"Exquisite Corpse" / "God On Trial"

The Edinburgh production of “The Exquisite Corpse” looks like it was a sizeable success, if updates from the production team and press reviews are anything to go by. Only The Stage provided a dissenting voice, referring to it as a shallow parlour-game; however the four-star Guardian review more than made up for that. It remains to be seen whether this will have any implications in terms of future work opportunities.

I’ve just been working on a treatment for a verbatim drama (or, rather, a drama with verbatim elements) about perceptions of the youth crime/gangs issue, which could be good if it comes off. And my play “See The Glory” is to receive a reading at London’s Young Vic, in November, as part of a season which is being sold by the Talawa Theatre Company as a search for “the modern Black Man”. “Charismatic”, my short film, has yet to be accepted by any festivals.

The most notable TV event of late has been the compelling “God On Trial” written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, in which concentration camp inmates subject the Almighty to the due process which they were denied by the Nazis. More than a guilt-massaging wallow in other people’s misery, it provided profound, but highly accessible, and wonderfully acted philosophical debate of a type which is sorely lacking within the popular media. Apparently, a leaflet produced by anti-Nazi campaigners at a recent high-profile protest neglected to mention that Jews were victims of the Holocaust, presumably in a faux-liberal effort to avoid offending Muslims – scandalous. Lest we forget, etc.