I did a very poor job of maintaining a blog on my own site a few years ago. I've kept some of the longer pieces available here:
Idiocy - (December 2016) "Skip to the end of this article if you want to get to the bit where I call you an idiot, and suggest what to do about it. Otherwise, here I explain how our current blasted political landscape is all down to a loaf of bread…"
Be Chosen By Your Own Adventure - (June 2014) "A couple of years ago I was meant to be writing an open-ended narrative for a live project - that is, one starting point led to many endpoints, creating a story along the way. I found it really difficult to write anything I found satisfying. In my endearing way, I insisted to a colleague that it just wasn't possible to write meaningful, moving stories when the ending was transparently arbitrary and the reader knew that. You could build a roller-coaster ride, sure, but nothing that dumped you off somewhere other than where you got on. In retrospect, I think I was being a bit more insistent than strictly necessary. Anyway, by way of apology, I thought I might explain why I'm still right."
The Demands of Theatre - (August 2014) "I have to confess to a certain falling out of love with theatre in recent years. It might well actually more be a case of theatre falling out of love with me - or, as in any faltering relationship, a series of many complicated factors. And it might be a relationship that ultimately can be saved, or not. Watch this space. But certainly, I know that things like the Theatre Charter are a major cause of the kind of rage and hurt that leads theatre and me to scream and shout and sulk at each other."
Experience - (August 2014) - "I'm afraid of stairs. I'm allergic to sunlight. I'm allergic to everything. My tongue is worth £1m. Muhammad Ali was my mentor. I'm the world's oldest wing walker."
The Genie - (June 2016) - "A post on genies of the technological and political variety, what happens when they get out of the bottle, and why it's pointless trying to shove them back in. Now with added historical context and mournful hindsight!
At the end of 2014 I had the fun of being a small cog in a rather fantastic machine created by Tom Bowtell and Coney where I got to pretend to be a genie. In Arabian Nights, created in collaboration with the Birmingham Rep and the new Library of Birmingham, Coney created an adventure whereby an ancient genie, trapped in the internet, had to be rescued by schoolchildren through the power of storytelling. As with many other of Coney’s projects, the magic was created in the collision of a virtual digital world, implicitly understood by the children who never experienced life without it, with the real world (manipulated by some fantastic acting, design and theatrical shenanigans). My job was to be the email voice of the genie, responding to the children’s questions and remarks in a suitably genie-like manner."