Diary

Crossing the Forth railway bridge in bright sunshine, and I'm astonished at the beauty of the new road bridge.

Something to do, I guess with the perfect marriage of function and form.

In my tiny way I try to achieve the same each time I write a play: ensure that every word has its place in the structure of the whole. That every word is necessary, no word is superfluous, and there are no gaps where words need to be.

Theatre also embodies on a small scale what that bridge demonstrates on a vast scale: that nothing can be achieved without co-operation. That our capacity to co-operate is perhaps our most important human gift, and at the heart of all human history.

And perhaps the beauty of that also lies at the heart of the beauty of that construction...