Waiting for John, a one-act play by Spencer Rowley — a man waits in a rocking chair beside a box of toys
An Award-Winning One-Act Play

Waiting
for John

A father waits for the son who is coming home today — as he does every day. A mother, alone, remembers. And the boy never comes.

Read an extract Stage the play
About the Play

Two people,
one absence

A quiet, devastating one-act play about love, memory, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

Fred sits in his chair and waits. Today is the day — his son John is coming home at last. He'll arrive by train, walk up from the station with his suitcase, strong and smart as ever. Fred will have the tea ready. He has John's things kept safe in a trunk, just as he likes them. He waits, as he does every day.

On the other side of the stage sits Edith — John's mother, Fred's wife — now entirely alone. She remembers the mornings the two of them made tea together, the holiday at the sea, the dancing. She remembers everything. And she carries a guilt she cannot set down.

The two never speak to one another, never even look across. Yet their words drift and echo and braid together until the same memories rise from both sides of the stage at once — and the audience slowly understands the shape of what has been lost. Waiting for John is a study of grief and devotion that earns its tears honestly, and lands its final moment like a held breath finally let go.

Grief Memory Devotion Family Letting Go
From the Play

A scene

Two chairs. A shelf divides the stage. Fred is lit; Edith sits in shadow, then slowly into light. They never acknowledge one another.

Fred
My son! My son John comes home today! At last, he is on his way! I will wait here for him; he'll be expecting me to be here.
Edith
It's early yet. Fred will be making coffee. A good man, Fred. Always made me coffee, first thing every day. And John — he loved that boy.
Fred
We used to drink tea together, you know. Every day, John and me. (He sits in his chair.) Before. Before he went away.
Edith
That was before, of course. Before John … before he left us. I remember that.

An extract — the full text is available to read and perform

For Theatre-Makers

Production notes

Form
One-act play. Written to one-act competition length and structure.
Cast
Two to three. Fred and Edith are central; a third role (the Nurse, any gender or age) is written in for competition compliance and can be cut for a two-hander.
Staging
A divided stage with a central see-through shelf. The two characters share the space but never interact directly — their dialogue interweaves.
Set & props
Minimal. Two chairs (Edith's a rocker), a trunk of a child's toys and mementoes, tea-making things each side, and a framed photograph of John on each table.
Stage the Play

Bring it to your audience

Waiting for John is available to read and to license for performance. Theatre groups, drama festivals, schools, and producers are warmly invited to get in touch — Spencer replies personally to every enquiry, and is glad to talk through the play with directors.

Enquire about licensing
Spencer Rowley
The Author

Spencer Rowley

Born in Rhodesia and shaped by thirty-three years in South Africa, Spencer Rowley has been a soldier, a policeman, an IT consultant, an artist, and a musician. Waiting for John is his award-winning one-act play; his novel Sawubona and the forthcoming Franki draw on the same close attention to ordinary lives. He now lives in Nottingham, England.

More about Spencer and his other work →