My short play ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ has been chosen as one of eight winners in the New Venture Theatre 10-minute play competition. The play opened on Friday 17th July and will get eight performances over the course of this week. An overall winner (as voted for by the audience) will be chosen on Saturday 25th.

The original version of ‘Garden’ (originally entitled Criticality) was workshopped at the Theatre Lab in Burdall’s Yard back in 2012. The story was inspired by London, by how large it has become, how many people live there – more people live in London than in Scotland. The original version was set on a Northern Line Tube station, but when I was rewriting it this seemed too close, and when I heard about the New Venture competition, it made sense to set it on the platform of Brighton Station – Brighton being close to London but not too close.

Joe is desperate to get into London for New Year’s Eve, never having been there before. On the station he meets Anna and there’s an immediate spark of attraction. But when Zoe appears, a battle of wills develops between her and Anna about where Joe should spend the night. What will Joe decide to do – and just who are Anna and Zoe anyway?

Most pleasing of all, the script was edited by BAFTA Award winner Barry Purchese, who didn’t think it needed much work at all!