Graceland

There was a cliff on the horizon. I didn’t know, but then again, maybe I did, and I just didn’t want to look.

She meets him at an old friend’s barbecue, ketchup dribbling down her chin, face ruddy from too much beer. He stands away from everyone else, beautiful and aloof. Their stories couldn’t be more different, but they flirt, and then they fall in love. Everything is perfect, until it isn’t. Or maybe it never was.

Ava Wong Davies’s new play Graceland was developed as part of an Introduction to Playwriting group at the Royal Court. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at London’s Royal Court Theatre, in February 2023.

Ava Wong Davies is a playwright and theatre critic based in London. She is a regular contributor to The Stage and Exeunt Magazine, is a monthly theatre columnist for gal-dem, and in 2018 won the Sunday Times Harold Hobson award for criticism. As a playwright, her work has been showcased at The Yard, The Bunker, Theatre Deli, VAULT Festival, and The North Wall. Her debut play i will still be whole (when you rip me in half) was programmed as part of Chris Sonnex’s second season at The Bunker Theatre in November 2019. She is an alumna of the Soho Theatre Writers Lab 18/19 and one of the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers.