Writing

I write interactive theatre, opera, and various other things. My work's been performed by the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, and Grimeborn, in countries from Canada to Poland, with subjects ranging from the nature of monstrosity to Macbeth having an affair with a pantomime camel. I've also worked as an opera translator.

Recent accolades include a residency at the London Lovecraft Festival (for Painting Pickman's Model and The Estate Sale of Randolph Carter), the Offie Award Assessors' Choice (for Come Murder An Uncanny Thing), and a Theatre Deli Classic Residency (2023).

So, what am I interested in as a writer?

Recently, I've increasingly found myself asking the simple dual questions: what do I want this to feel like? What is it really about?

It can take some time to triangulate to those two points, but from there one can start building the rest of it. How its sense of time should feel, or how the audience is brought into the space, or anything else within the infinite choices live performance offers.

Further, working across so many forms, I think you should always have an answer to 'why is this opera/interactive theatre/a play?'. If you don't, then you're making a very expensive choice.

I also really like working with others and building a team. It's a lovely way to build a world of beauty, whether with a composer, a company of actors, or something else.

A purple-haired, gold-robed figure sits on a throne.

The Uncanny Things Trilogy (2025)

The cumulation of 5 years' work. Three interlinked interactive immersive operas, weaving a world across a month of work.

A blue suited figure holds a cane, looking confused.

The Estate Sale of Randolph Carter (2025)

A raucous auction of occult paraphernalia - hosted by an increasingly bewildered auctioneer, attended by representatives of rival secret organisations.

A drawing of a sinisterly grinning figure with bat-like wings.

Painting Pickman's Model (2025)

What is the worst in humanity, and can you ever forgive it?

Various people sit in a bookshop. One of them is singing.

Queer Renaissance (2025)

A salon performance, presenting Renaissance works (especially Strozzi) by queer artists.

A photo of various identical masks fading into view in front of a colourful background.

Our People's Song (2025)

A public presentation of my 'Our People's Song' at a games convention in Poland.

A group of people looking seriously at a Monopoly board.

12-Handed Monopoly (2025)

A LARP of capital, revolution, and blatant theft. Presented at The Smoke, 2025

Socrate (2024)

A salon performance, using interactive tools to capture a modern 'translation' of a fin-de-siecle Parisian premiere.

A cloaked figure sits on a throne above a kneeling figure.

Come Worship Our Uncanny King (Workshop, 2024)

The first test of the court of the Uncanny King; a sequel to Come Bargain With Uncanny Things.

Two people stand together, one holding a hand over their eye.

We Sing/I Sang (Voidspace Festival, 2024)

The finalised version of We Sing/I Sang, creating communities and tales with its audience using nothing more than an empty room.

A masked figure kneels, throwing their head back in apparent pain.

The Key of Dreams (2024-5)

The iconic 24-hour interactive immersive experience - and I have a part in creating this world of cosmic horror, cults, and characters.

A black-and-white image of a person reaching out, stood in front of a drawing of a city.

Into The Dreamlands (2024)

A free-form wandering through the realms of Dream - and postcolonial approaches to 1920s fantasy.

A photo of a person in a brown dress and purple jacket, with wings made out of metal strips, string, and bits of paper

Paradise Craved (2023)

A small show about a fallen angel lost in the city. Interactive, emotional, intimate.

A picture of a person with angel wings made out of scraps of metal, string, and paper.

12 Shows (2023)

A set of small experiments throughout 2023, from interactive horror to shows for a field of sheep.

A group of people in retro clothing sat around a table.

Come Bargain With Uncanny Things (2022)

The finished version of Come Bargain With Uncanny Things, an interactive immersive opera in which you come and bargain with uncanny things.

A picture of a king in a casual version of military dress, slumped over a chair

The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken (2021)

Scottish Opera's production of the long-neglected Kurt Weill opera, using my translation for the opera's Scottish premiere.

A picture of a hooded figure grinning sinisterly at the camera.

Come Bargain With Uncanny Things (2021)

An interactive, immersive opera in which the audience tried to save their local area through rituals of bargaining with a supernatural creature; the first iteration of what would become The Uncanny Things Trilogy.

Two people in dystopian costumes marching on the spot.

The Last Party On Earth (2020)

A pandemic-era libretto about two scavengers finding a hoarder after the apocalypse.

A picture of an old chair behind an old table in an old room.

Archive From Another World (2020)

An imagined history about a world torn apart by a fight over its own archives, told through the articles of its scholars and the archive itself.

A black-clad figure in a black, white, and silver mask holds a fan at their side.

We Sing, I Sang (2020)

A new improvised opera about collectives and individuality, drawing on Noh theatre, science fiction, and game-based theatre at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival.

A picture of an old chair behind an old table.

Beckett's Tavern (2020)

Winner of the Saga Forge Adventures writing prize, this one-shot takes the trope of 'you meet in a tavern' and asks 'what if Beckett wrote this?'

