
In April 2023 BURN had an outing at De Paul University, Chicago.
Directed by Nicole Ricciardi, the students really threw themselves into the production and brought it alive in their own landscape.
Thank you, everyone, for writing and letting me see your inspiring work!





Images: De Paul University, Chicago
Produced for the National Theatre Connections programme 2005; first performed on the
National Theatre’s Cottesloe stage by Wired Youth Theatre from Northampton, directed by
Sarah Chiswell-Hornett.
Connections is an annual event, commissioning ten new plays for young people to perform.
Around 250 groups take part, putting on their own productions in a home venue; there are then
regional showcases, and the whole thing culminates with a week of selected shows at the
National Theatre.
Professional premiere in the Cottesloe Theatre in 2006, in a triple bill with
Enda Walsh’s CHATROOM, and Mark Ravenhills’ CITIZENSHIP.
Cast
Sal Alex Tregear
Aaron Robert Boulter
Sita Farzana Dua Elahe
Linda Andrea Riseborough
Rachel Naomi Bentley
Birdman Andrew Garfield
Social Worker Joy Richardson
Mel Claire-Louise Cordwell
Marie Mattie Houghton
Tom Matt Smith
Niall Sid Mitchell
Colin Javone Prince
Directed by Anna Mackmin
Designed by Jonathan Fensom
Music played live by Paul Higgs, Michael Berk, Matthew Orde
This is Birdman’s story. But it’s his friends who must find out how to tell it, what the events of
the day were. The play is a ballad, it flows like the river, it moves along and comes back to itself.
Since 2005 groups of young people from as far away as Australia, Germany, America and the Czech Republic have made BURN their own. It inspires me to see that something I wrote, prompted by my own surroundings, can be picked up by someone in another town, another county, another country and they can say: This is us. This is our landscape. Here.
“achieves serious pathos and intensity; you watch the leading characters with compassion, curiosity and concern… Enthralling.”
The Financial Times
BURN is published in the CONNECTIONS ANTHOLOGY 2005 by Faber and Faber
by Oberon Books (together with ROSALIND: A QUESTION OF LIFE)
and Samuel French
BURN was runner-up in the 2007 Brian Way Award
BURN