2bacting's Spike

Online, September 4, 2009 (Newswire.com) - SPIKE is a new play inspired by the incident from the Beijing games when Georgia ousted Russia from the Olympic women's beach volleyball competition in a symbolic clash that began in good spirits but saw tensions rise over the near war between the two countries.
The play is based around two characters, Kirsty Ryan (played by Edit Petersen) and Natalie Bebo (played by Anastasia Ampatzoglou) who are the UK woman's beach volley ball team, playing in the 2012 Olympic games. They unexpectedly progress to the Semi-Finals with their winning SPIKE (Spike is a downward smash of volleyball hit close to the net and straight down into the opponent's court). The excited pair are then surprisingly told by their coach, Amanda (played by Victoria Delaney), to lose their next match.
Athletes drive to participate despite all odds is the best way of summing up the plays true message and with what will be an historic event in 2012 makes the conclusion of the play a very poignant must see piece of work.
The play's writer and director, David Jones, says, "Seeing how influential one game was made this subject an ideal backdrop for exploring some of the influences that modern day athletes face. An athletes real story is more than what we see when they compete. It's nice to show some of the backstage drama."
The play started its Yorkshire theatre tour at the end of August with excellent reviews. Next performances are at Seven Arts Space Theatre, Chapel Allerton LS7 3PD ( 9 & 10 Sep), The Carriageworks Studio Theatre , Leeds LS2 3AD (23 & 24 Sep) and Bradford Studio Theatre, Bradford BD7 1AJ (16 & 17 Oct) with a special performance at Ilkley Literature Fringe Festival on 13 October in support of Pinnacle Fusion. Book advanced Tickets online at www.spikeplay.co.uk or via the Theatres' box office.