Hope’s labour is unusual and uneggspected. Happily, nothing fazes Joy, the hospital cleaner, who helps Hope escape.

When Joy is sacked from her job, she moves in with Hope and her swan-boy son, Magnus. Their lives collide in chaos, Hope is learning to love, Magnus is learning to fly, and Joy is in an unhelpful relationship with a goldfish. Can they survive this shifting world?

A deeply original play that explores love and loss in a changing environment, using bold visuals and strong physical elements to imagine a Scotland in a time much like ours, but not quite.

Ellie Stewart @EllieMStewart won the Progressive Playwright Award for Hope and Joy in 2016. Her play The Return toured in 2018 to great critical acclaim.

“… the story is told in a glorious, beautifully-balanced combination of strong, spare dialogue, eloquent movement, and haunting Languedoc song …” The Return, Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

Caitlin Skinner @caitskin  is Director with and co-founder of Pearlfisher, Director with Jordan & Skinner, and Associate Director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. She has directed numerous award-winning productions including Sanitise and Woke. Stellar Quines recently supported Caitlin and the Scottish Drama Training Network with their Network Fringe production Propeller, which launched our Letters To…. prorgramme. In 2017 we presented a special celebration for International Day of the Girl with Village Pub Theatre, supporting Caitlin in her then role as Artistic Director.

We’re proud to present an all female creative team that includes Susan Bear, Sound Design, Emma Jones Lighting Design (Stellar Quines Productions include The Lover and Fibres), and Becky Minto, Set Design & Costume (Stellar Quines productions include Bingo! and The 306: Day).

Stellar Quines are delighted to be presenting Hope and Joy with Pearlfisher @PearlfisherScot. Pearlfisher is a new style of theatre company – for Scotland and beyond – which allies the development and production of new work to a radical approach to growing talent. It was
founded by Philip Howard, Mike Griffiths and Caitlin Skinner. This is their first production.

Image credit: Roger Culos