I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won't Die (Plays for Young People)

Product Information

I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won't Die is a beautiful and deeply touching tribute to a much-loved boy. Dan is cool, clever and smart. A talented, creative and “lovely boy” with a passion for helping others who’s always on the side of the underdog. Everyone loves Dan and at 16, he has plans, plenty of them - just losing his life isn’t one of them. This DVD shows the original 2016 OYT production of I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die as premiered at the Brit School, directed by author, Mark Wheeller. Neither play text nor production overplays the drama. It’s all there in the controlled, understated performances and the poignancy of the filmed interviews. Dan was the younger son of Fiona and Tim Spargo-Mabbs, living with them and his older brother Jacob in Croydon, South London. He was in Year 12 of Archbishop Tenison CE High School in Croydon, which he’d attended since Year 7. Dan was bright, articulate, funny, chatty, popular and talented; a big, engaging, much loved character as illustrated by him being voted Prom King at the end of year 11 by an overwhelming majority. He was embedded in his school community – playing in the band for the school show just before Christmas in year 12 – as well as his local and church communities, running errands for the elderly people to whom he delivered on his daily paper round, and involved in youth work at the church he attended with his family. He had a real social conscience, having recently signed up to the bone marrow donor register and becoming a member of Amnesty International.

Broadway World “ I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won't Die is a beautiful and deeply touching tribute to a much-loved boy”We’re delighted that you are studying the play that tells Dan’s story. Thank you for buying directly from DSMF – due to our publisher’s discount this will generate a small donation to our drug education work This is such an exciting development for us as a drug education charity, and also as Dan’s mum and dad. We commissioned Mark Wheeller to turn Dan’s story into a play as part of our passionate commitment when Dan died to prevent any harm happening to anyone else’s family from drugs. This first tour to theatres is taking the play to a whole new audience outside schools, where it’s been touring for the last few years. We really hope this will mean families will come together and have conversations at home that help other teenagers keep themselves safe - but it’s also a beautiful play and a fantastic production, creating an opportunity for anyone who loves great theatre to experience it, and to get to know our Dan.” The filmed version of ‘I Love You, Mum..’ aired on the Edinburgh Fringe Player in 2021 and received critical acclaim:

This DVD shows the original 2016 OYT production as premiered at the Brit School, directed by author, Mark Wheeller. Two months after he died, the DSM Foundation commissioned playwright Mark Wheeller to write a verbatim play about what happened to Dan. Published in 2017, the play has been studied, taught and performed worldwide with the play having a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018. This new high-quality digital production has been filmed by Yorkshire-based Tie It Up Theatre to translate the live performance to screen.

I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die by prolific playwright Mark Wheeller is the story of Dan, a popular South London schoolboy, who took ecstasy at an illegal rave and tragically died as a result of taking a lethal dose. This fast-paced, powerful and emotionally-charged play, tells the true story of what happened to Dan, the choices he made and the impact on his family and friends – all told in their own words, from tragedy to redemption. An important and often overlooked route into the industry, especially for many non-performing roles. Susan Elkin has some suggestions. Theatre is like an iceberg. For every role on stage there are probably at least half a dozen technicians you can’t see. And the industry has been telling us for decades that there are skills shortages […] School Shows

For anyone who recalls the 1990’s story of Leah Betts and the frankly devastating photograph of her splashed all over the newspaper Daniel is sadly the 21st century reminder that drugs still destroy lives and as members of society we still need to drum home the message but this time it isn’t with a headline life support photograph it’s in the form of this wonderful play – get it into your local community now!Dan is cool, clever and smart. A talented, creative “lovely boy” with a passion for helping others who’s always on the side of the underdog. Everyone loves Dan and at 16, he has plans, plenty of them - just losing his life isn't one of them. The tour is being supported by drug education charity The Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation. Commenting on the play and support for the tour, the Director & Founder – and Dan’s mum - Fiona Spargo-Mabbs OBE, said: For ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’, Mark used verbatim theatre to take the actual words of Dan’s family and friends, recorded in a series of interviews, which were painstakingly transcribed and then turned into the script of this two-act play. He took eighteen months developing the script and performance with Oasis Youth Theatre, based in Southampton. Through his incredible skill, and the huge talent and commitment of the young people and team of Oasis Youth Theatre, these raw words were transformed into a stunning performance that brought the audience to tears at each of its performances. In January 2014 16-year-old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs went to an illicit all-night rave, overdosed on ecstasy and died. Daniel was intelligent, funny, given to moments of wild clowning, but essentially serious, a member of Amnesty International and devoted to other charitable work. A hugely popular figure, he was not the sort of boy you expect this to happen to.

At the beginning of the film, Dan's parents Fiona and Tim Spargo-Mabbs fondly describe their son. They talk about how funny he was, how kind and how desperately missed he is. The film then switches to a stage where a cast of four perform the words of Dan's friends as they recount what happened.Elliot Montgomery’s production for Octopus Dream Theatre is powerful, poignant and intensely moving, from the boisterous roistering of the early stages to a quiet stillness that overwhelms the audience. The play is topped and tailed by filmed interviews with Dan’s mother and father and his girlfriend Jenna, communicating the love he inspired. Then the first half consists of wild dancing separating out the verbatim interviews with Mark Wheeller. David Chafer (Mark) is perfectly hesitant as he explores Dan’s life from Year 7 onwards with his friends. I’d had a conversation specifically with Dan about ecstasy. It’s one of the things you do as a parent, isn’t it? Wear your helmet when you’re out on your bike, you know, don’t take drugs. To be honest, I was more worried about him being safe on his bike than at a party with his friends. It’s absolutely amazing, and more than we could ever have imagined when we started working as hard as we could to try to prevent anyone else’s child come to harm from drugs. So many more teenagers will get to experience this play with its important messages of choice and risk, of friendship, love, loss, forgiveness. And come to feel they know Dan, and to care about him and what happened to him, because that’s what the play seems to do.