David Leddy logo White Tea David Magowan as Vaclav in Sub Rosa (photo: Tim Morozzo) SusurrusDavid Leddy as LaToya Levine from In The ShadeOn The Edge - David as Cluedo characters. Image: Niall WalkerLouise Ludgate as Ida from Sub Rosa    

News

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Sunday Times profile of 'Scotland's edgiest young playwright'

Click here to have a look at the recent profile of David in the Sunday Times. Apparently 36 still counts as young. Who knew? David has cancelled the botox appointment.

 

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Susurrus (and Yale university)

After the huge success of Susurrus at Edinburgh Fringe (and then Oxford and Milan), David has been invited on a series of site visits in the States and Canada - Charleston, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis, Columbus, Boston, Vancouver and New Haven - where he's also been invited to give a lecture about his work to the students at Yale university. It's all go.

To read more about the show click here

David editing the original version of Susurrus, on his living room wall:

 

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Holi Ceilidh

As soon as he's back from the Susurrus trips to the States David will be knuckling down to writing Holi Ceilidh, his comission for the National Theatre of Scotland. The show is planned to be a joyous, uplifting music theatre piece where the audience participate in a Scottish ceilidh dance which later transforms into an enormous dry paint fight, like the Indian Holi festival. The piece alternates fast-paced dramatic scenes with energetic ceilidh dances and songs. Musically, it combines traditional Scottish music with Eastern European gypsy and klezmer traditions (klemzer arrangements of Edith Piaf songs have been discussed - !). All this takes places against a narrative background of high intrigue and political turmoil as we follow the cast on a breakneck journey from Edinburgh to Mumbai.

 

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Awards-a-go-go at Edinburgh Fringe

David's two (two!) shows at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009 (Susurrus and White Tea) were huge sell out hits (White Tea sold out the whole run after less than one week!) The pieces were included in the British Council showcase and the Made in Scotland showcase and David is in the throes of lots of exciting discussions about taking the shows all over the place.

As if that wasn't enough, he has won three big awards:

- WINNER - Scotsman Fringe First award

- WINNER - Herald Angel award

- WINNER - Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize.

The awards are now in the safe care of David's mum and dad.

 

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White Tea

After nearly eighty sell-out performances, three awards and countless breathless reviews, White Tea has now finished touring and been put to bed. There are plans to bring it back in the future, though, so watch this space.

Alisa Anderson (left) and Gabriel Quigley in White Tea

 

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Sub Rosa - a sell out success !

Sub Rosa ran in January 2009 and was a remarkable success. Sell out audiences, a slew of breathless reviews and someone in the audience even came back the next night to give the company a case of champagne! If you missed the show then have a look at the Sub Rosa page to see photos and press quotes. Sub Rosa is the bastard theatrical child of Stephen King and Marie Lloyd. This gothic Victorian promenade show takes an audience of just fifteen people on an expedition through the secret, backstage spaces at the Citz. Theatre ghosts lead us through hidden rooms, into a derelict bar and beneath the stage. The tiny old rooms are lit with glittering pinpricks of light that intensify the darkness beyond. Eventually we reach the blood-red velvet seating of the disused upper circle in the empty, echoing auditorium.

To see photos, read press quotes and more click here

 

David writing Sub Rosa at the Global Arts Village in Delhi, India. Feb 08:

David writing Sub Rosa at the Global Arts Village in Delhi, India. Feb 08

 

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Faction

Comission and development funding confirmed

Last year the Scottish Arts Council awarded David a New Work grant to write and develop Faction. This a play that aims to apply Jean Genet’s artistic devices to a biographical play about his life. Thus, we should end up with lots of whores and petty thieves abusing and betraying each other before we find out that they are all pretending to be somebody they are not. David wrote the first draft in France as the recipient of this year's Robert Louis Stevenson fellowship.

David writing Faction in Grez-sur-Loing, France on the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, May 08:

David writing Faction in Grez-sur-Loing, France on the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, May 08

 

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Vessel

Commmission and development funding confirmed

The Scottish Arts Council have awarded David funding to write the text and do develop workshops for Vessel. This is a piece that will be developed over several years and will culminate in a large-scale series of seven performance pieces based around seven texts written by David.