Adrian's Writing

...in between cups of tea.

Here’s a selection of my scripts:

'
Aftermaths' - This is my latest comedy television script (feb 2012). It's about four male teenagers who wake up in their school library to find that something strange and terrible has happened, leaving everyone else in the world either unconscious or missing. Unlike more traditional disaster movies, they're not thinking about how they can rebuild society, help other survivors and find a cure for what's happened. Their main questions are 'have any attractive females survived?' and 'if they haven't survived and have become un-dead instead, is it okay to get off with one?'. The 'aftermaths' script is currently at the JFL agency.

A Doctor Who episode called '
Which doctor' - This was lots of fun to write. The Doctor and Amy are already developed, so I could just focus on the story and how it brought out aspects of the character, and how to keep the audience enthralled. This episode is currently sitting at the JFL agency. It's highly unlikely to get bought...

A one hour radio romantic comedy called
Cupid’s Bow - This took ages to write. It originally started as a full length screenplay and that version is still sitting on my laptop. The only problem with screenplays is that it costs a LOT to make a film of them. I’ve come to conclusion that I’ll write another screenplay if someone asks me to. Otherwise, I’ll stick to cheaper mediums, like radio or television or graphic novels or novels. This comedy was submitted to the BBC writers room, the place to send unsolicited work to the BBC.

A one act play called '
Can't see, won't see' - This was submitted to the Cornerhouse theatre in Surbiton. It's part of a one act theatre festival next spring. I only found out at the last minute that they're looking for plays for a family audience so I've toned down the language. Apart from that, I think a secondary school kid would be happy with it (I think!). The play is a tense drama with suspense, betrayal, surprises and a twist (or two!). p.s. don't read the summary on the first page if you want to be surprised! It is one big plot spoiler.

A 15 minute stage play for the
REDFest drama festival at the Old Red Lion theatre in Islington called 'Stuck' - This was very much a 'chase the deadline' piece of work. I knew the deadline for the competition was looming and I hadn't been able to come up with something. Friday morning was my last chance. Fortunately, with the pressure of that deadline, I wrote 'Stuck' between 10am and noon. It's a simple setup; a man and a woman are stuck in a lift. They used to be a couple and now they really don't want to be together. This may not come as a big surprise :) but being stuck together in the lift forces them to talk about their relationship and their difficulties. They don't end up embracing and kissing etc but they do get to enjoy shared memories and a shared view of the funnier aspects of life.

The only prop in the play is a ripped out emergency button and the lift is represented as a simple chalk square on the stage that they can't leave. The professional feedback on 'can't see, won't see' pointed out the difficulties of extensive props and effects in a short play, so in 'stuck' I've tried to keep things as simple as possible. A lot of the quality of the play relies on the two actors' timing. There are moments when pauses are valuable and other moments when there should be no pauses at all. Hopefully, it'll be clear to the performers where these go. I didn't want specify them because I'd probably end up looking autocratic and patronising (heaven forbid!).