"Gets so, nobody's story's true.
Not yours, not mine. But it's all we've got." First and Fiftieth
My writing covers many different characters and situations, ranging from the real to the fantastic, from the deeply serious to the slyly comic, from sensitive to offensive.
As a director of theatre and podcasts, I am still learning my trade.
OCTOBER 2020: PODCAST
WRITER / READER
podcast
youtube
"She was tired and her headache was getting worse. All she wanted to do was sit down somewhere in the shade and relax. She looked down to the end of the street; the square seemed far, far away."
A hot day, a woman alone in a foreign city . . .
SEPTEMBER 2020: PODCAST
WRITER / READER
podcast
youtube
"That is why I never went down on bended knee, never uttered the spell and opened the magic box to reveal the enchanted ring that would transform our lives forever. I was afraid of revealing the last part of myself, afraid of embarrassment rising in your eyes, afraid of rejection in your voice."
After a year apart, a man returns to the woman he loves.
podcast
youtube
"I have known and loved you for years, for centuries, for millenia. I have known and loved you since before knowledge and love, since before sight, before sound, before touch, before memory. I have known and loved you with every cell that has ever birthed and died in my body. I have known and loved you since you were me and we were one."
Love comes in many forms and may last for aeons . . .
AUGUST 2020: PODCASTS
WRITER / DIRECTOR
podcast
youtube
"Homophobia’s like racism; there’s more than one way to hate a queer."
An out, proud gay man condemns homophobia in his workplace. A sexually explicit story using very strong language and with subject matter that some listeners may find offensive.
podcast
youtube
"This one has the scent of Araby, the sparkle of champagne, the mist of distant moors."
At a time when people could still smoke in bars, a group of office workers meet at the end of the week. On a table sits an abandoned pack of cigarettes; there's no harm in lighting one, is there?
A disturbing, haunting tale about the dangers of tobacco read by Rosie Kernohan.
JULY 2020: PODCAST
WRITER / DIRECTOR
podcast
youtube
A 14-year-old boy is troubled - or is he fascinated? - by an old man who never stops watching him.
In Thomas Mann's Death in Venice (filmed by Luchino Visconti) the ageing Gustav von Aschenbach becomes obsessed with the beauty of young Tadzio. Although the two never speak, a silent relationship grows between them, a relationship which persists as the old man's health fails and the city is beset by cholera.
Decades later Tadzio remembers that fateful summer. What went through the boy's mind when he realised what was happening? What impact did it have on his adult life? Finally, the silent youth speaks.
Originally the title story in my collection A Sense of Loss, Death on the Lido was later adapted for the stage as Tadzio Speaks . . . with Christopher Peacock ("deeply poetic" Views from the Gods). This audio version with John Vernon brings to life one of fiction's most memorable and least understood characters.
I was pleased to be directing Noel Coward's masterpiece Hay Fever for
the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group ("The Grads"). This would be the third production (after The Rose and Crown
in 2016 and Volpone in 2017) they entrusted me with and before Covid-19 struck.
Coward's work is deceptive - to create his light comedy requires intense preparation by the actors, who have to give pitch-perfect characterisations - but I was fortunate to have a talented cast who were creating a
memorably frothy and funny production and to have working with me assistant director Vanashree Thapliyal.
The production has provisionally been rescheduled for March 2021 and I hope that as many possible of the original cast will return. Uptodate information can be found on the
The Grads website.
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