Two Jesuans in the Essex Playwriting Festival on 6th April

Nathan Brooker (2008) and John Cornwell (Fellow Commoner) have together written Ernesto e Arnaldo, which has been selected as one of four runners-up in the Essex Playwriting Competition.

On 6^th April 2016, a rehearsed reading will take place as part of the 2016 Essex Playwriting Festival. Tickets are free, but you’ll need to book your seats. A Q&A session with the writer, cast and director will immediately follow the reading.

Ernesto and Arnaldo are brothers that run a morgue in Rome, inherited from their father. One day, a man called Ricardo visits the brothers and offers them 50,000 Euros to embalm his employer who is severely ill and dying. Ricardo’s employer, it turns out, is the Pope.

In a rehearsed reading, a cast performs a play without a set, costumes or props. Just like a full-scale production, the cast has a director – but the focus is mainly on exploring the script, rather than on the visual aspects of the show. They give audiences the unique opportunity to see a work in progress version of a piece of new writing for free.