Like almost everything I write, I created To Sleep with two actors in mind: Peter Hynds and Ellie Lawrence.  These two people were Martin and Hayley from the conception of the piece and certainly coloured the way the characters developed and evolved over the writing process. At the first performance, although Pete’s direction and setting was more minimalist than what I had originally written, the characters I looked at were still the two people who’d been in my mind whilst the piece took shape.

Since that point this production of the play has been performed again and again, leading eventually to the tour of the show which kicks off in January 2014. The play is now a beautifully polished piece of work; Ellie and Pete having developed an incredibly powerful onstage relationship, which never fails to move the audience.

With this powerful link between actors and play in mind, it…