Writing
So far I have written two plays, TwinSS, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe 2007, and And He Cast Out Many Devils, which is unpublished and unperformed. I am working on another at the moment:
Paradise by Chance
An epic poem / play. Milton set out to "justify the ways of God to Man". My aim is to "justify the lack of God to Man". Currently the play is in its early conceptual stage, but the gist of it is this: Dante, an androgynous oxygen particle meets two identical hydrogen particles just after the Big Bang, and fuses with them to form a water molecule. Dante travels through space and time until now, and the narrative follows her journey. She is there when Earth forms, there when the first fish is spawned, when man takes his first tentative upright steps Dante is there at the crux of it all. She is part of Jesus' finger bone, part of Mohammed’s skull, and in the apple that conked Newton on the head. Through Dante’s journey we see that the universe is just an infinite vacuum existing in infinite time, and all of this was inevitable. But who is the narrator? Is he God? Oooof.
TwinSS
In 2007 Theatrical Theatrics Productions hit the Edinburgh Fringe wearing nothing but a leather bomber jacket and pink fishnet stockings. The Scotsman noted that we made "‘Allo ‘Allo look like an historical documentary." We took it as a compliment.
TwinSS Synopsis:
George and Helmet Batenberger are identical twins who were separated at an early age and brought up British and German respectively. It is 1944. George is a high ranking MI6 taskmaster and Helmet is an SS Superuberfuhrer and Hitler’s top assassin. Tracked by gay Nazi double-agent Fritz Acchengrubber, Helmet parachutes into England on a desperate mission to impersonate his twin and assassinate Winston Churchill. On the Grid he encounters Mary Phelps, George’s lovestruck secretary, Bert Regan, an incompetent MI6 officer with a burning secret, Colonel Delingpole, the flatulent and alcoholic Director General of MI6, and Lady Foxley, Winston Churchill’s private secretary. All of these people stand between him and his goal, but first he’s got to stop the outrageously camp Fritz Acchengrubber from humping his leg... TwinSS was a modern day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. I’M GAY AND I’M GERMAN!
For more info please see ttproductions.com.
Acting
I have acted in various plays over the last few years. My favourite roles were probably Deeley in Harold Pinter’s (PBUH) Old Times and Macbeth, both at New Theatre.
Directing
I have directed four plays at the Edinburgh Fringe, including TwinSS. They have tended to be farcical comedies, such as All’s Well That Ends As You Like It, a Shakespeare parody by Michael Green.
Producing
Theatrical Theatrics Productions
In 2003 some friends and I founded a theatre company with the aim of taking plays to the Edinburgh Fringe. Six years, four world premieres, two sell-out shows, and an NSDF selected production later, ttproductions.com is still in the business of producing brilliant theatre. Our current production is Paradise by Chance. As Company Manager, I’m looking to move the Company’s focus away from the Edinburgh Fringe and onto London-based projects, touring, and educational theatre. Please see our website, ttproductions.com, for more info.
New Theatre Nottingham
I was President of the New Theatre at the University of Nottingham in my final year at uni. The New Theatre is the only student-run theatre in the country, and for the last two years we had two shows at NSDF, representing a fifth of the UK’s student theatre output. At the 2008 Festival I collected the Special Judges Award for Promoting Student Theatre on behalf of the New Theatre.
For more information please see the New Theatre Website.
