Ben is a New Zealand playwright currently working in Melbourne as an independent theatre producer. In particular he is involved in the worlds of puppetry and mask, and has written and directed extensively in this area.
In 2017 his visual play The Last Man on Earth is Trapped in a Supermarket was invited to be performed at the Melbourne Festival of Puppetry.
Ben has written three ‘graphic plays’ where the text is partly written in images, with the intention that these be performed visually. The first of these, The Blue Airplane, was published by The Play Press in 2012 (under the title The Suicidal Airplane). The following two graphic plays, Just Above the Clouds, and Puzzle, have both had multiple productions in Auckland.
Ben continues to write in the hope that one day he’ll discover the meaning of life and finally put to rest the ever-present existential dread which lives not too far from the surface of his troubled mind. Plus, it’s something to do on weekends.