About me
Debut play, The Shift, was shortlisted for the Theatre 503 Playwriting Award. Since then, I have written several short plays including Little Boxes (staged by Theatre 503/ Rapid Write Response) and How to Ride a Roller Coaster (runner up Pitlochry FT Short Play Award).
My second full length play, At a Stop, received development through script surgery with Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, The Tron’s Progressive Playwright Prog and The Lyric Belfast’s New Playwright’s Programme. I was then awarded her first commission by Sky Arts for Art50, for a political comedy play exploring NI’s loyalty to Britain. I then went on to write and develop Ash – a play exploring Ireland’s response to the direct provision of refugees into rural communities - through Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artist Residency.
Writing for screen includes horror short Derek vs The Evil Halloween Pigeon) produced for iPlayer by BBC NI/ Nice One Productions sketch comedy for series 6 of BBC Scotland/ Comedy Unit’s Scot Squad.
My Plays
At a Stop
Synopsis:
Suffering from Alzheimer’s-associated age regression delusion, and believing she is her 24-year-old self, 72-year-old May escapes her nursing home, determined to get to Belfast to redress a sinister mistake from her past. Outside the nursing home is a fake bus stop: set up to catch escapees.
Davey, a kindly, underconfident young fella on his way to an open day at a Belfast college (and a new life away from his over-bearing mum) stumbles across the fake stop and May. Forging a bond of trust, they’re on a mission to get the bus to Belfast together, at all costs.
This unlikely road trip is threatened by Brian, an apparently pleased-with-himself Healthcare Assistant who needs to get May back inside the home or he’ll lose his job – and his job is all he’s got to live for. At a Stop is an unlikely road trip that goes nowhere and ends in murder.
Number of Characters: 3
Minimum Number of Actors Required: 3
Length (in Pages): 48
Location: Bus stop outside a nursing home
Key Words: old people, dementia, dark, comedy
Has the Play Been Produced? No
Are the Rights Available? Yes
Has the Play Been Published? No
Award nominations/wins: Lyric New Playwrights (2018)
Reviews:
The Shift
Synopsis:
The Shift explores attitudes to abortion and the impact of being an unwanted child.
Inspired by the life of Mammie Cadden – a midwife and backstreet abortionist in Ireland in the mid 1900s – The Shift is a reimagining of her final years. Having served prison time in Dublin Mammie, now in her 60s, has retreated to NW Donegal with her friend Ada. They live on the periphery of society, their main contact with the local community being a teenage boy call Padraig who runs Mammie’s homemade remedies to her customers in town.
Mammie and Ada have continued ‘helping’ young women and are preparing for the arrival of a girl from a nearby town when two unknown Englishmen arrive. One of them claims to be looking for Padraig - his long-lost son. The men refuse to leave until they have met Padraig in the flesh, but when the pregnant women knocks on Mammie’s door it becomes apparent that the motives of these men are not what they claimed.
Number of Characters: 5
Minimum Number of Actors Required: 5
Length (in Pages): 61
Location: Cottage in rural Ireland
Key Words: Irish, Ireland, abortion, old people, stranger
Has the Play Been Produced? No
Are the Rights Available? Yes
Has the Play Been Published? No
Award nominations/wins: Shortlisted for Theatre 503 Playwriting Award
Reviews: