Tom Morton Smith

Box of Tricks' A Farewell To London

2012-01-31T18:02:00.001Z

Box of Tricks, the company who staged my play In Doggerland for 503's LabFest last year, are relocating to Manchester.

They're hosting a going away party at the Yard Theatre on Saturday 11th February that will include one page plays from a whole host of writers they've worked with in the past (me included).

Tickets are available on their website.

SoundBites @ RichMix

2012-01-14T16:33:00.002Z

Here's some more promo stuff about the SoundBites event I'm doing at the end of the month (Saturday 28th).

The director of my piece is Matthew Xia, who I met the other night and we seem to be on the same page. It's all starting to look quite exciting! Very much looking forward to getting into a rehearsal room ... seems like an age since the last time.

So yes, tickets via the RichMix website.

Details on the Facebook event page.

And follow all the chat and buzz by keeping an eye on the #soundbitesrichmix hashtag.

SoundBites

2011-12-21T20:01:00.000Z

I've been asked to write a piece for a SoundBites event taking place in January next year.

I'm currently in the process of writing a play (tentatively entitled Abandonment) based on a song by musician, Abdul Shyllon. Click here to see the fantastic Abdul in action (though not singing the song I'm basing my play on).

Here's the appropriate blurb with all the details ...

Featuring some of London's most bold and exciting theatre makers and musicians, SoundBites has created a brand new space for experimentation. Music and original theatre are coming face to face live on stage for three unique collaborations.

Featuring writers Alice Birch/Rachel De-lahay/Tom Morton Smithand music acts Talk In Colour/Your Girl Likes Us/Abdull Shyllon

How it works: Two existing tracks by a live music act are sent to each writer and they create a 15 minute play inspired by the music. This music is then integrated into the performance - musicians and actors working together live on stage.The outcome: always unique!

Each music act will also do featured sets on the night. And who knows, it might even turn into a party...

Book tickets www.richmix.org.uk £8/£6
More info www.soundbites-live.co.uk
Twitter @SoundBitesLive

The first SoundBites sold out the Lyric Hammersmith Studio in September with new short plays by Ella Hickson, Bola Agbaje, Jonathan Brittain and Omar El-Khairy, inspired by the music of Martyna Baker, Kwake, The Savage Nomads and Strobe Circus... Now its back with a brand new mix of artists collaborating to create innovative new pieces of theatre.

Dog Faced Boy

2011-06-29T21:38:00.000+01:00

It's summer ... it's nearly July ... and for the sixth year running I shall have a play appearing at the Latitude Festival. When it comes to Latitude I'm much like the Tower of London ravens - without me there can be no festival (slight exaggeration). But the festival has been running for six years, and I've had a play produced at each and every one. This makes me very happy. Rodeo (2006), The Hygiene Hypothesis (2007), Uncertainty (2008), Blunderbuss (2009), Foreground (2010) ... and this year's piece ... Dog Faced Boy (2011).

As with last year, my play is being produced as part of Theatre 503's PLAYlist. I've done several PLAYlist events before, and it's incredibly healthy for my ego that they keep asking me back. The rules for PLAYlist are simple ... write a play inspired by a piece of music, which is no longer than said piece of music (the Latitude twist being that it has to be inspired by the music of a band playing the festival).

I have taken inspiration from one of my all time favourite bands: Eels. And specifically, from their 2001 track, Dog Faced Boy (that link will take you to the best version of the track I could find on YouTube - please ignore Jools Holland).

PLAYlist will be performed on the Thursday night, I believe ... so once you've got your tent up, head straight for the Theatre Arena. And Eels will be headlining The Word Arena on the Sunday night.

The Latitude Festival runs Thursday 14th July through Sunday 17th July at Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk.

Theatre 503, being the tech-savvy, multi-platform, cultural powerhouse that they are, have a blog detailing all things 503/Latitude. And to get to that blog, you must click this link here.

Also worth following Theatre 503, PLAYlist and Latitude on Twitter whilst you're at it.

Coming Up Later: 'Ave It!

2011-06-23T09:43:00.000+01:00

I've written a scene as part of chainplay 'Ave It! which is the brainchild of director Natalie Ibu. 'Ave It! is being produced as a part of the IdeasTap and Old Vic New Voices initiative: Coming Up Later. Three nights, six new pieces of work, all produced in the Old Vic Tunnels, 7th-9th July.

I'm one of 38 writers who've written a contribution to 'Ave It!, which will be dramaturged into a coherent whole by Natalie.

Here's some blurb for the project:

We Were Here < presents ‘AVE IT! at Coming Up Later, The Old Vic Tunnels.

It’s club night at The Old Vic Tunnels. Banging beats, heaving bodies and deranged dancing. Spirits are spilt, slurped and shotted. Mobile phones and friendships are lost, found and broken. The air is filled with expectation. Tonight is going to be one of those nights.
‘AVE IT! is a panoramic view of last orders in a sweaty, underground club in South East London. It’s one of those nights: one of those nights that could make your week, month, maybe even your year.

Come meet the regulars, the one night stands, the strutty-slutty girls and the boys bursting with bravado as they chase escape through revelry and watch as they encounter moments and people that will change their lives forever.

Make ups and break ups, ‘AVE IT! has it all. It’s our round, join us as we ‘ave it, rip it up, get on the lash train.

So if you can get your head around the idea that I've written a play about clubbing (I don't think I've set foot inside a club this century!) then it looks like it's going to be an exciting project.

Tickets are available here.

Also, there's an interesting article on the WhatsOnStage website about the whole thing here.

And ... if you click on this link here you'll be taken to a blog with contributions from all 38 writers about our experiences of 'aving it. You will find out which is my favourite cocktail - essential information.

The chap in the photo above is Ollie Vick, a character from the play, and you can make friends with him on facebook, if you so wish.

In Doggerland

2011-06-09T08:26:00.001+01:00

Rehearsals are well under way for In Doggerland and tickets are on sale at Theatre 503's website.

Because of dayjob commitments I am unable to attend any more rehearsals before the first day of performance. But, having seen the excellent work of director Hannah and our fine cast on Friday and Monday, I am convinced the play is going to soar. It works. On it's feet and in the actor's mouths, the play seems to work. This makes me very excited.

So yes, Monday through Wednesday next week (13th, 14th, 15th June). I'm looking forward to seeing it in front of an audience.

The play is going on as part of 503's LabFest season, of which my play is just the first of six. There looks to be some very interesting stuff going on, by writers I know and writers I don't ... and some quite exciting theatre companies involved to boot.

As I say, tickets available now ... worth booking in advance to avoid disappointment!

In Doggerland

2011-05-31T18:08:00.001+01:00

I've got some more details about my upcoming play for you. Plus there's details on Box of Tricks' website ... a Facebook event ... and an event page on Theatre 503's website (which is where you'll be able to buy tickets from eventually).

Erosion ... coastlines get battered ... they're exposed ... they're the open nerve-endings of the country.

Simon is trying to rebuild his life in the face of tragedy. His daughter Kelly misses her sister. When the mysterious Linus and Marnie arrive looking for answers, paths cross and lives become inextricably linked.

In Doggerland tells the story of four characters on shifting sands - a searching examination of love, family and identity from playwright Tom Morton-Smith, former writer-in-residence at Paines Plough and currently under commission with the RSC.

Praise for Tom Morton-Smith's Salt Meets Wound (Theatre503):

"The dialogue crackles with vicious insight and humour" - Time Out * * * *

"The writing has energy and breadth, and Morton-Smith juggles ideas and emotions as he places political and personal narratives side by side." - Guardian

"A remarkable achievement ... Morton-Smith is obviously a highly-skilled and promising writer." - The Stage

Director: Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder
Cast: Natalie Ball, Victoria Bavister, Richard James-Neale, Clive Moore

LabFest, Theatre503:

Fearless, irreverent, brave, provocative – LabFest is the distilled essence of everything Theatre503 does best: a three-week investigation of the very best new plays, so fresh the pages are still steaming. The staging will be stripped bare, the creativity will be raw, the energy will be white-hot – step into our lab and watch the chain reaction begin.

LabFest, Theatre503
13-15 June 2011, 7:45pm
020 7978 7040

In Doggerland

2011-05-24T19:35:00.002+01:00

My play In Doggerland is to be performed as part of Theatre 503's LabFest which runs through June and July.

The play is being directed by Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder and produced by Box of Tricks Theatre Company.

In Doggerland will run for three performances (13th-15th June).

I'll post a few more details once we're fully cast and we've got a blurb written. And once the tickets are on sale (which they aren't yet).

I've been working on the play off and on for the past three years, so I'm very excited about seeing it produced. It's perhaps a bit of a departure for me, being, as it is, about people and relationships ... rather than, say, quantum mechanics, Soviet irrigation practice or immunology. But I'm quite proud of it, and am looking forward to getting into a rehearsal room once again.

More details will follow.

Incision Here

2011-03-07T21:35:00.003Z

I've written a piece for a Storywhores event. Having been unable to attend their first event last year, I'm not entirely sure how the evening works ... but, from what I gather, you turn up, you drink, you pay (using coupons) a stroyteller to tell you a story, you have another drink, buy another story, and so on and so forth. Sounds like an excellent idea to me.

My piece is entitled Incision Here, so look out for it if you go along.

There's a facebook event page here.

And there are plenty of details on their website, which can be found here.

Foreground

2010-08-23T10:39:00.004+01:00

Due to the overwhelming niceness of our internet related feedback ... PLAYlist's special Latitude Festival set will be appearing at Theatre503 for a whole week. So anyone (including myself) who could not catch the show at the Latitude Festival, will now be able to catch it in London. Excellent news.

Here's a link to a mention on the Guardian website ... and another to a mention on Whatsonstage.com.

Details and tickets available from 503's website ... and here's a link to a Facebook event.

I was very pleased with how my play came out and heard great things about the other plays in the show as well. Very much looking forward to seeing it as a whole piece.

Here's some blurb:

PLAYlist is back!

Tuesday 31 August - Sunday 5th September

The Latitude Festival edition of Theatre503’s regular sell-out event is coming to London. Inspired by the music of artists who played at Latitude, we present nine new plays by a selection of established, emerging and as yet undiscovered writers.

The perfect theatrical mix-tape: some writers you know, some you don’t, but all writers you'll end up loving. Playful, poignant, or a puzzle to be solved, the only rule is that each play is no longer than the piece of music that inspired it.

A feast of fearless new writing in beautiful, bite-size chunks.

The plays:

'1993 at the Candy Shop' by Jack Thorne
'Foreground' by Tom Morton Smith
'Geese of Berverley Road' by Danny Kanaber
'I’m Thinking I Was Wrong' by Sian Owen
'Waiting for the Heartaches' by Lola Stephenson
'A Hundred Years or More' by Hannah Mulder
'Been Up All Night' by Rosalind Wyllie
'Arse' by Colin Teevan
'The Other Side of the Fence' by Ben Ockrent

The cast: Ayesha Antoine, Simon Darwen, Georgia King, Rob Ostlere and Edmund Wiseman.

Directed by Derek Bond

Tickets £10/£8 concessions
020 7978 7040
www.theatre503.com

Foreground

2010-07-05T18:40:00.004+01:00

Another year ... another Latitude Festival.

That's five in a row now. Rodeo (2006), The Hygiene Hypothesis (2007), Uncertainty (2008), Blunderbuss (2009) and now Foreground (2010).

This one's being taken up by Theatre 503 and PLAYlist, and directed by the marvellous Derek Bond (PLAYlist's mastermind).

So yes, usual PLAYlist rules apply ... apart from our inspiration must come from a song by a band playing at the festival. I've based mine on this incredible Grizzly Bear track. They're headlining the Word Arena on the Sunday night.

I, unfortunately, cannot make it along in person this year ... which really grinds my gears as it's a great line up (for PLAYlist and the festival). if you are heading to the festival, do pop into the Theatre Arena on Sunday and catch my little piece ... unless it clashes with some kickarse band you'd rather see ... I'll understand.

Here's some blurb:

PLAYlist

The Festival edition of Theatre503’s regular sell-out event. Inspired by the music of artists playing at Latitude, we present nine new plays by a selection of established, emerging and as yet undiscovered writers.

The perfect theatrical mix-tape: some writers you know, some you don’t, but all writers you'll end up loving. Playful, poignant, or a puzzle to be solved, the only rule is that each play is no longer than the piece of music that inspired it.

A feast of fearless new writing in beautiful, bite-size chunks.

Nine new plays:

'1993 at the Candy Shop' by Jack Thorne
'Foreground' by Tom Morton-Smith
'Geese of Berverley Road' by Danny Kanaber
'I’m Thinking I Was Wrong' by Sian Owen
'Waiting for the Heartaches' by Lola Stephenson
'A Hundred Years or More' by Hannah Mulder
'Been Up All Night' by Rosalind Wyllie
'Arse' by Colin Teevan
'The Other Side of the Fence' by Ben Ockrent

Directed by Derek Bond
Sunday 18th July: 4.25pm
Theatre Arena

Venison

2010-05-26T19:34:00.003+01:00

Venison comes to London!

For three nights my new play Venison will be gracing the stage of my old stomping ground, Theatre 503.

Here's some blurb:

Yellowtale Theatre Company's exciting new play heads into London!

Following our performance at The Hawth, VENISON will play at THEATRE 503 on 7th, 8th & 9th June.

Book your tickets now by calling 0207 978 7040 or by visiting www.theatre503.com.

VENISON by Tom Morton-Smith

DIRECTOR: Robin Belfield

CAST: Philip Desmeules & Sarah Jane Wolverson

A darkly humorous tale of country-pubs, car accidents and the impacts and collisions of finding love. Martin makes his money providing black-market meat to local pubs and restaurants, hunting deer on the Ashdown forest with his 4x4. He is drawn to the enigmatic figure of Robyn, a waitress who has never truly been close to anybody.

DATES: 7, 8, 9th June @ 7.45pm

Lindfield based Yellowtale Theatre Company premiere this exciting new play, developed with support from The Hawth.

"If you see them billed anywhere again - village hall, garden or capital city theatre - make sure you book a ticket." Sussex Express

Urban Scrawl

2010-05-24T15:55:00.003+01:00

I was one of 53 writers asked to take part in the Urban Scrawl project a couple of years ago. Other writers included Simon Stephens, Mark Ravenhill, Laura Wade, Bola Agbaje, Duncan Macmillan, Phil Porter ... a whole host of writers I respect and admire. The idea was to produce a radio play to represent each stop on the Piccadilly Line. It's all been nicely packaged in a swanky website where you can listen to all 53 plays. Check it out at www.urbanscrawl.org.uk.

You'll find my play at South Kensington.

Venison

2010-05-13T12:55:00.004+01:00

Rehearsals underway this week for the first stage in the development of my new play, Venison. The piece will be appearing as part of the inaugural Lindfield Arts Festival this Saturday (15th May) before it's full premiere appearance at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley next month (4th June).

Cast in Venison are a couple of old collaborators of mine: Philip Desmeules (Uncertainty, 2008, The Hygiene Hypothesis, 2007) and Sarah Jane Wolverson (Uncertainty, 2008). Nothing like working with actors you trust implicitly.

Anyway, tickets for the Hawth show are selling fast, so snap them up quickly.

Here are a couple of shots I took in rehearsal yesterday of Philip, Sarah and maverick directing genius: Robin Belfield.

PLAYlist

2010-04-30T18:51:00.002+01:00

Taking part in another PLAYlist event.

"A night of new plays inspired by music. Writers create plays inspired by a piece of music. The only rule is - the play must not be longer in running time than the music that inspired it."

8th May Theatre 503.

My short play is inspired by an awesome track by the Arcade Fire: Neighbourhood #2 (Laika).

Tickets available here.

Venison

2010-03-11T20:59:00.003Z

Tickets are now on sale for the Hawth Theatre performance of my new play, Venison.

4th June, Hawth Theatre Studio, 7:45pm.

Get your tickets on their website here.

Venison

2010-02-12T17:47:00.005Z

Writing is well underway for my new play Venison, which is a commission for Yellowtale Theatre Company. Sign up to their Facebook page for updates.

As well as being shown as part of our workshop at the Lindfield Arts Festival, Venison is going to get a full-staging for one night at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley. I'm very excited to have the Hawth onboard supporting this play, as it was a theatre I was taken to many times on school trips when I was a geeky, theatre-obsessed teenager (as opposed to the geeky, theatre-obsessed adult I've since become).

The dates for your diary are as follows:

15th May: Preview performance - Lindfield Arts Festival
4th June: Premiere performance - The Hawth, Crawley

We're hoping to organise a showcase in London after the Hawth show as well ... so keep an eye out for that.

Lindfield Arts Festival

2010-01-13T12:25:00.005Z

I will be developing a play for exciting new (relatively) theatre company Yellowtale, to be showcased at the inaugural Lindfield Arts Festival in May. Very excited to be working on something locally. The as yet unnamed play will be directed by Yellowtale's Artistic Director Robin Belfield, who will be running workshops for local people with an interest in performance as well. More details on the LAF website here.

The festival runs from 14th to 16th May.

I'll post more details about the play when I have them.

Man In Black: Flesh

2009-11-11T13:04:00.003Z

My first ever radio play, Flesh, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 7 on Saturday 14th November at 6:30pm and then again at half past midnight.

My homage to the great George Romero; the premise is essentially Zombie Hoodies ... lots of fun!

It appears as part of the Man In Black series, starring Mark Gatiss as the Man In Black.

Details can be found here.

... *grunt* ... brains ... *scratch* ... hungry ... *groan* ...

PLAYlist

2009-10-07T09:45:00.004+01:00

I'm taking part in the inaugural PLAYlist. A night of short plays and dancing at Theatre503.

Thursday 15th October, 7:30pm.

Here is some blurb:

New plays, new playwrights, inspirational music.

An exceptional ensemble cast perform new plays written by the hottest writers around, each inspired by a piece of music. The music could be anything, from Shostakovich to Shakira, but the plays can be no longer than the piece of music that inspired them. Join us for a night that promises to be the theatrical equivalent of MTV.

Tickets £10 (£8 concessions)

Music In Theatre

2009-07-31T09:25:00.002+01:00

Before the first preview of Blunderbuss a couple of weeks ago, I was involved in a discussion panel about the role of music in theatre, which has now been uploaded to The Theatre:Chipping Norton's website as a podcast. If you feel like listening to me blather on for a while, go and download it.

Blunderbuss

2009-07-25T14:38:00.004+01:00

Here's some photos of Blunderbuss in rehearsal.

All photos taken by Jenny Aston.

Blunderbuss

2009-06-07T12:26:00.002+01:00

For the fourth consecutive year I will be having new work staged at the Latitude Festival. Following 2006's Rodeo with the Royal Court, 2007's The Hygiene Hypothesis and 2008's Uncertainty with Sincera Productions, Blunderbuss will be appearing at the Suffolk music and arts festival from Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th July 2009. It's a commission from The Theatre, Chipping Norton, (recently headed by my old collaborator John Terry, director of The Hygiene Hypothesis and Uncertainty) and will be a collaboration with composer Jon Nicholls. Work on the piece begins in earnest tomorrow (Monday June 8th) in Chipping Norton, where there will also be a showcase of the work preceding Latitude on the 11th and 12th of July.

The piece will be dealing with the aftermath and media coverage of school shootings. Perfect subject matter for a musical.

DryWrite

2009-06-02T10:01:00.003+01:00

Another little morsel from me ... taking part in a DryWrite show this week. Details on their website here. Facebook event page here.

Present:Tense

2009-04-13T09:17:00.003+01:00

Back from obscurity for one night only ...

I've signed up to be part of another Nabokov theatre company's Present:Tense events.
Sunday 19th ... 8pm ... Southwark Playhouse.

I'll be teaming up in a new spirit of collaboration with playwright In-Sook Chappell, Nabokov's co-artistic director George Perrin, director Charlotte Bennett and lighting designer Tim Deiling.

Follow our progress at the Present:Tense blog here.
Find all the details on Facebook here.
There's also some Twittering going on, if that's your bag, here.
Oh ... and buy tickets here.

I think that's everything ...

Lightly Fry the Green Turtle

2008-08-30T08:24:00.002+01:00

Lightly Fry the Green Turtle gets a second life as part of an upcoming Miniaturists show. It'll be on at the Arcola Theatre on the September 14th, at 5pm and then again at 8pm. It's being directed by the wonderful Elly Green.

Uncertainty / Lightly Fry...

2008-07-28T12:02:00.005+01:00

Uncertainty tech rehearsal at Latitude.

Uncertainty in performance at Latitude.

An insanely busy six months is over. Having spent the first couple of months of the year putting the finishing touches to my play Everyday Maps for Everyday Use, I then wrote Uncertainty in merely two months (lightspeed for me - Salt Meets Wound took me four years, Everyday Maps... has taken three years). Both the previews of Uncertainty and the actual festival went really well, I was amazed by the audience's capacity for engaging with such the subject matter, even against the background hum of a generator and the whoops and cheers and thumping beats of the other tents and arenas ... but then it was last year's reaction to The Hygiene Hypothesis, which was about immunological disorders, that encouraged me to write about something like quantum mechanics. Sincera did a great job, as did all the actors, and it was great to be working with the dynamic duo of John Terry and Alex Summers as director and assistant director. Then, with the Latitude Festival under my belt, I had to hotfoot it to Liverpool for the Everyword Festival. My play, Lightly Fry the Green Turtle, was appearing as part of the Docks project alongside work by my former colleagues Michael Bhim (Future Perfect) and Stephen Sharkey (the 50). The play, a rather Dickensian romp through the turtle import trade of 1885 London, seemed to go down pretty well. Anyway ... all of that is past now. Done and dusted. My diary is now empty for the next six months. Plenty of time to write the first draft of my new play, something I seem to have been putting off for a while.

Uncertainty

2008-07-07T23:33:00.010+01:00

More photos from rehearsal. Only a week to go before the previews. Only a week and a half before the Latitude Festival.

(l-r) Isabelle Defaut, Emily Chugg, Sarah Jane Wolverson

Becci Gemmell

Isabelle Defaut

Philip Desmeules, Will Irvine

(l-r) Sarah Jane Wolverson, Alistair Gillyatt, Isabelle Defaut, Philip Desmeules, Alex Summers

Lightly Fry the Green Turtle

2008-07-07T10:05:00.006+01:00

Commissioned by Paines Plough, the Liverpool Everyman and the BBC Writer's Room - for a project entitled simply: Docks - my short play Lightly Fry the Green Turtle will be appearing at the Liverpool Everyman at 7:45pm on Friday 25th July. It's a free event as part of the Everyword Festival. You can find details on page 10 of their festival guide.

Lightly Fry... is a bit of a comedy set in the warehouse of a nineteenth century imports and exports company in London's docks. It's all about the decline of the turtle trade due to the advent of mock-turtle soup.

Here's some blurb:

A co-presentation with BBC, Live Theatre (Newcastle), Paines Plough Theatre Company and Liverpool Everyman and PLayhouse, Docks is a presentation of plays by nine writers, three from London, three from Liverpool and three from Newcastle inspired by the ports of their home-towns. Each looks at what the docks mean to their city and captures the atmosphere of the docks across time.

