Light Burns Blue

‘Do you love what you do? Because I loved making the photographs. I loved the feeling of taking charge. Putting things in the frame, taking them out again. Writing with my eyes.’

During the First World War, seventeen-year-old Elsie Wright fools the world into believing she has photographed fairies in her garden. An ambitious young reporter seeks to expose Elsie as a fraud. But as she looks at the facts, she begins to think there's more to Elsie's story than a simple hoax.

Inspired by the true story of the Cottingley Fairies, The Light Burns Blue by Silva Semerciyan is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books aimed at addressing gender imbalance and inequality in theatre. Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by school, college and youth-theatre groups.

‘Drama is an important tool for building confidence and empowering young people. Platform will give girls opportunity to access these benefits as much as their male counterparts.’ - Moira Buffini

Silva Semerciyan is an American playwright permanently settled in the UK. She won the William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting for her first full-length play, Another Man’s Son, which was subsequently developed under commission to the National Theatre. Her other plays include The Light Burns Blue (Tonic Theatre, 2015), I and the Village (Theatre503, 2015), The Window (Bristol Old Vic, 2014), The Tinderbox (Bristol Old Vic, 2014), Gather Ye Rosebuds (Theatre503, 2013) and Flashes (Young Vic, 2012). Her work has also been presented in readings and short-run productions by the National Theatre Studio, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Nightingale Theatre, Adrienne Theatre, LA Theatre Company and Golden Thread Productions.

I and the Village was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in 2011, and Gather Ye Rosebuds won Best New Play at the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2013. Her radio play Varanasi was shortlisted for a BBC Audio Drama Award. She has been a BBC Fellow at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, a member of the Royal Court’s Studio Writers’ Group, and a writer on attachment at the National Theatre Studio. She holds an MPhil (B) in Playwriting from the University of Birmingham.