Croupier needs to buy a caravan for her and her ex-gambling-addict grandad, but she’s skint.
She works Casino Zero, where pit boss Janet hounds her to eat Chum Bars for energy. Bizarre, poetic humour runs through this tale of loss, punctuated with melodic, loop-station soundscapes, crafted live with casino props.
This is a tale of minimum wage, grief and addiction. Inspired by two years of night shifts working as a croupier in a casino just around the corner from Nottingham Playhouse, this play highlights the social issues of gambling culture, caricaturing the industry through the eyes of a female, working-class writer from Nottingham.
Content Advisory Information: please note Casino Zero covers themes including addiction, animal harm, cannibalism, child loss, death, family loss, poverty, self-harm, sex work and suicide.
One of the artists involved in the making of Casino Zero is clinically extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 and we would be grateful if you could wear a mask whilst attending the performance, if you are able to. Masks will be available from our Front of House team when you arrive.
If you think you may have been exposed to Covid-19 recently, we ask you to consider not attending the performance. If you are no longer able to attend, please contact our Box Office by 12 noon on Wednesday 18 October and we will be happy to arrange a refund. You can reach us on 0115 941 9419 or by emailing tickets@nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk.
Bridie Squires is a poet, playwright, producer and performance artist from Nottingham.
Previously journalist and editor at LeftLion Magazine, she was appointed Nottingham Trent University’s first Writer in Residence in 2019, and founded Nottingham spoken-word collective GOBS in 2020. Bridie was Producer for Nottingham Poetry Festival and Young Creative Awards, and is Production Manager at British Gestalt Journal.
A Mouthy Poets alumnus, she has performed her poetry in Southbank Centre, London, Badisches Staatstheatre, Karlsruhe, and We Out Here Festival, Cambridge. Bridie has performed alongside Lemn SIssay, Holly McNish, Henry Normal, Yomi Ṣode and Linton Kwesi Johnson. She is Lead Artist at GOBS Collective, Creative Writing Tutor at Headway Nottingham, and has delivered workshops for Nottingham City Council, Archway Learning Trust, UNESCO City of Literature, and Nottingham Community Artists Network. She was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 for Mardy, a poem for Talk and Tongue: The Dialect Poets, and was selected to take part in BBC Words First and BBC New Creatives, where she developed her audio drama Self-checkout, for BBC Sounds, in 2022.
Bridie was awarded both a Develop Your Creative Practice grant and National Lottery funding by Arts Council England to create Casino Zero – her one-woman loop station play based on her experiences as a croupier. Bridie published her debut poetry collection Duck on Bike in 2023. She is currently collaborating with Nottingham Playhouse to continue developing Casino Zero and GOBS Collective.