Before I'm Dead - (Modern Plays) by James Rushbrooke (Paperback)

About the Book

Before I'm Dead is a funny, furious and deeply human play exploring grief and what it truly means to see another person beyond the version they present to the world.

Book Synopsis

'People are people. Careless in courage, but scared to the bone'

Zara is dying. But she's not about to go out without making some noise. At seventeen, with a terminal diagnosis and a very limited tolerance for nonsense, she has one final project: record her own eulogy, in her own words, before her brain tumour makes that impossible. Funny, angry, and absolutely unwilling to be reduced to her illness, Zara is the last person who needs saving.

Stuart thinks he's there to help. He's good at helping - he's built a career out of it, a quiet, careful life of service that keeps his own grief at a comfortable distance. But Zara doesn't need managing. She needs witnessing.

And that's something Stuart has never quite learned to do. Before I'm Dead is a tender two-hander that
asks what it really means to see another human being: not the polished performance they present to the world, but the real, inconvenient, luminous truth of them. It shows us that, surprising as they may be, connections are the greatest form of bravery in the face of mortality.

Before I'm Dead is the Vault Creative Arts Playwriting Award winning play (2026) and this edition was published to coincide with the production at The Glitch in May 2026.

About the Author

James Rushbrooke is a playwright whose plays include Tomcat (Southwark Playhouse, winner of the 2015 Papatango New Writing Prize), Crab Bucket, Photo Finish (Waterloo East), and Filibuster (Old Vic New Voices Festival). He is also a consultant and trainer in the world of social care and runs the Imagine Theatre School in Cirencester.