Olivier award winning playwright Simon Stephens visited City of Westminster College on Wednesday to talk to the Performing Arts students about his play Motortown, which Level 1 students will be performing next week. Written in the space of four days, it tells the story of Danny who has returned to England from Basra after facing the horrors of the war.

“I think one of the most civilised and human things we can do is to think. We operate in a culture and country which is nervous of thought and discourages it,” said Stephens when asked if he deliberately writes thought-provoking plotlines. “England is the only country where the word clever can be used as an insult. We’re in a culture which imposes opinion where we’re always told what to think and if theatre can do anything it’s to make people think for themselves. So I write plays because I don’t understand the answer to things and I think the best thing I can do is get people to think. That’s fundamentally why I write – to pose questions.”

After the Q&A session Stephens had high praise for the students involved, thanking them for their intelligent and thought provoking questions.