An Interview with a Playwright
from the other side of the screen
Editorial Column by Alexa Manning – August 2026
Writer of the stage and screen, Cambridgeshire-born Edie Walwyn is settling into life in a UNESCO City of Literature: Exeter.
My first experience seeing her work live was just a few months ago at the City of Exeter’s Bard competition. Though she doesn’t typically take the stage herself, you wouldn’t have known it. With confidence Walwyn poked fun at British party leaders before smoothly transitioning to the moral dilemma of ‘having a wank’ when staying with a friend.
It was funny, yes, but it was full of nuanced social commentary as well—Walwyn’s specialty. In her capable hands politics and social boundaries were both the reason for laughter and inspiration for reflection. The reality of life makes itself a main character.
Last week we sat down to have a conversation on creativity:
AM: Can you walk me through your routine when you want to write?
EW: Well when I want to sit down and write I tend to go to the beach and not do any writing at all! As someone who loves to write and calls themselves a writer I fucking hate writing.
I will go for a walk—to wherever I'm going to write—because I can never write at home. I am a creature of sitting on the sofa and doing nothing, but also when I do write I become a slightly different being. On the walk, listening to music helps my imagination wake up. Then I turn the music off so I can actually hear the stories in my head.
I think I used to kind of wait for those moments before sitting and writing but over the last few years I've discovered that you actually have to sit and write. Inspiration doesn't come. So, there's kind of two processes. Quite often I’ll look back through my notebook to see what I've written on the fly, some of it’s garbage some of it does end up being interesting.
AM: Can you explain a bit more about how you become a different person while you’re writing?
EW: I don't even know if they are different but I have to separate them in my head. I think writer-Edie is sex-obsessed in a way that I am not in my general life. Having said that, when I read it back it feels very much like my voice. I recognize it and almost everyone who reads my work – and who knows me personally – says this is you so I'm not even sure that writing-me is different. I just have to differentiate them in my head, maybe it's the only way to get into the creative process.
AM: Interesting, I wonder if de-personalizing yourself frees you up to be creative in a way that separates you from the shame and embarrassment of being a writer because, it at the end of the day, it's embarrassing to put yourself on a piece of paper and put it out to the world. So I wonder if it's a protection barrier.
EW: I'm quite often like why would anyone want to read about me whereas writer-Edie just creates our stories. It's not like Game of Thrones, which is a whole other world apart, but the work is very close to me and, as I say, people do recognize my voice. It's almost like writer-Edie has something to say, something she has to say. My work does deal with things that make people embarrassed or uncomfortable; maybe I feel I have to separate it. I'm not exactly someone who holds back in person, but I know it's not the same extent as the writing where people proper cringe.
Walwyn’s latest completed script, Goddlebox, is a comedy that “reimagines the Greek gods as disengaged divine beings more interested in mortal relationship melodrama than mounting geopolitical crises. Set between contemporary Earth and the timeless, gossip-filled world of Mount Olympus, the play explores climate inaction, generational complacency, and gender politics—all through a sharply comic lens.”
AM: What was the spark of inspiration for Goddlebox?
EW: Love Island 2022 – which is probably one of my worst years – and I was watching the men behave so abominably on TV thinking they're being controlled by the ancient Greek gods and then it came to me.
AM: If you’re willing, can you dig a bit deeper into the emotional journey of writing Goddlebox?
EW: I'd been writing things down immediately because I thought this is such a fun concept. It was only when my relationship broke down that I actually started to sit down and write it out. I don't know whether it was a way of processing that heartbreak, it definitely helped me process some of the feelings and also made it fun and funny.
That breakup that shattered me into a million little pieces and those pieces went into the play. I think you can tell from the scenes with the mortals – their relationships have been described as being close to the bone and very real. I'm a vengeful writer, so if I'm angry or upset you're much more likely to get something amazing, but if I'm feeling happy, swimming in the sea and getting some sunshine, I just don't write anything. So when a man breaks your heart just do it, punish him, that's what I say!
AM: What are your other main inspirations, what creativity do you see out in the world that makes you want to be a part of it?
EW: When I really want to feel inspired I listen to opera, there is just something about a woman's voice at a certain decibel that makes me want to write. Also the Arctic Monkeys definitely makes me want to write; I think there’s something about Alex Turner's lyrics, the kind of mundane stuff – like trackies tucked in socks – I just love the detail. I think he's such an amazing storyteller. I listen to a lot of soundtracks because cinema is a big inspiration but also a challenge: I started off writing screenplays and I definitely think some of my scripts were a bit too cinematic in the way they focused on little details whereas when you're on stage you're not going to see those things.
One of the things I appreciate about Walwyn’s writing is that it is eclectic, ranging from funny and relatable to exposed and raw. The feminine experience plays a huge part in the storytelling, somehow simultaneously accessible and full of literary and cultural references.
EW: One of the criticisms and compliments I’ve had about the work is “well, is it comedy or is it tragedy?” What I like about Chekov is just that, it’s neither and it's both. Jesse Armstrong, writer of Peep Show and Succession is another one who doesn’t pick between comedy and drama.
Having said that, I do love straight up comedy like Aristophenes. I adapted “The Frogs” and that was my first attempt at a play script, that was my journey from screen to stage. There’s always a bit of Aristophenes in everything I do. I have a scene where the frogs appear in Goddlebox and it gives me so much joy. It felt like I was waving at Aristophenes from across time and he was probably pissed off that I butchered his work.
I have always been a big fan of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales since I was a little girl and my next play will feature Chaucer heavily. I won’t say too much about that because it’s still in the works.
I think it’s important to highlight that inspiration doesn’t all have to be “highbrow” art. Opera was once considered to be a silly artform and now it’s considered to be posh. I try to make my work as accessible as possible without excluding the literature and art that influences me.
When you think of a playwright, are you picturing a man with an ostentatious feather quill (a la Shakespeare)? Names like Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams and Oscar Wilde might come to mind and, if prompted, you may struggle to come up with a woman playwright’s name besides Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Waller-Bridge has been lucky enough to go mainstream with Fleabag being adapted from stage to screen and going on to bring Killing Eve to life.
AM: I see connections between your work and that of Phoebe Waller-Bridge. After the Bard competition, I see your work as more than an “outrageous woman” but a specific way of using shameful, embarrassing topics to shock your audience and intentionally incite uncomfortableness.
EW: It’s always her name, it’s always Fleabag. My short film, SUFUKU, was written in the same year that Fleabag came out, which I did binge watch. Absolutely Waller-Bridge has been massive, but I always flinch a little bit because I think there’s not enough women in playwriting so there's only a handful of names to think of.
My California public school education made sure I knew Lorraine Hansberry’s most famous play: A Raisin in the Sun. Otherwise, in my university and postgraduate education, as well as everyday life in literary communities, I rarely hear about woman playwrights (apart from Waller-Bridge who has pivoted to mostly screen projects). Writers like Walwyn are thus at a disadvantage, fighting against a male-dominated heritage that seems to plague every corner of human history.
AM: What does it feel like to see your art on screen or on stage?
EW: One of the scariest – but also exciting – things about writing for theater is sitting in that audience and not knowing what’s going to happen. With my short film, I knew what was about to happen especially because I co-directed it. When you’re dealing with stage actors, you know they will stick to the script, generally speaking, but they might not. Even audiences one night to the next, you might have an audience laughing their heads off one night and deathly silent the following night.
It’s a wonderful feeling. It’s why we do it, to see people engage with our work. I genuinely just love making people laugh and entertaining people, that’s why I write comedy and why I write about issues that people might not always want to discuss. It’s not world-changing work, it’s deeply unserious work, but it makes the world maybe a little bit more open and honest than it was before.
AM: I know you don’t want to reveal too much about your next play with Chaucer, but can you give us a teaser?
EW: Hmmm… The play tackles feelings of failure for female playwrights. Not based on any kind of real life experience.
Though western culture is known for platforming the White Man over everyone else, building a career writing for the stage as a woman seems especially fraught. The genres of novel, poetry, non-fiction, picturebook, etc. all boast long lists of influential woman-writers that have become household names. But writing play scripts?
Walwyn’s writing is inherently feminist in the way it protests the patriarchal chokehold on playwriting. That isn’t to say it is singularly feminist. SUFUKU (2019), Tipsy, Goddlebox and her upcoming script are each intricately – and uniquely – layered. Unemployment, substance abuse and climate change are just some of the more obvious topics addressed.
Humor, social critique, literary reference and relatability are all prevalent in Walwyn’s writing, making her one to watch. Keep up with her on Instagram @/eawalwyn and be first to know the latest news on Goddlebox and updates on future work.
Edie Walwyn was a finalist in the Exeter Bardic Competition (2026). Hot Girl Summer, a short-film script, was an official selection by The Women Talking About Anything Other Than a Man Script Contest and shortlisted for Climate Creatives Challenges #5, Heatwaves (2024). Tipsy, a comedy-drama, earned the Bloomsbury Festival Theatre Writing Award (2021).
SUFUKU (2019), a short film, earned Best First Time Filmmaker at the Birmingham Film Festival (2019), runner up for the Female Perspectives Award at the World of Film International Festival Glasgow (2019), and official selection for the following: Romford Film Festival (2020), Bloodstained IndieFilm Festival (2019), Boobs and Blood International Film Festival (2019).
Walwyn completed her English BA at Birkbeck College. She participated in Intermediate Playwriting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in addition to the BAFTA Mentorship Scheme. Now, she is completing a Masters in English Literary Studies as she works as a campaign organizer for Exeter Labour.
