My Gurus

Jack Bradley
Jack gave me my first job, in the literary office at the National Theatre, and he taught me almost everything I know about plays, writers, and how theatres work. It was a huge learning curve. I was pretty green, and he helped me see how a playwright might feel when confronted with an over-keen 23-year-old’s criticism of her or his script. Jack instilled in me a respect for the writer’s endeavor and their right to be taken seriously, no matter how successful or unsuccessful the play. He was kind about everyone, and also said the two funniest things I have ever heard a person say, but as they’re not even slightly printable, I won’t repeat them here.

Stewart Laing
Stewart is a Director based in Glasgow and we often saw shows together at Tramway, which at that time presented a staggering range of different kinds of performance from all over the world. Talking to Stewart afterwards helped me (late-starter) develop my taste, and he also opened up the idea of visual language, which I’d never been encouraged to think about before. In my brief time as his producer, I had the pleasure of watching him bring apparently ridiculous ideas to clear and often heartbreaking fruition. Stewart’s work is meticulous, surprising and always supremely relevant – he’s able to take an anecdote from any time and place and find the thing within it that has meaning today. He prepares like nobody else, and he also knows it’s always and only ever about the work, never about yourself, which is a rare thing in this business.

Purni Morell is Artistic Director of the Unicorn.

https://www.unicorntheatre.com/