Margaret Holbrook’s new play Any Other Day, which will be performed at Buxton Fringe, is set a few days after the death of Alan Turing, considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
Holbrook said she had been wanting to write something about Turing for several years.
“His home, Holly Mead, is not too far from me and I’ve passed it many times, but I couldn’t visualise how I could set a play to make it accessible, and I didn't want it to focus too much on numbers and codes.
“Then, in November 2021, I had a lightbulb moment and Any Other Day was the result. It’s set in the garden of Holly Mead, Turing's home in Wilmslow in 1954. Once I had the idea in place, the writing seemed a little more straightforward. It probably took me around two months to write but there’ve been tweaks to the script since it was finished in January.”
The cast features two actors who were in Holbrook’s play The Bus Stop at Buxton in 2021, Lucy Savin and Jonathan Whittington who plays Turing, along with Heather Elise Nelson.
Any Other Day will be staged in St Mary’s Church, Dale Road, Buxton on Thursday 21 July at 3:30 and 7PM.