Interference

Can you ever really trust a machine? It is the near future. A couple are struggling to conceive, but fortunately their company has the perfect solution. A woman waits in a VR metaverse to do homework with her young daughter. In a care home staffed by advanced AIs, a woman struggles to make a connection with her android carer. Interference is a trilogy of near-future plays. Staged in an empty office block transformed with vivid projection and atmospheric soundscapes. It asks the question: will technology interfere with what we really need from each other? This edition was published to coincide with National Theatre of Scotland’s 2019 production.

Morna Pearson started her career at the Traverse Young Writers' Group. Her first play for the Traverse, Distracted, won the Meyer Whitworth prize. Her other plays include: Elf Analysis, The Company Will Overlook a Moment of Madness and Skin; or How To Disappear, along with a variety of work for BBC Radio. Morna has been commissioned by NT Connections 2013 and her play Ailie and the Alien will be staged as part of their 2013 season. Morna was given the inaugural Rod Hall Memorial Award in 2006. Her other plays include; McBeth's McPets (BBC Radio Scotland) and Side Effects (BBC Radio 3/Bona Broadcasting), One of her plays appeared in Scottish Shorts, published by Nick Hern in 2010.

Hannah Khalil is currently Resident Writer at Shakespeare's Globe. Henry VIII is part of their 2022 summer season and her critically acclaimed re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Fir Tree which premiered in 2021, will return for their 2022 winter season. Hannah's other theatre commissions include new work for the RSC, Soho Theatre, The Kiln and Mosaic/Fishamble. Previous work for stage includes A Museum in Baghdad, which opened at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in 2019 directed by Erica Whyman, Interference for The National Theatre of Scotland, The Scar Test for Soho Theatre and Scenes from 68* Years for the Arcola. Her work is published by Methuen Drama. Hannah has also written numerous radio plays, including The Unwelcome, Last of the Pearl Fishers and The Deportation Room all for BBC Radio 4. Television work includes multiple episodes of the Channel 4 drama Hollyoaks. Her short film, The Record, won the Tommy Vine screenplay award at the Underwire film festival, and went on to be made. It was also selected at London Palestine Film Festival. Hannah was named Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University in 2021 and is a Creative Fellow of the Samuel Beckett Archive for 2021/2022.

Vlad Butucea is a Glasgow based playwright and theatre researcher. He is a former mentee of Playwrights' Studio Scotland and holds a Masters in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Glasgow. Vlad's writing explores the relationship between technology and society, while his research engages with questions of queerness, gender and technology in theatre.
Vlad is currently working towards a PhD in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow.