About me

I am a writer, actor and sometimes-activist from rural Sussex. I trained on the Royal Court Theatre’s Intro To Playwriting, Pentabus National Writer’s Group and the John Burgess Writing Course. My monologue, Bridge Of Sighs, was published in FIERCE, an anthology of queer monologues curated by Rikki Beadle Blair, and my debut play, Corpselight, previously won the 2023 Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass Trust Pitch Your Play Competition and was shortlisted for the 2024 Papatango Prize. My writing has been workshopped at London Performance Studios and The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. My first podcast, Is It Hot Where You Are?, was produced by the RISE Collective in 2023. As a poet I have worked with organisations including Barbican Young Poets, the V&A, Apples and Snakes, The Dark Mountain Project, London Wildlife Trust and I am currently under commission by the Right to Roam Campaign as their Poet-In-(Non)-Residence. I trained as an actor at NYT and Peckham Rep, and have most recently appeared as James Joyce in the film Kino Volta, produced by Incipit Films and directed by Martin Turk.

My writing focusses on blurring the boundaries between humanity and the natural world, telling stories from each side of that divide, both human and non-human.

My Plays

Corpselight


Synopsis:

“They’d be in the places they loved when they were alive - in the trees, the hollows, the hedgerows…Always in the form of a candle, and in the flame a face, and if you got close enough you could hear them whispering.”

A year after Paul died, Tom is searching for him in the strange blue flames that flicker and fade across the farm. His wife Kay is desperately trying to keep the business alive, whatever the cost to their marriage. But when their daughter Viv returns from the city, new partner in tow, secrets will be exposed and a devastating grief unleashed that could spell the family’s end. Corpselight is a profound meditation on rural lives, queer relationships and the changing face of England.


Number of Characters: 6


Minimum Number of Actors Required: 6


Length (in Pages): 89


Location: A farm in rural Sussex


Key Words: Queer, Love, Denial, Rural, Folklore, Ghost, and Intergenerational


Has the Play Been Produced? No


Are the Rights Available? No


Has the Play Been Published? No


Award nominations/wins: Winner, Masterclass Trust Pitch Your Play Competition 2023; Shortlist, Papatango Prize 2024


Reviews:

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Daniel Grimston
@ daniel-grimston

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