Sep 30 2012

Recent projects

One highlight of a busy month was hearing my 10-minute play, The Exchange, read in front of an audience for the first time at Sussex Playwrights’ Club.

The play, which features a clandestine meeting between a middle-aged man and a younger woman on a park bench, sparked some interesting comments about the tension of constrained situations and the political ramifications of the underlying story.

I’ve recently finished developing The Exchange into a full-length play, Closed, which traces the development of a government leak into a full-blown national scandal. The play follows the chain of intrigue from the minister to the whistle-blower to the activist to the newsroom. Our hero, Claire, needs an ally to help her break the story. But can she trust the government turncoat who gave her the files? Can she trust the political editor with his own agenda? Can she even trust her own motives?

Closed is an exciting project and I can’t wait to develop it further on stage. It deals with a contentious issue of civil liberty vs national defence – the use of ‘closed evidence’ to detain terrorist suspects – but hopefully with some measure of objectivity and a gripping storyline. I’ll post more news on the project soon.

Meanwhile I’ve added Links to my profile pages on IdeasTap and New Writing South. Do have a look and let me know what you think.