Also if you want a bit of a giggle, you should click here.

Uncertainty

2008-06-24T10:39:00.004+01:00

Rehearsals begin ...

(l-r) Will Irvine, Nick Court, Philip Desmeules, Isabelle Defaut, Sarah Jane Wolverson

(l-r) Emily Chugg, Sarah Jane Wolverson, Philip Desmeules, Alistair Gillyatt, Will Irvine, Nick Court, John Terry

Uncertainty

2008-06-23T12:03:00.005+01:00

The manic (but rewarding) flap that was Present:Tense is now over ... onto the next. Uncertainty begins rehearsals tonight.

Uncertainty was commissioned by Sincera Productions for the Latitude Festival. Tickets are now on sale for the West End preview, details below:

Latitude Festival West End Preview
Arts Theatre 14th & 15th July

Explain the unexplainable ... how the sun burns ... why the stars shine ... the science of love ... how a dead cat can make a man vanish into nothingness.

Sincera returns to the LATITUDE FESTIVAL this year with a new play.
Uncertainty by Tom Morton-Smith.
Directed by John Terry.

Sincera and Operating Theatre Company DOUBLE BILL
Uncertainty by Tom Morton-Smith and 'I'm a Minger!' by Alex Jones
14th & 15th July, Arts Theatre Club, 7:30pm, Tickets £9
Tickets available on TICKETMASTER (look for Sincera Productions and Operating Theatre Double Bill)

Puffins

2008-06-19T12:02:00.003+01:00

The whole Present:Tense escapade is now in full swing. All the artists met up last Sunday to discuss the papers and decide on a topic. After a bit of tooing-and-froing we agreed to write about the oil crisis, specifically this story from the Daily Express.

I've managed to complete a piece, which I've called Puffins, and it goes into rehearsal this evening for performance on Sunday. The week's been a bit manic for me, and that is due to increase. So much has to be written on instinct with such a tight timeframe, it's hard to stand back and get any perspective on the piece. Fingers crossed it's not too much of a mess!

Lisa tells me she's now got the piece fully cast, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they all do with it tonight.

I've been updating my process on the Present:Tense blog during the week, and you can find out there how all the other artists have been doing.

It's selling out pretty fast, so if there are tickets still available you can find them here.

This photo was taken during last Sunday's meeting by photographer Ludovic des Cognets. Hope he doesn't mind me posting it here.

Present:Tense

2008-06-10T11:59:00.004+01:00

I've been asked to write a piece for nabokov's upcoming Present:Tense event at the Southwark Playhouse. The idea is that a group of artists - mostly playwrights and directors but also musicians, poets and photographers - gather to read the Sunday papers, agree on the most interesting and/or important story, and then have seven days to create a response. It's a bit of a roller-coaster ride apparently, but a bit of extra pressure never hurt anyone. I'm going to be working with director Lisa Spirling, who recently directed (rather beautifully) Ali Taylor's Cotton Wool at 503.

I first worked with nabokov back in September 2006, when they staged my short play Blood on the 3for2 Display as part of one of their Shorts events.

It's all very exciting ... next week's going to be a busy week. We meet on Sunday 15th and we perform on Sunday 22nd. You can follow all of the participants progress at the Present:Tense blog.

Traditional Greeting

2008-05-18T12:08:00.006+01:00

More information about my work this week with 100 words can be found here.

It was great to be back at 503, working once again with Salt Meets Wound alumni Paul Robinson, Jonathan Warde and Sargon Yelda.

Unbeknownst to me, they had also rehearsed a ten word play that I'd written in Tuesday's workshop entitled Traditional Greeting. As it's only ten words, I've included it below.

Traditional Greeting

MARNIE: Thought it was ... traditional greeting ... welcome ...

DAVID: He groped your breast.

Exotica

2008-05-14T14:51:00.003+01:00

I've written a short play that will be appearing in a one off showing at Theatre503 tomorrow afternoon.

The piece is called Exotica, and was written as part of a 100 Word Play workshop I took part in yesterday. The workshop was populated by Chinese and British writers (of which I was one), and dealt mostly with ideas of cultural exchange and cultural shock.

Uncertainty

2008-04-21T12:56:00.005+01:00

It's been a long time since I've had anything to post about, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working.

I've got loads of things happening over the next couple of months, various projects for various people, big pieces, small pieces. The first of which I can talk about is the Latitude Festival.

Having had plays performed in the theatre arena of the Suffolk arts festival in both 2006 and 2007, I'm returning this year with a brand new piece produced by my 2007 collaborators, Sincera Productions. It's entitled Uncertainty and is about quantum mechanics. Ideal subject matter for a music festival.

The festival runs from 17th-20th July and I'm sure we'll be doing some sort of London preview beforehand.

More news once I've finished writing it.

Origins

2007-10-07T11:02:00.000+01:00

Due to complete internet failure at home for the last few weeks, I was unable to post about a piece I wrote for DryWrite Presents. 'Origins' appeared at the Hampstead Theatre on the 14th September directed by Vicky Jones. Details of which can be found here.

The Hygiene Hypothesis (latitude)

2007-07-17T08:40:00.000+01:00

The Hygiene Hypothesis appeared in the Theatre Arena at this year's Latitude Festival.

I was very pleased with how it went - the theatre-tent was packed, and I heard a lot of audience members saying some very positive things afterwards. So, yes, I'm happy (though a little sunburnt).

I took a couple of photos, and here they are:

The Hygiene Hypothesis (rehearsal)

2007-07-12T09:13:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures I took of The Hygiene Hypothesis in rehearsal.

Philip Desmeules and Jack Ladenburg

(l - r) Alistair Gillyatt (producer), Philip Desmeules, Michelle Bonnard, Alice Hutcheson, John Terry (director), Jack Ladenburg

John Terry and Philip Desmeules

Alice Hutcheson and Philip Desmeules

Michelle Bonnard

Alice Hutcheson

The Hygiene Hypothesis at 503

2007-07-04T07:59:00.000+01:00

The Hygiene Hypothesis previewed at Theatre 503 a couple of nights ago, and is now being prepared to be taken to the Latitude festival next week. It's in pretty good shape and holding together really rather well.

