Spike: the Game Behind the Game

Publisher Marketing: Inspired by true events Grit, passion, despair and hope forms the emotional core of David Jones' moving new play, a light hearted inspirational story about two girl's determination to play the game of their dreams on the stage of their dreams. SPIKE was inspired by the incident from the Beijing Olympic Games where Georgia ousted Russia from the 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. Games without frontiers (jeux sans frontieres), Peter Gabriel's classic song is perhaps the best way of summing up the play's true message where, as the song proffers, a game is never just a game. There can be good and bad reasons for athletes and nations to take on the ultimate challenge of competing at international levels and the play provides a glimpse at some of the likely happening that takes place away from the gaze of the spectators - The real game is the one that we never see. The play is set in the female volley ball players' changing room at the 2012 London Olympic Games and the story revolves around a fictional British number two women's beach volley ball team. The team, overcoming all odds, unexpectedly progress to the Semi-Finals. The excited pair, Kirsty Ryan and Natalie Bebo, is then surprisingly told by their coach, Amanda Taylor, to lose the next match. This triggers a dramatic chain of events with some very revealing and unexpected consequences. Funded by The Arts Council England UK, SPIKE was produced by 2b Acting and previewed at Thomas Danby Studio Theatre Leeds on 27th and 28th August 2009, at Seven Art Space Studio Theatre Leeds on 9th and 10th September 2009, at The Carriageworks Studio Theatre Leeds on 23rd and 24th September 2009 and at The Alhambra Studio Theatre Bradford on 16th and 17th October 2009 with a special performance at the Ilkley fringe festival on 13th October 2009. Contributor Bio:  Jones, David David C. Jones is a professor of history in Calgary, Alberta. He has written or edited more than 25 books, including the award-winning Empire of Dust. Among his many teaching honours is the prestigious Presidents Circle Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Calgary.