I started working in theatre to experience collaboration’s creative potential. By taking this project from stage to film let me follow that spirit a step further through the magic of adaptation. It was both thrilling and terrifying to release this story not only to a director, cast and crew, but also to a co-writer. But through its distillation, I was able to locate aspects and meanings hidden in the story that my conscious mind hadn’t yet been aware of.

Like much of my writing, Bleach Bone began as an exercise in cultivating subconscious ideas on the page. Watching certain ideas emerge, either on stage or screen, is always a fascinating surprise. Seeing how others interpret and bring life to the story and characters is an incomparable process of communion, communication, and discovery.

In this case, the feeling was increased to an even greater degree on account of the story’s themes. What our lead character doesn’t know about his own motives and memories compels him to dig; as he digs, he finds new tensions and truths, but also more questions. This is the artist’s journey. There is no rock bottom, only the uncovering of new gems, bones, artefacts and meanings to add to a collection we somewhat lazily refer to as truth.