I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won't Die (Plays for Young People)

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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.”

For anyone who recalls the 1990’s story of Leah Betts and the frankly devastating photograph of her splashed all over the newspaper Daniel is sadly the 21st century reminder that drugs still destroy lives and as members of society we still need to drum home the message but this time it isn’t with a headline life support photograph it’s in the form of this wonderful play – get it into your local community now! Neither play text nor production overplays the drama. It’s all there in the controlled, understated performances and the poignancy of the filmed interviews. We are delighted to be touring the full-length version of this powerful and emotional story,” says Elliot Montgomery, Octopus Dream Theatre Artistic Director. We’re delighted that you are studying the play that tells Dan’s story. Thank you for buying directly from DSMF – due to our publisher’s discount this will generate a small donation to our drug education work

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We were so excited to hear just before Christmas that Mark Wheeller’s play that tells Dan’s story will become a GCSE drama set text next year. ’I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’ will be in great company on the Eduqas syllabus. I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die is the story of Dan, a popular South London schoolboy, who took ecstasy at an illegal rave, and tragically died as a result. This 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. 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. I’d had a conversation specifically with Dan about ecstasy. It’s one of the things you do as a parent, isn’t it? Wear your helmet when you’re out on your bike, you know, don’t take drugs. To be honest, I was more worried about him being safe on his bike than at a party with his friends. Ben Glasstone’s charming, witty account of The Emperor Who Has No Clothes works well for two main reasons. First it is one of the most perceptive stories ever written, dealing as it does with vanity, self delusion, conformity and truth. It’s both topical and timeless. Second, we have a cost of living crisis and the […] Book Review – Activist

I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die is a verbatim play told through the words of Daniel’s family and friends. The play allows Dan’s story to be told by the people who loved him and knew him the best, his family and friends. That fateful evening is told through the words of his school friends and family, divided into two hard-hitting acts in Mark Wheeller’s verbatim play. In July 2016 the DSM Foundation commissioned Mark Wheeller to adapt ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’, to take into schools, colleges and the community as a Theatre in Education tour. From Spring term 2017 and for the following three spring terms, Stopwatch Theatre with a cast of four professional actors took performances of the play, followed by interactive drug and alcohol education workshops, into schools across London. In spring 2020 this powerful production was taken on by Wizard Theatre, following the closure of Stopwatch, and by the end of the tour reached more than 50,000 young people, as well as parents, carers and professionals at public performances.Post show Q & A: After the performance on Friday 16 June, the cast will be joined on stage by Fiona & Tim Spargo-Mabbs, Dan’s parents and founders of the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation drug education charity. Along with questions to the cast, Fiona & Tim will take questions about the play, their son Dan and the important work of their drug education charity the DSM Foundation, which has been instrumental in changing the landscape around drug education across the UK. This event is open to all who have attended that evening’s performance. Elliot Montgomery’s production for Octopus Dream Theatre is powerful, poignant and intensely moving, from the boisterous roistering of the early stages to a quiet stillness that overwhelms the audience. The play is topped and tailed by filmed interviews with Dan’s mother and father and his girlfriend Jenna, communicating the love he inspired. Then the first half consists of wild dancing separating out the verbatim interviews with Mark Wheeller. David Chafer (Mark) is perfectly hesitant as he explores Dan’s life from Year 7 onwards with his friends. 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.” Dan was the younger son of Fiona and Tim Spargo-Mabbs, living with them and his older brother Jacob in Croydon, South London. He was in Year 12 of Archbishop Tenison CE High School in Croydon, which he’d attended since Year 7. Dan was bright, articulate, funny, chatty, popular and talented; a big, engaging, much loved character as illustrated by him being voted Prom King at the end of year 11 by an overwhelming majority. He was embedded in his school community – playing in the band for the school show just before Christmas in year 12 – as well as his local and church communities, running errands for the elderly people to whom he delivered on his daily paper round, and involved in youth work at the church he attended with his family. He had a real social conscience, having recently signed up to the bone marrow donor register and becoming a member of Amnesty International. This DVD shows the original 2016 OYT production of I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die as premiered at the Brit School, directed by author, Mark Wheeller.

We provide planning and resources for evidence-based drug and alcohol education to be delivered by teachers in schools as part of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. Three programmes offer a spiral curriculum from years 7-18, years 9-11 and sixth forms, which is age-appropriate and builds on prior learning, and is adapted to be delivered in lessons or shorter form-time sessions. In January 2014 16-year-old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs went to an illicit all-night rave, overdosed on ecstasy and died. Daniel was intelligent, funny, given to moments of wild clowning, but essentially serious, a member of Amnesty International and devoted to other charitable work. A hugely popular figure, he was not the sort of boy you expect this to happen to. 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:The production is incredibly powerful, and aimed at students from years 9-13. It explores issues of choice, risk and consequence, but also friendship, love and loss, and the impact of our choices on others. Drama is an incredibly powerful way to communicate important messages to young people, and Mark Wheeller’s play has become a core part of our vision to enable young people to understand the risks, and potential consequences and impact of experimenting with drugs. The final play, however, is as much about love, friendship, forgiveness and loss, as it is about drugs. 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.” 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.