What inspired your play?

Originally, I wanted to do this idea two years ago. It’s an adaption of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Les Mains Sales, which was written in 1947, and it was one of the first plays to tackle Marxist theory. It’s a really interesting exposé on the nature of politics: idealism versus realism and how they interact, ideas of gender and meta-theatricality. 

It’s a really, really interesting play, but it was about three hours long and it needed to be cut down to be a more entertaining thing for an audience. So I thought 2016 and 2017: although they’ve been atrocious for many people, they have been an absolute gift in terms of the genesis of this project.

It means all of the Trump stuff, Brexit, Leicester winning the Premier League: there’s just been so much that’s gone on that we’ve been able to create this absurdity of the political situation through our comic trio and our dramatic cast as well.

What makes your play exciting?

It’s really fun because right now it’s an unfinished written product. It’s going to be written right up until the day before. So it’s going to be seriously topical: there’ll be news there from that week.

What is the status of original writing in Cambridge?

I think original writing should be definitely be encouraged. They’ve got some great competitions at the moment with a lot of the societies, like at Downing, and there’s all sorts of things going on at Pembroke, as well as Robinson, too. 

I would very much like to be at the [fore]front of original writing. I’m doing an adaption of a French piece and the original is three hours long, and it’s the first to tackle Marxist theory, so it’s quite an engaged piece.

Vulture Introducing: Love In Idleness

So I was keen to bring it down to the two-hour mark with an interval and put my own 2017 spin on it, so it feels very contemporary and also has a kind of universality. 

How do you balance your Cambridge workload with the production?

It’s very difficult and often doesn’t happen. But I am really, really committed to this project – it’s an idea that precedes me even coming here – so that’s the kind of thing that spurs me to get up at like 4am to try and whack this all out, because I want it to be to the best of my abilities and the actors’ abilities, too.

So meeting things like script deadlines, adjustments and attending rehearsals takes more time than I anticipated, but at the same time, it’s probably the most enriching and rewarding thing I’ve done since I’ve been here so I hope to continue to do lots more of it in the future.

Dirty Hands: A Brexistential Crisis will be running for five nights at the Pembroke New Cellars at 7pm between Tuesday 21st February and Saturday 25th February. Student tickets cost £6 and are available here