The late Oscar Moore
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Torrens Plays Oscar Moore in Drill Hall Debut

Pip Torrens will assume the role of the late writer and journalist Oscar Moore (pictured) in a new production at London's Drill Hall. The play, entitled PWA, The Diaries of Oscar Moore, commences previews on 11 October 2001, before opening on 16 October.

The world premiere of this stage production is adapted from Moore's award-winning Guardian columns, which chronicled his battle with AIDS from which he eventually died in 1996. The PWA (Person With AIDS) writings typified Moore's honest determination concerning his disease and battles with various treatments, and commanded a wide audience.

The story is centred on the mid-1990s at a time when current drug combination therapies weren't so available, and the effect of AIDS in the developing world was going largely unnoticed. Scriptwriter Malcolm Sutherland has been advised by HIV Research Directors on the project. Sutherland's various productions and adaptations have included Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory for West Yorkshire Playhouse and Noel Coward's Present Laughter.

Pip Torrens has recently spent several months in Greenland, filming Shackleton with director Charles Sturridge. Torrens' stage credits include Another Country, while on film he has also appeared in The Remains of the Day, A Handful of Dust, Patriot Games and Rogue Trader. His TV works include Kavanagh QC, Jeeves and Wooster and Poirot.

Oscar Moore was born in 1960 and grew up in London. As a journalist he contributed to Time Out, I-D, The Times, and Mail on Sunday. He later became editor-in-chief of Screen International.

Following renovation work, the London Drill Hall (near Tottenham Court Road) is set to reopen this month. An arts organisation with a wide reputation for innovative and daring drama, it also holds regular women-only nights.

- by Gareth Thompson

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