Plays
One of the first plays I wrote was about an explorer being chosen as an Aztec sacrifice. It had a cast of two, my sister and I, and we giggled so much we had to give up before the end. Thankfully, it no longer exists.
Below is a list of some of my more successful efforts.
Antarctica
Now available to read or to licence from Silver Birchington Plays at http://www.silverbirchingtonplays.com
Stage - running time approximately 30 minutes.
Highly Commended The Walter Swan Trust Award 2015 - performed 2015
On stage and recorded for radio at The Playhouse Theatre, Northampton - May 2018
Brenda, Ron and Terry work at a frozen foods depot. They think Terry's obsession with Antarctic explorers is weird, but his Antarctic know-how could save them.
Any Journey's End
Stage - running time approximately 40 minutes.
Shortlisted Rutherglen competition, Winner Bognor Regis Drama Club One-act Play competition - performed 2009.
Eve, Doc, Mel, Liz and Charlie set out on an African trek. They all have things they are trying to hide, which makes them uneasy companions. As the trek progresses the truth about them begins to be revealed.
The Box
Stage - running time approximately 30 minutes.
Second Bognor Regis Drama Club One-act Play competition - performed 2010.
Aitch and Jackson have answered an advertisement for participants in an important research project, and are waiting to be called for an interview. When they discover they are locked in the waiting room they disagree about what they should do, particularly about the mysterious box that is the room's only ornament. Should they open it?
Brothers in Arms
Stage - running time approximately 45 minutes.
Shortlisted DAW.
Abel and Sam Lucas return to their parents' farm after the war, knowing that they will have been reported missing, or even dead, having deserted just before their unit was destroyed. They believe their brother Gabriel was killed in that action, but discover he has survived and returned home before them, and that he looks set to supplant Abel both as the heir to the farm and in Abel's wife's affections. How much does Gabriel remember, and will he give Abel and Sam away?
Cake at Madame Fifi's
Stage - running time approximately 30 minutes
Third Bognor Regis Drama Club One-act Play competition - performed 2008.
Fiona, a retired schoolteacher, appears to be contemplating suicide when she catches a young man trying to break in. He tries to convince her that he's a salesman. They recognise each other–he was the pupil who had caused her so much trouble years before.
Tea Party of the Gods
Stage - running time approximately 30 minutes
Chosen as one of three plays for Theze Guyz' 21st anniversary - to be performed September 2024
An elderly lady, her cleaner and a delivery lad find themselves taking refuge from a thunderstorm under a kitchen table. The situation forces them to confront memories and realise that what they had assumed to be real was not always the truth.
Whistling the Death March
Radio - running time approximately 50 minutes.
Winner Sussex Playwriting competition.
After the death of his father, a cash-strapped member of the gentry is forced to sell various items to stay solvent, despite family misgivings. He calls in a team of scrap metal dealers, who persuade him to part with a bell, which is said to toll whenever a member of the family is about to die.
Wingbeats
Radio - running time approximately 10-15 minutes
A winner in the 8th Midnight Audio Theatre Scriptwriting Competition - broadcast in 2019.
A young woman leaves her home country to find a better life with her aunt, but does her aunt really have her best interests at heart?