R&D Update: Script

Orpheus & Eurydice Project

I am now banned from editing the script any more.

OK not really, but I have just sent the rehearsal draft to the director so I can’t really make any more edits.

Resisting the urge to tinker is going to be tremendously difficult to resist because I am an extremely faffy writer. I’m also an extremely anal-retentive writer (I am a double Virgo after all) so I save every single draft. This means I can share with you a screenshot of how often I managed to redraft this script since the beginning of July.

I truly don’t know how I didn’t drive my dramaturg (mandla rae) absolutely insane. Or maybe I did, and mandla was just too polite to tell me.

The script isn’t finished, but this is a watershed moment for me. I started writing this play (that still doesn’t have a title, but titles are hard) back in February 2023. I was going through a bit of a personal and creative sea change at the time and starting work on a tragedy felt like the natural choice. It was supposed to be a double bill, matched with a modern adaptation of Eros and Psyche. But these doomed lesbians caught me, and I couldn’t stop obsessing about them.

Last November, I did a mini-R&D over 4 days at HOME. That process was all about the text. I wrote 3 or 4 new scenes over the week, with the cast taking my constant changes on the chin, and the sharing at the end was about as rough and ready as it gets. The feedback I got was great though, and kept me motivated as I wrestled with everything I wanted this play to be.

I consider it my debut; my only other full length play, Please Fear the Reaper, was written to brief for MA students at LIPA. So as I edited, I kept trying to fit every idea I’ve ever had into it, tried to make it all things to all people. That obviously failed spectacularly and left me confused, demoralised and with no faith in myself.

With help from a friendly dramaturg (Suz, lead dramaturg at the Royal Exchange Theatre — an invaluable mentor to Manchester’s playwrights) I got my mojo back and now here we are, with a script I’m really deeply proud of.

This play is brutal, funny, vulnerable and devastating. It’s a tragedy written to give my QPoC (queer person of colour) kin space to grieve whatever losses they’ve faced. I don’t know how it will be received, or even how I’m going to get it produced, but I know that I love it.

There’s so much work still to do, but I’m going to take a well deserved break.

In the meantime, enjoy Spotify playlists for the main characters: Orpheus, Eurydice & Eurydice’s best friend, Phoebe

Looking forward to bringing even more updates as they come in.

Thanks for all your support!