Playwright

Ian's work for theatre aims to be ambitious and distinctive, yet accessible and enjoyable. He looks to exploit the intensity and immediacy of the stage to deliver engaging and thought-provoking work, whether writing drama or comedy, and as well as his own work he can write professional quality plays of all lengths and descriptions to order - download his witty short play, One-way Battle of the Sexes (or, How Men Get Away With It) (PDF, 57KB) as an example made for an amateur domestic performance, and contact enquiries@iqkennedy.co.uk for further details.

Currently, Ian is working on an intense new psychological drama in a clinical psychologist tries to solve the disappearance of his key patient before the police can arrest him for her murder. The play has already been trialled at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham; Director Gary Peake was interviewed on BBC Radio Nottingham to promote the play and Ian's other collaborations with New Matrix Productions. Since a compelling performance there in December 2007, Ian has been researching the play more thoroughly for a redraft which will be inspired by cutting-edge psychology and police procedures. Ian intends the script as an ambitious "calling card" to dramatically grow his profile.

Haze (written in collaboration with Director Lyndsey Fowler) was Ian's theatrical debut and scored an offbeat hit at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This "tragic action farce" play juxtaposes the exciting, if cliched, life of an action hero with the squalid failures of the hack writer attempting to bring him to life (no relation, honest!). Characters from George's real life double as perverse misrepresentations of themselves in his art, as fact and fiction disintegrate in parallel over one evening, with strange and hilarious results. The Scotsman found Haze "quirky, [and] promising" and Fest called it "amusing, intelligent... thought-provoking". The play employed highly inventive staging and lighting - bringing characters secretly in and out of scenes through the back of sofas and wardrobes, as well as "the infinitely... enjoyable Haze crashing through a window" ( The Scotsman ). Ian himself played the title role as spoof action hero Jack Haze, 'spout[ing] movie cliches with a knowing grin' ( The Scotsman ). Download the press release (Word, 30KB).

In 2006 Ian also wrote a topical new adaptation of the poverty-line farce Can't Pay? Won't Pay! by renowned Italian playwright Dario Fo, updating the comedy for the age of chavs and asbos. The show was promoted on BBC Asian Network , where Ian was interviewed in Edinburgh live on air by Nikki Bedi .

Another work in progress, Artifis, takes a different tone, but loses none of the intense theatricality of Ian's other plays. This lyrical, futuristic play reinvents traditions of tragedy, romance, comedy and wordplay in the theatre with a darkly modern twist. Download an extract from the opening passages (PDF, 48KB), and if you or your theatre are interested in Artifis email enquiries@iqkennedy.co.uk for further details.

Ian's work in theatre is also more wideranging. He co-produced Haze as well as New Matrix Productions' adaptation of Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo at the Fringe in 2004. Ian was also Co-director, Press Officer and Lighting Director on Mistero Buffo , which was praised as 'physically intense, exact and compelling' by Three Weeks .