Author: planbsteve

Resident Writer, Dialect X/Lake 32. Bristol Old Vic Open Session writer, winner BBC Solent Radio Playwright competition. MA in Scriptwriting from Bath Spa University.

Stroud Short Stories, Eerie Evenings

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SSS Eerie evening poster copy (2)I have submitted to the Stroud Short Stories event several times before without success. I heard on the grapevine that my stories had impressed the judges, but just missed out on the final list. When the November event was announced as an Eerie Evening of Short Stories, just after Halloween I was in two minds about entering at all, as I just don’t write that kind of piece.

Anyway, I looked through my potential ideas and decided to revisit an old attempt at a story, something I have played with over the years without ever managing to get quite right. ‘Suddenly the Snow’ describes the final moments of an Arctic explorer, a member of the ill-fated Franklin expedition seeking a Northwest Passage in mid-Victorian times. Far from home, facing the horror of his starving comrades, his dying brain conjures up images of a wedding that will not now take place. The story narrates a bizarre wedding in a sun-baked London (Queen Victoria running the service), while implying that the traveller is actually dying in great pain, lost somewhere on the Polar ice cap.

Part of the inspiration came from Ambrose Bierce’s wonderful Civil War story, ‘Incident at Owl Creek Bridge’, in which a captured Confederate officer, a noose tied round his neck, believes himself to escape execution only to encounter a series of bizarre sights and events as he travels back to his home. When he does so, a terrible pain builds in his neck… and we return to the bridge, where the officer hangs dead, the entire story of his escape and adventures conjured up by his nervous system in the fractions of a second it takes for his neck to snap.

I gave the story a polish and submitted it to my fellow-writers at Somewhere Else in Cirencester. A chastening but useful experience! While they liked some of the imagery, most had little idea what the story was actually about – not helped by me titling it ‘The Chemical Wedding’, in an attempt to add some mysticism: this only confused them into thinking my traveller was indulging in illicit substances.

I decided to add more context, so in its final version, half the story is the explorer’s visions of his wedding, the other half his comments on the explorers’ doomed mission, as they drag their boats across the ice cap in the vain hope of reaching civilisation. It also gained a new title: ‘A Midwinter Wedding’.

I was quite pleased with how the story ended up and nervously submitted it to Stroud Short Stories back in September, finally hearing I had been successful last week. So now all I have to worry about is practicing reading the thing aloud: following major surgery on my jaw three years ago, my voice is not what it was…

Bread – A Dark Comedy

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A brand  new version of my radio play ‘Bread’ has now been recorded and mixed and is available to listen to below. It’s a dark comedy about marriage, money, murder and fresh bread, originally written for Stroud FM. This version was recorded for Corinium Radio.
It was recorded in Siddington Village Hall on August 20th in an internal space with reasonable acoustics (a store cupboard with a thick carpet) plus some scenes recorded outside. It was my first attempt to record using a Zoom H1 and I am very pleased with the results, despite a considerable breeze there was almost no wind noise on the recording. I plan to do a lot more recording outside for future scripts.
The original version of Bread was recorded in 2011 for Stroud FM – as part of a Writing for Radio course run by John Bassett – but I don’t think it was ever broadcast. Chloe reprises her role as Mother!
I have rewritten much of the script since then and it was shortlisted in the Wireless Theatre Company Write Bits competition, which won me a rehearsed reading at the Actor’s Guild in London. Based on their feedback, I decided to re-record the piece for Corinium Radio, as the first in a series of 15 minutes pieces.
Many thanks to my superb cast for their good work:
  • Daniel – Graham Fletcher
  • Alice – Jenny Carr
  • Mother – Chloe
  • Frank – Ian Kubiak

The Garden of Earthly Delights – Brighton New Venture Theatre

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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!

Salisbury Playhouse Original Drama – Endgame gets second reading

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Just heard today that my one act play Endgame has been chosen for a second reading in the Salisbury Playhouse Original Drama project!

I’m not 100% sure whether the winner of the process gets their script performed or just considered for a commission for something brand new, but I’m still delighted to have made it through to the second stage.

Endgame is set at the end of the Trojan War, on the night following the death of Achilles, last of the great Heroes. The spirit of the late Iphiginiea (daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed by her father in order to appease the Gods and get the Greek ships to Troy) appears in a dream and tempts Odysseus with a scheme involving a Wooden Horse to trick their way into Troy. But is Odysseus actually dreaming, or is Iphigineia’s scheme merely Odysseus’ cunning way of allowing himself to work out a truly dark plan? What really happened, what did Odysseus actually do to bring an end to the war?

Finders, Keepers recording session 1 (28th October)

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Into the studio last Monday to record Finders, Keepers for Corinium Radio.

I was very nervous beforehand, not having met all the cast yet, and not sure we would get everything done in the time available, but in the end all went extremely well. As with ‘See You Later, Elevator’ we rehearsed each scene briefly before recording it, and I had worked out a simple schedule sheet to keep track of which scenes needed which actors.

Corinium’s Cameron did a great job manning the recording desk and Liz was also on hand to laugh at the jokes!

The final scenes to be recorded on Saturday 9th November, and then I have to mix them in time for the broadcast on the 29th(?).

Bread runner up

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Delighted to hear that my short radio play ‘Bread’ was a runner up in the Actors Guild Write Bites competition! The play will now get a reading/workshop in conjunction with the Wireless Theatre Company in London on 31st October 2013.

Slightly disappointed not to win, but it’s still a great opportunity to make contact with the Wireless Theatre Company, whose first commission for BBC R4 (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) was broadcast this month.