Anyone who has had the misfortune of listening to me blabber on about playwrighting will have heard the following: theatre uses simplicity to convey complex ideas. In working through my own scripts I identify what I think of as “literary conceits” versus “theatrical moments”. By literary, I mean those ideas that are best savoured in the mind; ones that make you look up from a page and ponder for a few moments. Because of its relentless, forward movement, theatre doesn’t easily allow for these sorts of mental breaks. Any moment that puts an audience into a reflective state also pulls...