Building 'The Perfect City'

'Having ‘discovered’ the graves of William Penn’s whole family at a place called Jordan’s in Buckinghamshire I was spurred on to find out more about the man. I knew he was the founder of Pennsylvania although it was named after his father) but I became intrigued by the large number of grave stones and interested in finding out more about his life..

A further trigger was after I contacted the Society of Friends and they gave me the name of a playwright called Kate Price who had written a play called “The Passionate Englishman” - I contacted her and we met to discuss her play. The story had such a powerful effect on me: William was such a strength when standing up for the persecuted Friends (Quakers).

My sister pointed out that his father (The Admiral) disowned William when he was a young man and I felt that would be a strong emotional pull in any play about the subject. The tension between William wanting to create a new safe home and his wife not wanting to go with him was also surprising. The structure of William leaving for America at the end of Act One and the shape in Act Two made me think of The Christmas Carol: it was William’s rise and downfall of sorts where the ghosts start to gather around him and he runs home...'