Jack Ladenburg has taken some photos of the production - he's also acting in the piece so no photos of his section alas.

Philip Desmeules

Alice Hutcheson and Philip Desmeules

Michelle Bonnard

Alice Hutcheson

The Hygiene Hypothesis

2007-06-12T12:08:00.000+01:00

My one-act play The Hygiene Hypothesis will be performed for two nights at Theatre 503, prior to it's appearance at the Latitude Festival.

It's being directed by director John Terry and produced by Sincera Productions. The cast includes Philip Desmeules, Michelle Bonnard, Jack Ladenburg and Alice Hutcheson.

Praise for Tom Morton-Smith:
Salt Meets Wound (2007) "**** The dialogue crackles with vicious insight and humour." - Time Out. "The writing has energy and breadth, and Morton-Smith juggles ideas and emotions as he places political and personal narratives side by side." - The Guardian. **** UKTW. "Ambitious, complex, yet marshalling its multiple reference-points with intelligent coherence, this is a play that ought to be widely seen." - Reviewsgate. "Gripping." - Metro. "A remarkable achievement ... Morton-Smith is obviously a highly skilled and promising writer." - The Stage.

Praise for John Terry:
King Arthur (2006) "Slow burning subtlety." - Time Out. "Breathtakingly beautiful." - Resonance FM
Lark Rise to Candleford (2005) "A jewel of the fringe theatre." - The Stage. "Admirably ambitious ... outstandingly affecting." The Times. Time Out Critics Choice.
Soldiers (2004) "This fluid and beautifully acted production by John Terry." - The Evening Standard. "Amazingly atmospheric." - Reviewsgate. Time Out Critics Choice. The Times First Choice for Theatre.

Praise for Sincera Productions:
By Parties Unknown: The Crypt Project (2006) "Walk across London and you walk across history - an idea ingeniously explored by Sincera Productions." - The Guardian. "Expert acting skills." - The Stage. **** Time Out.
The Elephant Man (2004) "You would have to be made of stone not to be moved." - Indie London.

Everyday Maps for Everyday Use

2007-05-17T09:12:00.000+01:00

The final project with Paines Plough's Future Perfect scheme will take place at the Everyword Festival of New Writing at the Liverpool Everyman on June 7th.

Over the past year the seven Future Perfect writers have all completed new plays for Paines Plough. Extracts from these plays will be performed during the festival.

My play, Everyday Maps for Everyday Use, is a filthy, dirty, little play about sexuality and science-fiction.

SMW opens

2007-05-12T18:51:00.000+01:00

Salt Meets Wound is now up and running. I'm very happy with it. The cast are excellent, the directing spot on, the design on all levels rocks. It was press night last night - it'll be interesting to see how it's received.

Meanwhile, my uber-talanted photographer buddy, Jack Ladenburg, has taken some production shots for us - and very classy they look too.

Ellen Sheean

Jonathan Warde and Matthew Douglas

Emilio Doorgasingh and Sargon Yelda

Damian O'Hare and Emilio Doorgasingh

Damian O'Hare and Catherine Cusack

Rebecca O'Mara

Catherine Cusack

SMW opens next week!

2007-05-01T09:12:00.000+01:00

Salt Meets Wound opens a week today.

I was asked by Caroline Steinbeis, our rather kickarse producer, whether I could write 70-100 words about the play for the program. I couldn't. Instead I wrote 753 which won't appear in the program. So I've included it here instead.

I started working on Salt Meets Wound in 2003 but the seed of the idea had been in my head for some years. I had read an article in the Sunday Times written by AA Gill about his visit to ‘the worst place in the world’ (The Fatal Shore, July 2000) – he had heard of this place where an ocean had evaporated, where seaside resorts lay sixty miles from shore and where fishing trawlers were left stranded on sand dunes in the middle of a desert. This was the Aral Sea – the world’s most horrific manmade ecological disaster. It amazed me that news of this tragedy – the near complete depletion of the world’s fourth largest inland sea – had taken so long to seep into the Western consciousness. This was a disaster that originated at the height of Stalin’s Soviet regime –something from the past, something from my GCSE history classes – that was impacting on the present. It was a story from the ignored world – the Central Asian republics, those that had been subsumed by Soviet expansion, strategically unimportant since the invention of air-travel (who needs the Silk Road when you can bypass it completely by Jumbo). It was a grand metaphor for something – but I did not know what.

I moved to London on the eleventh of September 2001. While terrorists punched holes through the World Trade Centre in New York, I was unpacking boxes in my new flat in Wandsworth. There was immense fear at the time that London was especially vulnerable. London and New York are inextricably linked, they’re cousins, and it genuinely felt dangerous to be in the city. I had always been immensely critical of America – to me it was a place filled with rednecks and gangstas, cowboys and puritans, the obese and the stupid – and I found myself struggling with those prejudices in the months following the terrorist attacks. I think what confused me the most in those days was the sense of surprise felt by the majority of people – that the attack had seemed to have come from nowhere – and it felt like no one was commenting on how nothing comes out of the blue, that it is just the ignored facets of history that come back and bite us on the arse. I needed to somehow place recent events into a historical context in order to process it.

I was only now learning about regimes such as the Taleban, I was only now seeing images of contemporary Central Asia on the news, I was only now being made aware of our alliance with Uzbekistan – and they did not chime with the exotic images I possessed of that part of the world. It seemed to me that, until the War on Terror, British concepts of Central Asia had remained relatively unchanged since the nineteenth century. Western ideas of the East fascinated me – how did we go from seeing Central Asia filled with decadent and lecherous Sultans surrounded by belly dancers to Osama Bin Laden hiding in a cave plotting the downfall of Western civilisation? Bin Laden had taken on the mantle of Hassan Sabbah – the old man of the mountain – coordinating his assassins as he sought to destroy the current world order.

