Lurching from point to point

It has often given me solace that the/one meaning of ‘career’ is to veer wildly from point to point, like a stagecoach without a driver. That’s how this year has felt. I came into 2025 with just a few weeks’ work; but lovely work, directing my adaptation of Lucy Strange’s The Storm and the Minotaur for Slung Low. Lucy’s book takes as its background the Huskar Pit disaster of 1838 in which, before mines had ANY kind of safety measures in place, twenty-six children died, leading to a major and much overdue change in how the mining industry was run and managed. It was a big challenge for me, working with a full production team as director for the first time, but it was an absolute joy: an incredible team and cast, a really good show, and delighted audiences of young people, many of whom had never seen any kind of theatre before. More, please.

Performing to new audiences has been quite a central theme this year. I returned to the Tower of London to do two new pieces for my dear friends Fran and Martin at History Riot – one about Colonel Blood, the only person to successfully steal the Crown Jewels in 1671, and another about Geoffrey Chaucer’s overseeing of the wharf construction in the late 14th Century – and then embarked my first ever adventure in Croatia, playing Sir Peter Teazle in Dubrovnik. Playing Sheridan’s brilliant, bubbling dialogue to foreign audiences (wigs and frock coats in 38 degree heat!) was a delight, especially when the coastal breezes played havoc with our curtains (and our wigs). And lovely Fred Gray did an amazing job, with the play, the actors and the challenges of the production. Such a talent.

Then, wonder of wonders, I was offered another job, playing King Lear for one of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s First Encounters tours. So right now we’re mining and exploring the bleak world of Lear and his daughters and his kingdom, looking for a way to make it speak and connect with young folk. It’s been a fascinating and challenging process so far – I’ll report back when we’re more sure what we’re doing…