Margaret Curry
The Playwright Who Changed Me
Lanford Wilson understood something timeless: we all want to be seen, understood, and reminded that we matter.
I first discovered his work in my early twenties, at a time when I felt profoundly alone. His plays didn’t offer easy answers or tidy resolutions. What they offered was recognition. His characters were funny, flawed, hopeful, searching, and deeply human. For the first time, I felt someone understood those quiet parts of ourselves we so often keep hidden. That experience changed me. It changed the way I thought about theatre, storytelling, and the kind of artist I wanted to become. Decades later, I still return to these plays and discover something new about the characters—and about myself.
That’s why I wanted to bring Who We Become to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Across two alternating programmes, Who We Become presents three rarely produced Lanford Wilson one-act plays. One programme features the intimate solo The Moonshot Tape. The other pairs the comic two-hander Breakfast at the Track with the deeply moving A Poster of the Cosmos. Whether audiences experience one programme or both, they’ll encounter Wilson’s extraordinary compassion, humour, wit, and insight through stories that are strikingly different in style yet united by their deep humanity.
My hope is that audiences leave having laughed, been surprised, and carrying these characters with them long after they leave the theatre. That’s what Lanford Wilson gave me. It’s what I hope Who We Become can give someone else.
You can catch Who We Become: The Moonshot Tape & Who We Become: Breakfast at the Track / A Poster of the Cosmos by Lanford Wilson on alternating dates from 14:05 on August 7 – 29 at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall – Haldane Theatre (50mins). Tickets are available through theSpaceUK Online Box Office.
Image Credit: Matt Simpkins
Spencer Waldner
Shay Mace
