Atri Banerjee.
‘A gritty and intensely moving account of domestic violence… it is honest, and raw, and left me in bits’
— Telegraph
‘A formally ambitious exploration of love and violence… Shed: Exploded View shatters and reassembles time, leaving us to pick through the wreckage… Eclair-Powell holds individual moments up to the light, inviting us to see the darkness thrown by seemingly trivial incidents… quietly devastating’
— The Stage
‘Love, loss and horrific male violence… a play that is as subtle as it is unsettling’
— Guardian
‘A bracing confrontation with the doom loop society seems locked in… Incisive about the relationships domestic abuse destroys, and women’s attempts to shield each other from it’
— WhatsOnStage
‘A commanding exploration into the complexities of relationships, facing hard truths, and devastating moments of violence… heartbreaking and gut wrenching’
— Reviews Hub
‘An intriguing and fascinating play with a moving, tragic story at the heart of it’
— British Theatre Guide
‘An absolutely wonderful play… a searing examination of the cyclical nature of violence and the ways in which it permeates language and societal norms… Eclair-Powell’s writing is sharp and incisive, unafraid to tackle difficult subject matter with honesty and nuance… just breathtaking… one hell of an experience’
— I Love Manchester
Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