My formative years were lived in a time of relative peace. I was a teenager between the two Gulf Wars. The nineteen nineties felt decidedly calm for a white middle class Sussex boy. It was the end of the century and it felt like the end of history. Apartheid had ended in South Africa, the Cold War was over, James Bond was fighting media moguls rather than terrorists. There would never be another holocaust – such tragedies as Bosnia and Rwanda were reported as no more than minor skirmishes at the dying end of a century of devastating war. And then the decade of terror began and I couldn’t reconcile how we got from one state of affairs to the other. This is a play written by a newly adult man who realised, as he unpacked his bags on his first day in the Big Smoke, that the distinctions placed upon history are spurious, that we still feel the percussive blows of the past and the shockwaves initiated by our ancestors will have ramifications reaching far into the lives of our descendants. The Great Games of the British Empire still effect us and the actions of America, the USSR, the UN, and Al-Qaeda will go on effecting the world long after they themselves have been forgotten.

The Hygiene Hypothesis at Latitude

2007-04-23T20:07:00.000+01:00

My play The Hygiene Hypothesis will be performed at this year's Latitude Festival.

Last year my short play Rodeo appeared as part of the Royal Court Theatre's Angry Now show. Rodeo was a mere five minutes long, The Hygiene Hypothesis is a longer, more complete piece with an expected running time of 50 minutes. It is going to be produced by my good friends Sincera Productions, which is great because we've been looking to work on a project together for quite a while.

The show will be performed twice, on the 14th and 15th of July.

Salt Meets Wound

2007-04-22T20:45:00.000+01:00

Salt Meets Wound is now well into rehearsal. The show runs May 8th - 26th. Tickets available through the Theatre 503 website or by calling the box office on 020 7978 7040.

The play is going to be published by Oberon Books.

We have a fantastic team working on the show. It is directed by 503's joint artistic director, Paul Robinson, and designed by award winning designer Max Jones.

The cast is the largest ever assembled for a 503 play with eight actors playing 30+ parts. The cast includes: Catherine Cusack, Emilio Doorgasing, Matthew Douglas, Damian O'Hare, Rebecca O'Mara, Ellen Sheean, Jonathan Warde and Sargon Yelda.

Later

2007-04-15T01:20:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, James Graham has had to pull out of my Later evening. Luckily though, the wonderful and talanted Oliver Emanuel is stepping in at the last minute to help out.

Tickets still available on: 0870 060 6632

Later

2007-04-10T22:37:00.000+01:00

On Monday 16th April I will be curating one of Paines Plough's Later events at the Trafalgar Studios. Here are the details:

Curated by Tom Morton-Smith

Monday 16 April - 9.45pm - Trafalgar Studios

The penultimate LATER of the spring season arrives this Monday packed full of exciting young talent.

Following on from evenings curated by Simon Stephens, Jess Walters and Chè Walker is a night with Tom Morton-Smith. In his first assignment as Paines Plough’s new writer-in-residence, Tom brings to the stage his pick of emerging writers;

In-sook Chappell, James Graham, Ali Taylor, John Terry and Tom himself.

Book early to reserve your seat and be the first to see new writing at its inception.

LATER
Monday 16 April
9.45pm
Curated by Tom Morton-Smith
Venue Trafalgar 2, Trafalgar Studios
Tickets £4
BOOKING 0870 060 6632 (No Bkng Fee)
Discount Bar after the reading

12 Metres from the Seabed

2007-03-22T08:27:00.000Z

Here is the information for my short play, 12 Metres from the Seabed (350 from the Shore), which will be appearing at the Globe on 30th March:

New Plays for an Epic Stage

Paines Plough at Shakespeare’s Globe

Globe Education has inspired Paines Plough’s futureperfect playwrights to conceive dazzling mini plays for the Globe stage.

Paines Plough invites you to be the first to see how they rose to the challenge.

Join us for seven script-in-hand premieres.

This event contains bare flesh and bawdy language.

Friday 30 March 4pm - 5.30pm
The stage at Shakespeare’s Globe

This is a free event.

To reserve your complimentary tickets please contact Sarah Hadley

Tel: 020 7902 1467
E: edassist@shakespearesglobe.com
RSVP by Mon 26 March
BOOKING ESSENTIAL

futureperfect is a group of seven writers, identified and brought together by Paines Plough, Channel 4 and Film Four as the most talented and thrilling playwrights of their generation.

futureperfect 2006 is:
Michael Bhim, Steven Bloomer, Matt Hartley, Colette Kane, Tom Morton-Smith, Lizzie Nunnery, Al Smith

Salt Meets Wound

2007-03-12T16:11:00.000Z

My first full-length play is to be performed at Theatre 503 in May.

Salt Meets Wound will be directed by Paul Robinson, who, along with Tim Roseman, is one of the new artistic directors of 503. It will run from the 8th to the 26th May.

Here's some blurb:

In an effort to escape London and the cloying memories the city holds for him, Dylan Singer embarks on a journey through Central Asia. With his alcoholic ex-fiancée, Nicola, as his translator, he begins to research the book he’s always dreamt of writing. But it’s 2002, the height of the War on Terror, and Uzbekistan is not the belly-dancing, djinn-infested, opium den that Western romanticism has led him to believe.

From 11th Century Samarkand, through the Great Fire of London, to Stalin’s abandoned biological weapons facility in the center of an evaporated ocean, Salt Meets Wound is an epic odyssey spanning a thousand years. With a cast of characters including the poet Omar Khayyam, the British explorer Alexander Burnes, plague doctors, US Army colonels and soviet veterans of the Second World War, Salt Meets Wound is a poetic and ambitious play which looks at how modern events interconnect with the rest of history and whether location does or does not retain memory.

Later

2007-03-08T19:45:00.000Z

My first job as writer-in-residence with Paines Plough will be curating one of their highly regarded Later evenings at the Trafalgar Studios on the 16th April. I have assembled a group of some of my favourite contemporaries to create an evening of brand new work.

