I originally had the idea for Muse of Fire as something to submit for the Oska Bright Film Festival, a film festival run for people with learning disabilities. As I was at MTG at the time, I submitted it as an idea for production to them. As with the ideas I submitted to them, it vanished into nothingness. So when management ran out of ideas for things for people to do in the 2012/13 year, they ran a project that allowed Making Theatre and Acting Company to come up with their own ideas and do them. I immediately started organising and writing Muse of Fire. It was easily the most complex and ambitious project that anyone tried, and there very nearly wasn't time to get it all done. However, despite my first choice for lead leaving MTG between me getting the idea and starting production, I am more-or-less happy with the result. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get the PRS sorted out in time to submit it to Oska Bright in 2013, so it is currently on ice waiting for 2014 submissions to open.

I originally intended this showcase-style sketch show to go to the Edinburgh Festival of 2012, with MTG as Consultant Producers. I thought this was a sensible move, as I had never done something on that scale before, and MTG had the media connections and marketing and organisational experience. However, they refused to acknowledge I'd made the approach about Consultant Producer-status, bluntly told me to stop organising it, and stopped me from hiring any cast from their ranks. Then the DWP stuck its' oar in and it became unfeasable to take a show to the 2012 festival. So I waited nine months and started again. I tried to engage Hartsorn Hook as Consultant Producers, but after handing the final stage of negotiations over to my executive producer, they never got back to us. In the end, I and Misha did all of the organising ourselves, and we took the show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013.

This was both an attempt to prove to the world that I was a capable playwright and actor, and a way of raising awareness about the Scottish Independence Referendum that was due to be going ahead shortly after the Festival finished. It was essentially a re-working of the piece Henry the Filth that I had started in university, brought up to date to resonate with current events. Henry's uncle Falstaff dies intestate, leaving him his cottage - but Henry's Scottish landlord is currently living there and isn't keen on moving out, so Henry decides to woo his landlord's daughter to make it easier to get his property. Then the production team bailed mid-run and left us up shit creek.