In February 2019, I discovered Young Roots, a charity providing both immediate & long-term support to child refugees in the UK, via its patron, the actor Juliet Stevenson. She had organised a fundraising evening, which I attended, and I was so moved by the work Young Roots does that I swore to her, there and then, that I would find a way to raise money for the charity. I had no idea how.

 

Some years earlier, I’d read the true story In The Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda, and was haunted by it. I’d read how, at the age of ten, Enaiat Akbari’s village fell prey to the Taliban; how, fearing for his life, Enaiat’s mother (in an act of astonishing courage and maternal sacrifice) led him across the border where she left him, alone, to fend for himself. I’d read about Enaiat’s five-year ordeal: traversing bitterly cold mountains, near-suffocating in the base of a truck, steering an inflatable raft in violent seas. I’d marvelled how that young boy crossed Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and Greece - discovering brotherhood, witnessing death, and losing everything but hope - before arriving by himself in Italy, aged fifteen.

 

In August 2019, while on holiday, it hit me: the book would make an incredible play, and the play could be a fitting and powerful fundraiser. I sent the book to the renowned youth theatre director Nicola Moran, and asked if we could meet over tea in a café in September. She agreed. When we met, and before we’d even ordered tea, she said, “This would make a brilliant play.” I said, “I know. I’m going to produce it and you’re going to write it.” “Hang on,” said Nicola, “You’re the author; you should write it.” I was ready for this: “No way. I’ve just written a novel. I’m knackered. Plus, you’ve done adaptations before and they’re fantastic. You know much better than I what to do. You are the one.” Nicola asked, “Have you ever produced a play before?” “No,” I replied, “But I love a challenge.”

 

We began work, right there and then in the cafe. Three months later, LoudonMoranProductions was formed. We bought the UK theatre rights to the book and Nicola adapted it into our play. We cast some wonderful young actors, booked professional theatres, and I started fund-raising for the considerable production costs.

 

Then, the pandemic struck. We didn’t cancel. We postponed the planned Autumn 2020 tour, and later rearranged it from scratch, admittedly with the sad loss of five professional venues in the process, whose complex schedules had been rendered chaotic by repeated lockdowns. Nonetheless, with hard graft all round, we did it.

   

In autumn 2021, LoudonMoranProductions toured In The Sea There Are Crocodiles in England and Wales. With the exception of our composer and our technical director, both of whom were paid, the entire cast and crew, including Nicola and me, worked gratis. A number of individual people generously sponsored the production, so its costs were covered; the theatres waived most if not all of their fees; many other people helped and supported us. Together, in a huge collaborative effort that I was honoured to have been a part of, we raised a substantial amount of money for Young Roots: every penny we made from our tour went to the charity.  

 

I will always be proud of the books I have written (and those I may yet write). However, this new venture as a producer was a gift to me so unexpected, and so beautiful, that I still treasure the working and creative experience it offered together with others, for others, pretty much over and above anything I have ever done by myself.

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