A tender and funny play about growing up in Romford in the shadow of Canary Wharf.
1995. Big buildings are rising in London's Docklands. But marooned miles to the east, half-in and half-out of the city, Romford has not been invited to the party. Confused about its identity, the inhabitants of the 'only town in London with its own ring road' are trying to cope. The relationships they forge have painful implications, in this poetic and passionate play that explores growing up, identity and loss.
Ben Musgrave's play Pretend You Have Big Buildings won the 2005 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2007. This revised version of the play was published as an ebook in 2025, with an introduction by the author, and is available in the collection Bruntwood at 20: Five Plays from the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.
'An exceptional play... original, sophisticated, intelligent... and highly entertaining' Brenda Blethyn, Bruntwood Playwriting Competition panel of judges
