To date, my research has focused on post-1968 British playwriting and contemporary ‘verbatim’ and documentary performance. I’ve been particularly interested in how we might trace and revaluate the political in various forms of contemporary theatre. During the long 1990s, I worked as a professional actor, taught courses on various aspects of theatre in a number of higher education institutions, and researched for a Labour parliamentary candidate and trade union. My PhD project brought together two related fields of interest: the negotiation of political critique in a range of theatre forms and, more specifically, the representation of topical political events and living parliamentarians on the British stage from 1968.

            One strand of my research has focused on the generation of British playwrights that emerged from 1968, including Howard Brenton, David Edgar and David Hare. I’ve a long-standing passion for the theatre of Howard Barker and have published widely on his work. I have also completed research on British theatrical responses to the Cold War (for Routledge) and the second Iraq War (Contemporary Theatre Review). The book I’ve recently co-edited with Alison Forsyth, Get Real – Documentary Theatre Past and Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), reflects my interest in the resurgence of ‘verbatim’ and documentary theatres around the world in recent years (my research in this broad area has focused on the Tribunal plays performed at the Tricycle Theatre and elsewhere). I am currently writing a book on Sarah Kane for Routledge.

            My teaching in the department focuses on post-war British theatre, contemporary political theatre/theatres of resistance, directing, and Naturalist/Modernist theatre, and I supervise a number of postgraduate and research students working in these areas.

            I’m a member of Equity, and, over the past decade, I’ve been involved in two actors’ companies that specialise in the application of role-play techniques in professional training contexts including, most recently, in prisons. I also run workshops for students and professional actors; in 2008, supported by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Saison Foundation, I travelled to Tokyo to work with directors, actors and trainers on Stanislavsky and Brecht. I am a company director and trustee of Love&Madness.