Playwright
Simon’s works for the stage include original dramas and adaptations of novels and stories. He is currently working on two one-act plays, one about the artist Edgar Degas; the other about the Soho photographer John Deakin.
The Slaves of Solitude
A faithful adaptation of the 1947 novel by Patrick Hamilton which received its premiere at the Questors Theatre in May 2024. A wartime black comedy (or perhaps black-out comedy), it focuses on Miss Roach and various other residents of the Rosamund Tea Rooms in Thames Lockdon, a fictionalised Henley-on-Thames. The late novelist and critic David Lodge described Hamilton’s novel as ‘one of the very best English novels’ about the Second World War with echoes of Austen & Dickens. Simon’s version aims to capture both the Austen-esque social observation and the Dickensian grotesquerie as well as conveying Hamilton’s narrative voice through a small ensemble cast.
Cold Words and Whisky Breath
An original drama that explores the relationship between two writers in bohemian London during the 1940’s & 1950’s. Ruthless, ambitious, up-and-coming writer Con visits brilliant but drink-addled, down-and-out scribbler Alan in his basement den for some literary fireworks in this Osborne-influenced play. Simon directed his own production at the Baron’s Court Theatre in 1996.
The Understudy
Ad Hoc Theatre Company produced Simon’s first stage play in 1987. The Understudy explored the early music-hall careers of legendary comedians Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin. Laurel, on a 1950’s British tour with Oliver Hardy, reminisces about touring America as Chaplin’s understudy with a Fred Karno vaudeville troupe and recalls how their professional rivalry threatened to undermine their friendship. The Understudy toured extensively across the UK and was a notable hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Please contact Simon directly if you are interested in staging a production of The Understudy or Cold Words and Whisky Breath.
For performing rights to The Slaves of Solitude please contact Alan Brodie Representation at ABR@alanbrodie.com.
Director
Simon has directed several well-received productions of plays, many of which are classics of 20th century theatre. A long-time admirer of Dylan Thomas’s work, he is excited to be directing Under Milk Wood at the Questors Studio Theatre this spring.
Under Milk Wood
by Dylan Thomas
June 2025
Rutherford & Son
by Githa Sowerby
February 2019
Endgame
by Samuel Beckett
October 2017
Rope
by Patrick Hamilton
December 2014
Betrayal
by Harold Pinter
October 2013
Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
February 2011
Abigail's Party
by Mike Leigh
February 2010
Two
by Jim Cartwright
October 2008
Actor
Simon has appeared in many stage productions, some of which are highlighted below. Film credits include Night Off of the Living Dead (2004); The Notebooks of Cornelius Crow (2005); and How to Film Your Neighbour (2009).
Topolski
The Pillowman
by Martin McDonagh
October 2024
Guy Burgess
Single Spies
by Alan Bennett
March 2024
Dan
Kyoto
by David Greig
August 2016
Halvard Solness
The Master Builder
by Henrik Ibsen
December 2015
Vladimir
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
May 2007
Lopakhin
The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekhov
November 2004
