Dear mom, you are the only one that sees everything but says only a little. Sacrifice the most yet complain the least. Give your all but expect nothing in return. I am blessed to have a mom like you. I love you, mummy.” For ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’, Mark used verbatim theatre to take the actual words of Dan’s family and friends, recorded in a series of interviews, which were painstakingly transcribed and then turned into the script of this two-act play. He took eighteen months developing the script and performance with Oasis Youth Theatre, based in Southampton. Through his incredible skill, and the huge talent and commitment of the young people and team of Oasis Youth Theatre, these raw words were transformed into a stunning performance that brought the audience to tears at each of its performances.

All I know is that I carried you for nine months. I fed you, I clothed you, I paid for your college education. Friending me on Facebook seems like a small thing to ask in return.” – Jodi Picoult Thank you for always teaching me to value being a good human over success, Mom. Every time someone compliments me on my kindness and goodness, I want to tell them that my mother taught me to be a better person. Anyone can take responsibility for a child’s achievements. But only a good mother takes responsibility for her children’s failures too. Thanks for being there for me mom.Dear mom, you’re the one person on this whole earth who always understands me. Thanks for always being there for me always when I need you.” – Unknown Mom, I wish I could tell you how much you mean to me, but there are no words to describe how much I admire you, how much I appreciate you, how much I thank you for everything you’ve done. I love you!” – Unknown

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.” – Tenneva Jordan Mom, you made my life wonderful and pushed me to be successful. I don’t know what I can do for you. I love you, mom. She made me clean my room. Didn’t like it then, but now I appreciate the tidy streak she instilled in me.”There are not enough words to even describe how important you are in my life, Mom, and you continue to influence how I live mine. I am forever grateful.” – Unknown

You’re the sweetest mom ever. Thanks for your care and the support you do for us every day. We love you, mom. You are not only my mother but my mentor, my strength, my teacher, my inspiration, my human diary, and my best friend. Mom, I love you so much.” My favorite thing about being a mom is just what a better person it makes you on a daily basis.” – Drew Barrymore

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My life has been tolerable, livable and enjoyable even after you and dad got divorced – all thanks to a heroic single mom like you. I love you. Dan’s mum Fiona said, “When we commissioned the play in those early, awful months after Dan died, I remember us saying how amazing it’d be if it became a GCSE set text, and we probably laughed because we never really, honestly imagined it would. We had no idea then just how far it would come, and in such a short time – only five years since it was published. Dan would be…I wonder what? Amazed? Amused? Embarrassed, but also a little in awe of what had been achieved? He’d certainly want to have done all he could to stop any harm happening to anyone else, which is what set us off down this path from the start.” Mom, you are my root, my foundation of happiness. You’re a beautiful, strong lady both inside and out. I’m proud to be your son. For all of the times I never said thank you because I thought you knew, I thank you now more than ever, mom.” – Unknown”

Mark has been writing successful plays since the 1980s, and writes powerfully for young people, using Theatre in Education to communicate about issues that affect them. His plays are extensively used in the drama curriculum in schools, he has been one of the playwrights recommended in the Edexcel GCSE drama syllabus for many years. Two of his plays, ‘Hard to Swallow’ and ‘Missing Dan Nolan’, have been set texts on two out of four of the GCSE drama (9-1) specifications from 2016- 2023. His play ‘Too Much Punch for Judy’, written in 1987, is one of the most performed contemporary plays in the UK. If my life was a skyscraper, you would be its architect, builder and most importantly the founding pillars. I love you ma. Ask her about her childhood. Because you know all those times when she’s being ridiculous, or uptight, or controlling, or seeming to pass judgement? They almost certainly relate to something that happened to her. “Grayson [Perry’s husband, the artist] once gave me a pair of orange plastic clogs and my mother said, ‘You can’t go out in them,’” says Perry. “And I said: ‘Do you think it’s like when you were young and women went around in hats and with outfits pinched in at the waist, and when wearing clogs brought shame on the house?’ And she said: ‘Yes – exactly!’ I’d understood that she was coming from a different time and place, and it helped me to see that often, when a mother seems to be nagging, it’s coming from a place of concern and love rather than a need to control.” The highest compliment anyone can give me, Mom, is to say that I’m like you. That means more to me than anything else. Because being like you means that I am strong, loving, caring, and most importantly, I am a good person. At the end of the day, it’s the bond you share with your child that matters, and you mommy know just how to do that.” – Unknown

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I have eaten in many restaurants. But I didn’t find any food tastier than your handmade food. You are the world’s greatest chef. I love you, mom. No one can be like you.” – Unknown