Divine Chaos of Starry Things (White Bear, 2017)
Paris 1871: A revolt takes control of a global city. In the final days, working class women – seamstresses, teachers and sex workers – take up arms, desperate to defend the freedoms they have won. Their attempt fails and they are exiled to remote New Caledonia. Based on the memoirs of 19th century feminist icon Louise Michel, Divine Chaos of Starry Things asks: what happens when downtrodden people experience the transformative power of mass action, only to be defeated?
How did we get from Occupy and the Arab Spring to Donald Trump? Narrated by Paul Mason, script developed in collaboration with director David Lan, producer Ben Cooper and the cast: Khalid Abdallah, Lara Sawalha and Sirine Saba. Commissioned by BBC Performance Live. Performed at the Young Vic March 2017. Broadcast on BBC TWO 22 July 2017
15 minute play co-written with James Quinn for the JB Shorts festival, Manchester, 2016: Sally Carman stars as Fedora Hill, Blairite apparatchik, who falls into a coma as on the night Labour loses the 2015 election only to wake up as an unexpected leftist wins the party leadership. “The cherry on the cake … guaranteeing the audience leaves wiping away tears of laughter as they go.” – Charlotte Broadbent