May 2012
1 post
WatchMy three-minute highlights video of the Royal Court Young Writers Festival
April 2012
2 posts
WatchMy trailer for Bola Agbaje’s Belong, on at the Royal Court from 26 Apr - 26 May.
WatchRoyal Court writing toolkit episode five - Top Plays.
March 2012
6 posts
WatchMy latest video for the Court’s Young Writers Toolkit: Motivation & Focus
WatchRoyal Court Young Writers’ Toolkit Episode Three - Where and When
WatchRoyal Court Young Writers’ Toolkit, Episode Two - Inspiration
When One Thinks...
A few days ago I read a review of Ishy Din’s new play Snookered, which has just started its run at the Bush Theatre. The play tells the story of a group of young British Muslims who meet for a game of pool on the anniversary of a friend’s death.
The Daily Telegraph review, by critic Charles Spencer, begins with the following paragraph:
When one thinks of young male Muslims in...
WatchRoyal Court Young Writers’ Toolkit – Episode One
February 2012
2 posts
WatchRoyal Court Young Writers Festival - Toolkit Teaser
2012 Update
Busy times make for a dusty website… So here goes, a quick update:
- I just finished making a new short film called The Ninety-Nine Percent. I shot it over a couple of days with some actor friends for submission to a competition, and have spent a lot of hours having fun putting it together on my ailing iMac…
- I’m directing a short play as part of Theatre503’s Rapid...
January 2012
1 post
December 2011
1 post
WatchTrailer for my new short film Balloon Man.
November 2011
3 posts
“You make films to give people something, to transport them somewhere else, and...”
– Krzysztof Kieślowski
Arvo Pärt - Spiegel Im Spiegel
October 2011
3 posts
How to Make a Short Film by Yourself
I recently finished a new short film called Balloon Man. It stars three hugely talented actors I’ve worked with in the theatre – David Morley Hale, Amanda Daniels, and Patrick Toomey - and the process of making it has easily been the most rewarding creative experience I’ve had to date.
Why? Because I challenged myself to shoot it without a crew and without a script. Ordinarily, this...
September 2011
1 post
July 2011
3 posts
Anonymous asked: Have recently watched you in Forever Green and am interested in the origins of your name. Please tell me about it.
July update
It’s been a crazy week - on Sunday I directed a staged reading of an hour-long piece of new writing at the Oval House Theatre, which was performed on Monday at the Blue Elephant in Camberwell. This was easily the most fun I’ve had in my theatre directing experience to date - it’s so liberating when you get the chance to work with actors who not only take notes quickly but also...
June 2011
1 post
“I think people are often quite unaware of their inner selves, their other...”
– Jeanette Winterson, The Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 150
May 2011
4 posts
June update
Exciting things afoot over the coming month! On the writing front, my short play L.B.W. has been selected for production at Exeter’s BikeShed Theatre as part of their NewBlood Festival on June 5th. Tickets available here.
Also, I’ve also been asked by the good people of Tamasha if I’d like to direct one of the pieces in association with Mulberry School for Girls at their...
Future Shorts
The distributor for my short film Baghdad Express has put the film up on their YouTube channel, and less than a week later there have already been over 10,000 views.
This is obviously exciting in a general, “ooh, that’s a lot of people” sort of way, but what’s most enjoyable is watching the stream of comments coming in from the viewing public in inimitable YouTube...
Balloon Man
Am very excited as I’ve finally written the outline for my next short film. It’s called Balloon Man. It’s partially devised. It has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. It has a cast to die for. Can’t wait to get started!
April 2011
4 posts
Tamasha's Actor/Director Lab
What an incredible week. What an amazing experience.
Summarising the seven days of Tamasha’s Actor/Director Lab is a challenging task. Reading any of the accounts of my colleagues, you’ll note that those who shared the ride have reached out and grabbed the closest superlative to hand. “Outstanding”, “fantastic”, “wonderful”,...
“We’ll meet one day,
like a paper boat and
a watermelon that’s been cooling in...”
– Shadows Pass Us By by Nikola Madzirov
On Anthony Minghella, Directing, and How to Live
I’ve decided to make an effort to contribute something to this site on a daily basis - partly as an exercise in self-discipline, but also to brighten the mud of self-promotion with regular fragments of beauty.
So here’s today’s fragment.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the late, great Anthony Minghella lately, not only because I love his work (and this lecture), but also...
March 2011
10 posts
Anonymous asked: Do you think Benson's Riddle is about paper (=printing of books?) If you think it's worth answering my question, perhaps you cold do so via your site, so I remain anon? Yours, grey-haired Anon.
Amo, Amas, Amat
I’m directing a staged reading of a half-hour play I’ve written called Amo, Amas, Amat at Riverside Studios on Monday 7th March, directly after Gotcha (which starts at 7:45pm).
The reading stars Sally Mortemore and Michael Linsey - if you can make it, please do come along! You can buy a ticket to the wonderful Gotcha (and get to see my play for free) by clicking here.
WatchI made this trailer for Barrie Keeffe’s Gotcha, showing at Riverside Studios from 1st - 19th March 2011. Buy tickets here.
February 2011
4 posts
Anonymous asked: Are you the same Nimer Rashed who appeared as Tom Boult in 1989-1992? If so, can you remember where the house was that was used as the location for the Boults' house in Somerset.
WatchTrailer for The Biting Point by Sharon Clark at Theatre 503, playing 15th Feb - 12th March. Buy tickets here.
Riddle (redux)
A large number of visitors seem to have landed on this site looking, like me, for an answer to Gerard Benson’s Riddle which is currently circulating around the underground, baffling idle commuters.
My latest theory is that it actually refers to the apple in the Garden of Eden – it’s the only thing I can think of which can claim to have brought strife to the world, light to darkness,...
January 2011
5 posts
Riddle
UPDATED: For the latest Riddle theorising, visit this post!
Fans of Poems on the Underground may have spotted the following verse sandwiched between ads for mobile phones and fitness programmes on their tube ride into work in recent weeks:
I was the cause of great troubles, yet, resting among leaves, I did nothing wrong. After much waiting I was taken in hand, passed from one to another....
Anonymous asked: Are you working on any new material at the moment?
