Bindweed

'Thursdays, curry night. Curry and a pint for a fiver. Go at five thirty, home by ten. Beat my mum up for a while. Bed by ten thirty.'

Four men convicted of domestic abuse offences meet each week to undergo a perpetrator programme. But as Jen, the new group facilitator, starts to make progress with the men inside the room, life outside begins to buckle.

A shattering and darkly funny play about responsibility and rehabilitation, Martha Loader's Bindweed looks at what can be done to tackle abuse at its root.

The play was the winner of the Judges' Award at the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, and was first performed at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, in 2024, in a co-production with HighTide and the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and in association with the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.



Martha Loader is a playwright, actor, producer, Mercury Playwright Alumni and an Associate Artist of the New Wolsey Theatre.



'Sharp and shocking... Bindweed confronts the pervasiveness of violence against women and the task of curbing it... Loader's assured script finds the men's humanity in ways that complicate and deepen but never absolve them'



'A brave, sensitive study of men who commit domestic violence against women... it holds us rapt... Loader squeezes drops of humanity and humour from each of her characters and, without suggesting there are quick fixes, allows glimmers of redemption to shine through'



'Outstanding... an extraordinary, visceral experience'



'A terrific script... intelligent and intensely moving... genuinely brilliant'



'Daring... approaches a challenging subject matter with aplomb... playwright Martha Loader has found the magic formula'