The Great White Bear and Me
(Upcoming) Milton Court Concert Hall, Guildhall School. 2026.
‘White-Bear King Valemon’ by Theodor Kittelsen (1912).
I wrote the text for a new musical work for soprano and double bass by composer Pernille Faye. ‘The Great White Bear and Me’ reimagines a Norwegian folktale in which a young princess is married to a white bear. Our piece explores the darkness which underlies so many fairy tale tropes, and looks in particular at the real-world resonance of the recurring cross-cultural theme of ‘animal as bridegroom’.
The piece will be performed as part of ‘Contemporary Collaborative Voiceworks’ at Milton Court Concert Hall in May 2026.
Hansel & Gretel
Grimsby Auditorium, Grimsby. Derngate Theatre, Northampton.
Primary Music Festival 2026.
In partnership with Royal Ballet and Opera, this production of ‘Hansel & Gretel’ was performed by children from 25 DRET primary schools, alongside two professional opera singers and a chamber ensemble from the Royal Academy of Music.
I wrote the script for this production, creating a series of spoken interludes for young narrators to perform between Humperdinck’s songs.
Mouth to Mouth
2026.
Photographer: Conrad Magan
‘Mouth to Mouth’ is a short film shot in a London foot tunnel, featuring a chance encounter and a dead rat. It explores memory, attachment and the tunnel as a liminal space where transformations take place.
Director: Poppy Franziska
Director of Photography: Conrad Magan
Writers: Sophia Trewick & Poppy Franziska
Starring Clay Milner Russell and Lily Walbeoffe
I can feel time
Milton Court Concert Hall, Guildhall School. 2026.
Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York. 2026.
A song cycle written in collaboration with composer Mary Offer exploring urban materialism, loneliness and the passing of time. Performed in London and New York by Seohyun Go (soprano), Kosuke Shirai (clarinet) and Chloé Dumoulin (piano) as part of the ‘Guildhall Artists in New York’ programme.
Gef!
Milton Court Studio Theatre. ‘Making It’ Festival. 2025.
Photographer: David Monteith-Hodge
‘Gef!’ is a chamber opera inspired by real events which unfolded in the 1930s at Doarlish Cashen, a remote farmhouse on the Isle of Man, inhabited by the Irving family and, as they claimed, a talking mongoose by the name of Gef who was fluent in five languages, possessed a mean sense of humour, and enjoyed listening to popular songs on the gramophone.
As librettist, I worked in close collaboration with composer Sam Meredith during Guildhall’s MA in Opera Making & Writing, in association with the Royal Ballet & Opera. ‘Gef!’ premiered at Milton Court Studio Theatre in June 2025 in a production directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans, designed by Florence Lindo and conducted by Dominic Wheeler.
Let it Be a Tale
Brighton Dome, 2024.
Written in collaboration with a young cast and based on international folktales gathered over months of research, ‘Let it Be a Tale’ was a ThirdSpace Theatre production for Brighton Dome, funded by Arts Council England and Brighton & Hove City Council’s Prosperity Fund.
In the early stages of the writing process, I spent time at the British Library, gathering fairy tales and folklore from around the world in order to produce a script rooted in a range of histories and traditions. I worked closely with director Tanushka Marah, attending rehearsals and running writing workshops with members of the cast and creative team.
BAKKHAI
Brighton Festival, 2024.
“A highly relevant version for our times”
“An extraordinary dramatic achievement”
- Brighton Source
‘BAKKHAI’ was a ThirdSpace Theatre production for Brighton Festival, produced in collaboration with Ceyda Tanc Dance and Brighton People’s Theatre. The show was an epic retelling of the Ancient Greek tragedy for young audiences. As lead writer, I was responsible for producing a script in collaboration with the young people in the company which amplified their visions and voices.
Backbone
Reed Hall Pond, Exeter. July 2024.
‘Backbone’ is a Belarusian play written in 2022 by an anonymous writer. The script interweaves mythological and autobiographical tales to open up a dialogue on artistic censorship, womanhood, and trauma of the land and body. I worked as producer and dramaturg in close collaboration with the writer and director (Poppy Franziska) to stage a site-specific UK premier of the work in association with Maketank (an Exeter-based cultural lab). We also worked with artist Nicola Turner who provided interactive sculptural forms for the production.
As dramaturg, I conducted independent historic research and led workshops with the cast which explored the play’s relationship to the unfolding socio-political situation in Belarus. I also assisted the director in the planning and running of rehearsals and was responsible for organising and hosting a post-show discussion between the international community of artists involved in the project.