Cassie and the Lights

'I needed to be better... and summat needed to change – to keep them safe. To fix my family.'

When her mother disappears, teenager Cassie wants to care for her sisters on her own. But can kids be parents? Or should Cassie let foster parents adopt her sisters and create a new family?

Alex Howarth's play Cassie and the Lights is a tender and playful examination of what makes a family and what holds it together. Based on real-life events and interviews with children in care, it celebrates the resilience of young people and the power of sisterhood.

The play has been performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, VAULT Festival in London, 59E59 in New York City and Adelaide Fringe Festival in Australia. It toured the UK in 2024, produced by Patch of Blue and 3 hearts canvas, in association with Southwark Playhouse and Verse Unbound.



Alex Howarth is a theatre director and writer. Cassie and the Lights is his debut play.



'Glows in the darkness… a thoughtful, warm, moving hour that will leave you wanting to call whoever you think of as family'



'Bursts with life and quirkily observed truths'



'Unmissable... deals with trauma and heartbreak with humour and empathy... it may only be 70 minutes long, but it remains in your heart for far longer'



'Gut-wrenching... vivid... powerfully moving... moments of sparky Alan Bennett-esque humour'



'Tender and heartwrenching... Profoundly moving in its bittersweet playfulness and candid approach to the subject... scrupulously crafted... sneakily devastating under a coat of perfectly calibrated humour'



'A complex and heartbreaking story, guaranteed to bowl you over'



'Unique and distinctive... refreshingly accessible... Howarth's writing astounds at every opportunity... incredibly impressive... a vital piece of theatre which has an unrivaled ability to make you feel and your heart hurt'



'Enchanting and wonderful... Cassie and the Lights is, to put it simply, perfect theatre'



'A most unusual yet effective piece of theatre... needs to be seen... strongly recommended'



'Heartbreaking... both moving and believable... a tender, short play that explores a huge and super-sensitive subject in just over an hour with understanding and respect'



'The perfect balance of comedic and moving content with the dialogue and plot giving light and shade to an important and underrepresented topic... an impressively accessible playtext for the big topic it tackles, with gentle humour and touching sibling solidarity'



'The direct address style told in the children's Yorkshire dialect makes for a much lighter, funnier and more moving piece of theatre than you might expect. The innocence of the younger two girls juxtaposes powerfully with the reality of their situation, and we really feel for Cassie trying to keep it all together... Cassie has three chunky monologues which might also make useful audition pieces. This could be an interesting GCSE or A Level piece... It could also be used as a devising stimulus or research into children in care/verbatim theatre'