An image of an island at night, taken from above.

We Have A Situation (2020)

A trio of imagined national anthems for warring countries in Parabolic Theatre's show.

A show poster based on Kodachrome packaging, advertising a show called Man and God.

Man and God (Online, 2020)

The ongoing development of Jake Dorfman and I's musical, based on the latest research into the Jewish musician-scientists behind mass colour film.

A black-clad figure in a black, white, and silver mask holds a fan up high.

We Sing, I Sang (2019)

A new improvised opera about collectives and individuality, drawing on Noh theatre, science fiction, and game-based theatre. Performed at the Omnibus Theatre.

ROH Opera Dots: Pagliacci (2019)

An adaptation of Leoncavallo's opera for the Royal Opera House's education department, performed in the Floral Hall for young opera-goers

A dramatic person in a glamorous cloak holds a hand to their heart.

Don Jo! (2019)

A new way of approaching Mozart's classic - a cover version made with the Arcola Queer Collective. Nominated for the 2019 Offie Awards.

A man riding a pantomime camel holds his hands out joyously.

The Perfect Opera (2019)

Love! Death! Macbeth! And a pantomime camel! With everything you want shoved into this hiphop foxtrot operatic sketch comedy opera at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. " a very serious attempt to conquer the comic opera genre." - The Wee Review

Two people hold hands before a priest. Photo from a stage show.

Man And God (workshop, 2019)

A new musical for UCL Culture about the Jewish musician-scientists behind the invention of Kodachrome - bringing together Gershwin, Einstein, and Hitler.

A woman in a frilly red kimono holds the trigger ball for a 'camera' (actually a Bauhaus-style painting of a camera).

The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken (2019)

A return to this rare Kurt Weill opera with University College London academics. "Punchy, entertaining staging" - Opera Magazine

A pantomime camel waltzes with a person in a white shirt, in front of a small band.

The Perfect Opera (Workshop)

The first outing of this hiphop foxtrot operatic sketch comedy show - hailed as a "perfect fringe hour" by workshop audiences.

A selection of foam weapons on an orange cloth.

A War Game (2018)

A semi-improvised show based around a new cycle of poems on the evolving history of war, the order determined through live combat.

A selection of dangling objects, most of which are red.

Reel (2018)

An illusion-based text, experimenting with double meanings, misheard words, and evolving meanings. Presented as part of the 2021 Festival.

A person in a red jacket looks at a two people fighting in a concrete corridor.

The Left Fang (2018)

A vampire opera webseries, featuring a resistance movement fighting vampires across London's streets. Part of Virtually Opera: Series 2.

A black and white image of a person in a fedora looking upwards.

Virtually Opera, Series 2 (2018)

Continuing the experiments of Virtually Opera Series 1, Series 2 started to place opera in 'film native' contexts like vlogs and news broadcasts.

A person sits on a stage by a projected map. The audience sit around them.

Schiller: The Operas (2018)

A semi-staged concert-lecture as part of The Faction's Schiller Festival, bringing together all the different operas based on Schiller's works.

A show poster, featuring an Ace of Spades against the colours of the asexuality flag (purple, white, grey, black). Text reads 'A Speaks'.

A Speaks (2017)

A clown play about asexuality, presented at the Camden People Theatre's Hotbed Festival. "Great and inviting. Also very playful and fun." - Audience feedback

The Hummingbird (2017)

My first chamber opera libretto, telling the tale of a forest being chopped down. Perhaps the most neo-Romantic of my libretti so far.

A group of people in white clothes wrap themselves around one another in a tube carriage

Still Magic, Still Tragic (2017)

An experimental libretto, layering different experiences within a crowded Tube train. Presented in a site-specific show at the London Transport Museum.

A picture of an old wooden chair, table, and room.

Past Out Of Time (2017)

A piece for two singing violists, for which I wrote the words.

A person stands on the stage of the Wigmore Hall, hands over their mouth.

Guildhall Voiceworks (2017)

A set of song texts written for the Wigmore Hall, in collaboration with three different teams of composers and singers.

A picture of a Victorian building with classical-style pillars at night.

Centenary (2016)

An early play, shortlisted for the Karl Kraus award

A TV screen showing a pool in a theatre room

Cogitatio (2016)

A meditation text, written in partnership with the MA in Collaborative Theatre students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Three people in blue lighting. The middle one raises their hand.

At The Break Of Dawn (2015)

A new play that toured through Germany and the UK, nominated for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. Telling the tale of three revolutionaries on the eve of the great event.

Living In Meatspace (2015)

An early play about the gulf between the digital realm and meatspace.

A picture of a late-teens Leo Doulton, wearing an orange plastic rain poncho, in about 2014.

Student Comedy (2012-5)

Included more for nostalgia, completeness and honesty than anything else - my first forays into directing and writing.