I’ve only recently realised this so don’t press me on the details, but when I leave a room, I just assume I’m forgotten. I’m not complaining. But imagine how it feels, then, to know that there’s a cast and a director out there rehearsing my words.

Specifically, these words:

The golden sun hanging clearly in the sky, away from Manhattan island, high above the water. The sun in the distance over New York Harbour. Over Ellis Island. Striking the Statue of Liberty. The Brooklyn Bridge. And now imagine the view of the city from the East River, the sun still just barely above the buildings. It’s briefly blocked by the Empire State Building, then the Rockefeller Centre. And now it’s lower, nearer to the buildings, lower and lower, until you can see it. The city of New York looking like Stonehenge at solstice.

My short play, Manhattanhenge, is to be performed at the Carriageworks theatre in Leeds next month: it’s a two-night festival of new writing and what I’m told is that my piece is to get a prime spot.

I’m even more pleased than you expect: Manhattanhenge is a tricky piece, it’s taken a lot of work to get right and I hadn’t expected it to fly. But you know how whenever you write, you try to write something new, something you’ve not reached for before: this time, I finished the tale and shivered at it. I’ve never done shiver before.

And though I’ve yet to meet the cast or the director, they’re telling me they were moved by the piece. I can’t wait to see them play it.

William