Bad News, Good News, and an Upshot

Some time ago I mentioned that Paines Plough had decided to do a new play of mine in autumn 2007. The play is called The Waiting Room, it's about class and gentrification, and it's set in contemporary Cardiff. Paines Plough are a massively respected, world-renowned company, but they're also fairly small, and they stretch their budget by making sure they co-produce everything they do. They had been looking for a Welsh co-producer for my play, but have been unable to find one. Sgript Cymru were initially enthusiastic, but given that they're about to merge with the Sherman, and it's not clear who will be running the new company, they were unable to commit to co-producing the tour. And because there is no-one in Wales to co-produce a piece of new Welsh work, Paines Plough are not now going to do my play. It would be financially crippling for them to produce it solo: and they have plays set in places like Manchester or Liverpool or London, and find that theatre companies from Manchester and Liverpool and London are eager to co-produce those plays with them.

In contrast: I've just found out that another play I've been working on, called We That Are Left, is going to be produced in spring 2007 by the Palace Theatre in Watford, which has just been taken over by Brigid Larmour. We That Are Left is set in the south east of England, both in the present day and in 1940.

I've been a professional writer for six years now. Wales is the default setting for all my work, because Wales is where I come from, Wales is where I live, and the voices I hear all around me every day are Welsh voices, of various different flavours. But it's impossible for me to avoid the conclusion that whenever I write about Wales, I'm handicapping myself as a playwright. Because I'm writing plays for a country that doesn't really want plays. Or at least not my plays. I should probably take the hint and just, you know, piss right off.