The line up is as follows ... James Graham, Joel Horwood, In-Sook Chappell, Ali Taylor, John Terry and myself.

It should be a pretty exciting evening.

12 Metres from the Seabed

2007-03-08T19:11:00.000Z

I've been spending the last few days at the Globe Theatre, workshopping the first draft of my play 12 Metres from the Seabed (350 from the Shore). This is to be the penultimate project with Paines Plough as part of the Future Perfect writers group.

The task is to write an epic ten minute piece for performance at the Globe at the end of March. It's the most daunting stage I've ever written for, and - (combined with my discomfort at working on a script so early in the writing process) - I think the piece was a little swallowed in the space, despite a cast of six.

The rewriting process will begin in earnest next week. I believe I was so concerned about writing for that particular space that I lost sight of what makes me interesting and competent as a writer. Next week I shall approach the piece as though it were any other piece, to be performed on any other stage. I believe any considerations I need to make regards the idiosyncrasies of the Globe stage will hopefully have sunk in subliminally over the course of the last three days.

I will now have much more time to concentrate on it as I quit my dayjob tomorrow because the Paines Plough residency allows me to work full time as a playwright.

The piece is a fictionalised account of the first British nuclear tests in Australia in the fifties. My thinking was that you can't get more epic than an atomic explosion, and it's all over quite quickly so it would suit the ten minute time constraint.

During the workshop one of the actors pointed out that the metric system didn't come into effect until the seventies, and as my play is set in the fifties the title rankles a little. So it seems I may have to change the title, which is a shame as I am quite fond of it.

The final performance will be on the 30th March. I will post more details about getting tickets when I have them.

Paines Plough

2007-01-19T14:05:00.000Z

I've just been made Writer in Residence with Paines Plough.
This is a year long attachment which starts in April.
It's all very exciting.

Blood on the 3for2 Display

2006-09-20T11:44:00.000+01:00

Blood on the 3for2 Display, originally written for Paines Plough and performed at the Gardner Arts Centre in May, will be appearing at this months Nabokov shorts, at the Old Red Lion Theatre. It'll be appearing alongside work by Duncan Macmillan (who's also part of the 50 with me), and Matt Hartley (who's part of the Future Perfect group).

It'll have the same cast as the Brighton show, (Jim Fish and Lisa McDonald), and directed once more by George Perrin.

Blood on the 3for2 Display is a blood-and-biscuits love story set in a back office of a bookshop. It's only five minutes long and is perhaps one of the sweetest things I've ever written.

It's on at 7:30pm, Monday 25th September, Old Red Lion Theatre. Tickets are £5 and can be booked by calling 020 7837 7816.

The Hygiene Hypothesis

2006-08-19T15:12:00.000+01:00

After a week's worth of devising and playing with ideas, an early draft of a new play of mine was performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre - The Hygiene Hypothesis.

The play deals with the concept of allergy, and the effects that living with the condition have on the sufferer and those around them. It takes the form of three equal length monologues. The first is from Clemens von Pirquet, the early twentieth century Viennese paediatrician who first coined the phrase 'allergy'. The second from a pregnant woman who wishes to raise her child in a germ free environment. And the third from a young girl who suffers from a fatal food allergy that was diagnosed relatively late in her life.

I was ably assisted all week by the actors Julia Winwood, Hannah Emanuel, Morgan James and George Tardios. Julia, Hannah and Morgan all appeared in the performance on Friday, and I was very sorry that I couldn't find a part for George on the night. Also the time I spent working on the script with directors George Perrin and Roxana Silbert was invaluable.

I also took the opportunity to write a ten minute scene that involved all twenty actors who took part in the course. That was a huge challenge, (I think I pulled it off).

I was so pleased with how the week went that I'm going to be working on The Hygiene Hypothesis as a full length play. That brings the current total of plays I'm writing at the moment to four. I really need to get some of them finished.

The Actor's Centre

2006-07-09T18:51:00.000+01:00

I will be devising a new piece for a week at the actor's centre, as part of the ongoing Future Perfect scheme, culminating in a performance at the Tristan Bates theatre, 14th-18th August.

"A workshop enabling a group of actors to work with a group of seven emerging young writers selected by Paines Plough on the basis of talented scripts submissions. Each writer will have three actors to inspire a short new play, in an intensive week devoted to seeing the journey of a play, from a seed of an idea to performance. Actors will contribute to, and participate fully in, realising a new play written specifically for them and witness the writer’s process. Sessions will take place each evening from 6-9pm, culminating in a final performance on Friday evening in the Tristan Bates Theatre. This is an opportunity to participate in new work at its inception, to engage with playwriting process and to contribute to the development of a two way dialogue between writers and actors. The workshop will be led by Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director of Paines Plough."
from the Actor's Centre website

Latitude Festival

2006-07-06T11:02:00.000+01:00

My play RODEO will be appearing at the Latitude Festival as part of ANGRY NOW, 12 short plays produced by the Royal Court in celebration of the 50th anniversary of John Osborne's LOOK BACK IN ANGER.

Recent and Current

2006-07-06T10:29:00.000+01:00

BLOOD ON THE 3for2 DISPLAY performed at The Playwriting Party at the Gardner Arts Centre, 20th May 2006.

RODEO given full cast reading at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs as part of ANGRY NOW, 12th May 2006.

OUT OF TIME, co-written with Judy Upton, was given a full cast reading at the Hampstead Theatre as part of the inaugral Panoramic New Writing Festival, 11th May 2006. Directed by Will Kerley.

P.D.A. performed at Paines Plough's Later at the Trafalgar Studios, 2nd May 2006.

Selected to be one of the seven Future Perfect writers for Paines Plough.

Selected to be one of The 50, a project initiated by the BBC writers room and the Royal Court to nurture young playwriting talent in celebration of the Royal Court’s 50th anniversary.