About me
I draw inspiration from community life in Devon, my scientific education, Christian faith and experience of working with a wide range of public services and with charities.
I have written both stage and audio plays, and also had a number of short scripts published in collections. Have started adding details below - more to come.
My Plays
Holly and Lichen
Synopsis:
Six female actors each play 2 parallel characters in different time periods: 1933 to 1939 and
November 2009 to May 2010, switching between them dynamically.
On a “time shift” all the actors smoothly switch character and the action continues without
any break, with subtle lighting change where needed to fit the time of year.
It opens as Dorothy, a distinguished scientist with dementia, distressed at a lost document, is placed in a care home. This triggers memories of her difficult start at boarding school, expressed via actors doubling as Dorothy’s mother and daughter; headmistress and manager; maid and carer. Care home residents echo (and perhaps may be) her classmates Hilda and Phyllis.
The play explores choices and constraints for mid-C20th women. The schoolgirls, growing from 12 to 18, develop their values and friendship, choosing divergent paths in the shadow of war. In old age, the women share fragments of memory as they face their current limitations.
A key theme is truth, as the failing 2009 climate summit and media smears of scientists fuel Dorothy’s anxiety to recall where she stored records of earlier research, now relevant. This is resolved, after her death, in the finale.
Number of Characters: 6
Minimum Number of Actors Required: 6
Length (in Pages): 56
Location: A care home and a boarding school
Key Words: women, truth, science, ageing, climate crisis, 20th century, identity, family
Has the Play Been Produced? No
Are the Rights Available? Yes
Has the Play Been Published? No
Award nominations/wins: Winner of Radius Playwriting Competition 2024.
Reviews:
“a very fine piece of writing with challenges but also rewards for any group that stages it” (Radius judges, 2024)
Ten Months of Wittering
Synopsis:
A village drama shaped by national and global crises plays out between August 2019 and May 2020.
Much Wittering’s declared a climate emergency. For teacher Russ it’s about children’s voices, for churchwarden Gordon, hope, and for pub landlady Cherry, getting buses back. Gordon’s granddaughter Amy helps as turbulent weather, cricket and politics play out – but with her heart and the Amazon burning, she longs for more action.
The community comes together to sort the buses - but will that be any help in surviving Covid?
Number of Characters: 4
Minimum Number of Actors Required: 4
Length (in Pages): 34
Location: Various locations in an English village. Written for staging with minimal set and props.
Key Words: Climate emergency, 2019 election, Covid, rural England
Has the Play Been Produced? No
Are the Rights Available? Yes
Has the Play Been Published? No
Award nominations/wins: The first part of the play won the 2019 Arts Centre Group drama competition under the title "No Time for Wittering", resulting in a public reading. This is an extended script completed in 2020, taking the action forward as far as the "Barnard Castle" controversy.
Reviews:
Where's Lizzie?
Synopsis:
Jean, confused in an English care home, longs for visits from her granddaughter Lizzie. As Britain plunges through six turbulent months, Italian care assistant Salvio tries to cheer her despite his own worries.
Currently written as an audio play, but could adapt easily to stage or video presentation.
Number of Characters: 2
Minimum Number of Actors Required: -2
Length (in Pages): 5
Location: A room in a care home
Key Words: aging, Brexit, migration, Covid, caring
Has the Play Been Produced? No
Are the Rights Available? Yes
Has the Play Been Published? No
Award nominations/wins:
Reviews:
