Skin Deep

Skin Deep was a full length play written whilst I was taking part in the Royal Exchange Theatre's First Eleven project - a writers group for anyone over the age of 16 that included Daniel Brockelhurst. Each member of the First Eleven group put forward a full script for consideration for a performance in the Royal Exchange Studio, and a section of that script was given a rehearsed reading in the Studio in 1999.

The piece started life as a play about cloning called The Prometheus Forge where a scientist working for a film company created a clone intended for use as stunt woman, but with whom he developed an odd relationship with.

I decided to make it more "realistic", thinking that the Royal Exchange weren't keen on anything that wasn't real, gritty drama. But I didn't enjoy writing real, gritty drama, and as a result the finished play didn't work.

The first part of Skin Deep to come was the section that was read out: the rest of the story had to be made working backwards and forwards from that middle point - never the best way to work.

Other people used a play they already had written, and then reworked it according to the group's advice. I started something new that I didn't really have worked out in my head yet. Needless to say, it wasn't my script chosen for the final performance: one of the ones that was, however, was by someone who wasn't even in the First Eleven . . .