In the last few years, I’ve learned that playwriting is most productive when others join you in the process. On those occasions, huge benefits can result. New voices and perspectives come into effect. Cherished approaches get subtly challenged. Potential lines of new development come into view. Alternative perspectives surface. Perhaps most of all, there isContinue reading “My new play about Cicely Saunders: a pivotal moment”
Category Archives: Playwriting
Heading Home: a miscellany of writings
In late 2020, on saying goodbye to four decades of work in academia, I resolved to devote time to something that had been bubbling up in my thinking for quite a while: the desire to continue writing, but to do so in a more creative and inventive manner. True, I’d recently written a biography whichContinue reading “Heading Home: a miscellany of writings”
Five days at the Fringe: first performances of Cicely and David
Here’s my journal of 16-20th August 2022 at the Edinburgh festivals. The shows are back with ‘in person’ audiences and the place is buzzing. Meanwhile, I’m in a dual state of excitement and trepidation. The reason? 16th August will see the premiere of my first play: Cicely and David. It tells the story of aContinue reading “Five days at the Fringe: first performances of Cicely and David”
My play reaches the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
The year was 1947. David Tasma was just 40 years old. A Polish migrant who had fled his homeland weeks before the Nazis invaded, he’d spent the war years living on the margins of London life, eventually finding employment in a Kosher restaurant in the West End. When peace came he hoped for better things.Continue reading “My play reaches the Edinburgh Fringe Festival”
Play-writing as a shared endeavour
When I first set out to write a play, I envisaged it as the lone writing task, par excellence. I thought of someone like Henrik Ibsen, exiled and working alone with only his dramatic imagination to guide him. The prospect was uncongenial. I called my friend Jo Hockley, who had once produced a play at the Edinburgh Fringe,Continue reading “Play-writing as a shared endeavour “
Quotidian 