About
A Word from the Playwright:
Touching the blue was born out of sheer frustration. I had been looking for an established piece of writing to stage with an actor friend of mine – he was going to act and I was going to direct him – two pals having a bit of fun – nothing more. The trouble was that after months of searching I couldn’t find anything that either suited or was available for license. In the end I decided to take the bull by the horns and write something myself. A daunting task, as up to that point my writing credentials amounted to several pantomimes and a half finished novel.
I remember sitting at my PC and wondering where to start. I had no preconceived ideas, no setting, period, or class status to kick me off. All I knew was that I was writing for a single player who happened to be in his mid fifties (the age of my actor friend).
The fifties are a complex and difficult time for us human beings. Some of us are relaxing smugly in the knowledge that we have achieved most of what we set out to do in life. Others, who have not been so successful, are busy convincing themselves that they never want much anyway. Some have given up all together and are thankful to be officially out of the race and then comes that rare species, that rogue element that refuse to back off or to except defeat gracefully. That’s the guy that makes a writers creative juices start to flow.
It was whilst I was contemplating this autopsies of the ‘over the hill mob’ that Derek Hodges walked (or was it barged?) into my imagination and ‘Touching the Blue’ breathed its first tentative breath.