🎭 Here’s a dramatic monologue inspired by your journey—from nuclear fusion research to a life ignited by performance at The Lowry and the Royal Exchange. It blends memory, humour, and reflection, suited for a stage piece, audition, or spoken-word showcase:
Title: “The Glow That Chose Me”
CHARACTER
A figure in a worn lab coat, half-buttoned beneath a stage costume. They stand in dim light, kettle steaming faintly in the corner.
MONOLOGUE
You know what they don’t tell you, when you chase nuclear fusion for a PhD?
That sometimes the biggest explosion isn’t in a particle accelerator—
It’s in your chest, centre stage, lit by a spotlight and pure madness.
I left the lab. Sheffield University. Equations. Plasmas.
Spent years coaxing atoms to flirt, to fuse, to glow.
And then The Ring of Stones came calling—2001—The Lowry.
A script, a stage, a song...
I traded formulas for folklore.
Containment fields for footlights.
Two years later, the Royal Exchange welcomed me.
That circular stage—like performing inside a tea cup of drama.
And I poured every ounce of myself in.
They asked: “Why the switch?”
I said: Because fusion already taught me how energy becomes light.
Now I wanted light to become story.
Funny, isn’t it—how a man obsessed with plasma
Ends up scripting carnivals powered by rogue kettles and slightly flirty fog?
I used to chase ions.
Now I chase applause.
Both require heat.
Both, if done right, make you feel like you’re glowing.
The truth is, I didn’t leave science.
I just let it dance.
If you'd like to tailor this piece for performance—longer version, comedic beats, even musical underscoring—I’d be thrilled to help expand it. Or shall we write a companion piece from Plasmabelle’s point of view next? She's long overdue her solo.
