I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die by Mark Wheeller, tours studio theatres for the first time

Dan is cool, clever and smart. A talented, creative and “lovely boy” with a passion for helping others who’s always on the side of the underdog. Everyone loves Dan and at 16, he has plans, plenty of them - just losing his life isn’t one of them.

I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die by prolific playwright Mark Wheeller is the story of Dan, a popular South London schoolboy, who took ecstasy at an illegal rave and tragically died as a result of taking a lethal dose. This fast-paced, powerful and emotionally-charged play, tells the true story of what happened to Dan, the choices he made and the impact on his family and friends – all told in their own words, from tragedy to redemption.

Don’t miss Mark Wheeller’s beautifully-written play and Octopus Dream’s acclaimed production, touring to theatres for the first time, following highly successful tours to secondary schools across the country.

“We are delighted to be touring the full-length version of this powerful and emotional story,” says Elliot Montgomery, Octopus Dream Theatre Artistic Director.

“An abridged version has toured to many secondary schools across the country and has been seen by thousands of young people, but we always wanted to share the full version with a theatre audience. It’s an important, honest and deeply touching human story of how our choices can have such a huge impact on ourselves and our loved ones.”

The tour is being supported by drug education charity The Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation. Commenting on the play and support for the tour, the Director & Founder – and Dan’s mum - Fiona Spargo-Mabbs OBE, said:

“This is such an exciting development for us as a drug education charity, and also as Dan’s mum and dad. We commissioned Mark Wheeller to turn Dan’s story into a play as part of our passionate commitment when Dan died to prevent any harm happening to anyone else’s family from drugs. This first tour to theatres is taking the play to a whole new audience outside schools, where it’s been touring for the last few years. We really hope this will mean families will come together and have conversations at home that help other teenagers keep themselves safe - but it’s also a beautiful play and a fantastic production, creating an opportunity for anyone who loves great theatre to experience it, and to get to know our Dan.”

Ends

Notes to editors

Full tour details

19-20 May York Theatre Royal

23-24 May The Holroyd, Oswestry

25 May Merlin Theatre, Frome

26 May Grove Hall, South Kirkby

6 June Cast, Doncaster

7-9 June Theatre Deli, Sheffield

12 June Radlett Centre, Herts

13-17 June The Jack Studio, Lewisham

• Images attached in separate folder
• Interviews or to request a ticket for review: please contact Octopus Dream Theatre Producer David Chafer on david@tiu-theatre.co.uk or 07747 014895
• All DSM Foundation media enquiries and interviews with Fiona Spargo-Mabbs: please contact: media@dsmfoundation.org.uk

• Octopus Dream Theatre is a Yorkshire-based touring theatre company which was borne out of the work of our founder company TiE It Up Theatre, which specialises in taking professionally-made drama into secondary schools.
• This is Octopus Dream’s first tour, to include 19 performances in 9 venues starting at York Theatre Royal on 19 May and concluding at the Jack Studio in Lewisham in June.
• TiE It Up Theatre has been touring since 2018 and in that time has completed three tours of Mark Wheeller’s play ‘Hard to Swallow’; two tours in Scotland and two tours in England of the abridged version of ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’; the company has also produced two as-live film versions of both plays which are widely used in schools.
• The filmed version of ‘I Love You, Mum..’ aired on the Edinburgh Fringe Player in 2021 and received critical acclaim:

**** Broadway World “I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won't Die is a beautiful and deeply touching tribute to a much-loved boy”

BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE “Theatre that embraces the Spirit of the Fringe”

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SHOW FringeReview “spine chilling” and “skilfully directed”

• The DSM Foundation was established in 2014 following the death of 16 year old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs from an accidental overdose of ecstasy. His family felt that he simply hadn’t known enough to be able to make decisions that would keep him safe, and set up the charity in order to spare other families going through what they had experienced. The aim of the DSM Foundation is to provide young people with relevant, age-appropriate, up to date and evidence-based information about drugs so they develop the skills to make choices that will keep themselves and their friends as safe as possible.
• However, the adults involved in the lives of those young people also need such information and skills in order to provide appropriate support and advice: NHS surveys regularly show that parents are the most commonly sought out source of information about drugs by 11-15 year olds, and hence the caregiver workshops provided by the DSM Foundation are invaluable.

Links:

Mark Wheeller