I began writing plays while at university purely from the desire to create something. Back then I had no expectation to make any kind of a career from it. But I've had some lucky breaks. My first Edinburgh fringe experience a couple of years ago brought unexpected success. I found myself being approached by producers keen on professional productions. Meslier, The Last Priest, Now Is The Hour and Voodoo Blues were all written as commissions, and after a few false starts, a large scale professional production of Cross Road Blues is planned in the near future.
My plays are diverse in nature, but there are a few key themes which run through them: music, obsession, religion and mythology always seem to play some part. The blues, in particular, in all its forms, has a stubborn bind on my imagination.
On this page you'll find a list of my productions to date, some reviews, and the scripts of some of the plays. The scripts are available to download strictly for private reading. If you are interested in performing any of my work, in whole or in part, please contact me, and I'll be happy to discuss options.
DWH
Reviews:
Here are some good reviews I've had. If you want to see bad ones you'll have to search for them yourself.
Now Is The Hour:
British Theatre Guide /
Independent /
Rogues and Vagabonds /
Fringe Review
The Last Priest: Times / Guardian / Independent Catholic News
Violent Acts: Varsity (page 19/20)
Meslier: Edinburgh Evening News
Cross Road Blues: Scotsman / Varsity (page 22) / Edinburgh Guide
Some other articles about me can be found on the links page.
Coming Up:
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| Cross Road Blues |
I will be directing a rehearsed reading of Cross Road Blues (see below), with a newly commissioned choral score at the Bridewell Theatre on 25th January 2009. Click on the link to the left for more information, or to request a place on the guest list.
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| Voodoo Blues |
Weaving the heady mythology of blues through the intangible excesses of rock and roll, Voodoo Blues brings us the myth of Faust through the strung out world of a wasted rock genius. Featuring original music by Russ Blaber of Helium Soul mingling with some blues-rock classics, this has been a long time in development. Prepare to be blown away though, it shall be huge. |
Past Productions:
| Now Is The Hour | August 2008, Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh |
| purchase script | An epic survival story based on accounts of victims and survivors of the sinking of the troopship Laconia by a German U-Boat in the mid-Atlantic in 1942. Left adrift, one lifeboat spent 28 excruciating days at sea.
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| The Last Priest | June 2007, King's Head, London |
purchase script
press release | The Last Priest is a full length version of Meslier (see below). It tells the story of Jean Meslier (1664-1729), a French Catholic priest who secretly wrote a ferocious atheistic and socialist testament. We had a great run at the King's Head in the summer and I'm currently working with the British Humanist Association on producing educational resources, so that the play may be used as a stimulus for teaching history and citizenship. A DVD of the King's Head production is available through the play's website. |
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| Violent Acts | January 2007, ADC, Cambridge |
| A collaboration with writer James Topham and a group of Cambridge University actors, produced as part of the Close Knit writers' project. The play follows the intertwining lives of eight people on the day of a young man's university graduation. |
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| Meslier | August 2006, Sweet, Edinburgh fringe |
| A short, one act version of The Last Priest. Written with the Edinburgh fringe in mind as a place to try out the story before putting together the full version. |
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| The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady | August 2005, Sweet, Edinburgh fringe and February 2005, Playroom, Cambridge |
| download script |
Less successful than its predecessor, my second play seems now much closer to juvenilia than the first. A short play about a girl who thinks she's a prostitute, a rapist who thinks he's a lover and a boy who thinks he's a man. You never know, I might try to adapt it for TV one day. The title comes from an album by Charles Mingus.
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| Cross Road Blues | August 2005, Sweet, Edinburgh fringe and October 2003, ADC, Cambridge |
download script
purchase script | My first play, and still, perhaps, my best. Cross Road Blues enacts the legends surrounding Robert Johnson, the 1930's Delta Blues singer. Robert Johnson died at the age of twenty-six, poisoned in a bar, leaving behind him a legacy of a few recordings, and a Faustian legend that has come to define the essence of the Blues. |
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