autopilot
A new play about class, power and self-driving cars, ‘Autopilot’ is a deeply modern love story exploring agency in the age of autonomy and the human right to make mistakes. In the event of a head-on collision, who are we programmed to save?
It premiered at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe where it was named by The Stage as one of the Best Shows of the Year. It was shortlisted for the Popcorn Award for New Writing in 2020, the year it was originally programmed. Its development was supported variously by Theatr Clwyd, Bush Theatre, Theatre 503, and Pint-Sized.
Some Ending
Some Ending is Ben’s second pamphlet of poetry, published in 2019 by Verve.
‘These poems are raw, fresh, and fluent, without a cliché or slack moment in sight. Norris conveys not only a sense of himself, but himself as someone on whom nothing is lost. Interesting, smart, sensitive, witty. He’s the real deal.’ - COLM TÓIBÍN
‘These are moving, witty, and beautifully-crafted poems which are never complacent, never letting us stay on the surface.’ - ANDREW MCMILLAN
THE DISTANCE
They’ve been running their whole lives. You've got a lot of catching up to do.
‘The Distance’ is a new play in development, exploring what elite sport does to young bodies and minds, drawing on Ben’s experiences as a teenage GB long-distance runner. It has been supported so far by Roundhouse, Nonsuch Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, BBC Radio 4, Yard Theatre, Hop Barn, In Good Company (with funds from ERDF), Bush Theatre, and Arts Council England.
monitor
In a future where prospective parents are assessed by the state, Jenna (Emily Stott) and Fi (Ibinabo Jack) must raise a robot ‘baby’ before being allowed to start a family. But will they get the result they want, and deserve?
‘Monitor’ is a short film commissioned by BBC Films and BBC Drama and supported by the BFI. It is currently premiering at festivals, so far including Aesthetica, Manchester, British Shorts Berlin, and Brussels Short Film Festival among others.
It was created and written by Ben, directed by Margo Roe, produced by Isabella de Rosario for Type O films, and executive produced by Rachel Harvey and Ayela Butt for the BBC and Thomas Wightman for the BFI.
wollaton park
‘Wollaton Park’ is an audio-poem drawing on elements of psycho-geography and the concept of the dérive to take listener’s on a virtual journey through the park. It was commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse for Nottstopping 2020, Nottingham’s stay-at-home lockdown festival, to allow people to experience the city digitally while unable to do so physically. It was produced by Adam Penford, Craig Gilbert, Jake Orr and Fraser Youngson, edited by Andrew Bullett, with music by Dominie Hooper.
Unislam
UniSlam is the UK National University Poetry Slam & Summit. It was founded by Ben in 2013 and is now run by Directer Toby Campion with Ben as Producer. Teams of student poets from across the UK and Ireland gather annually for a weekend of workshops, community building, and the slam itself, which also incorporates the National Youth Poetry Showcase. Alongside the annual festival, UniSlam runs a year-round programme of education and outreach work for people who face barriers to engaging with literature, as well as a post-emerging cohort for more established writers.
voices
‘Voices’ was a community poetry project led and facilitated by Ben as writer-in-residence for Inspire, Nottinghamshire’s library service. Throughout 2019 Ben ran a series of workshops with four different groups across the county, whose voices, for health, social or age-related reasons, are rarely heard. This culminated in an anthology of the groups’ writing, alongside portraits of the participants by Ben Harriott, and an exhibition of the work, touring library galleries from 2019-2020.
The Choir of MAn
The Choir of Man is an internationally touring jukebox show that combines breathtaking 9-part vocal harmonies, tap dance, a real working bar, and poetic meditations on the power of community and the important of male mental health awareness. Ben wrote the Poet’s script and originated the part of The Poet, which he played for the first year of the show’s life at Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringe Festivals before returning for its inaugural West End season, during which it was nominated for the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment / Comedy Play.
Breathing Spaces
Ben works regularly with Breathe Arts Health and Research as one of their pool of ‘Breathing Space’ artists, giving short, free, one-to-one poetry performances at London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospitals for staff, patients and visitors, encouraging them to take a minute for themselves in an otherwise hectic day. Breathe AHR work with poets, musicians, magicians, and visual artists.
A quite enormous poetry event
In partnership with National Poetry Day, the Forward Arts Foundation, Nottingham City of Literature, Nottingham Trent University, Midlands4Cities and Nottingham Playhouse, Ben organised and hosted ‘A Quite Enormous Poetry Event’ for National Poetry Poetry Day 2019, featuring performances from some of the countries leading lights, including Caroline Bird, Liz Berry, Vanessa Kisuule, Will Harris, Bohdan Piasecki, Debris Stevenson and Dizraeli, as well as local rising stars Georgina Wilding, Jamie Thrasivoulou and Michael Southan.
track record
‘Track Record’ is a spoken-word piece commissioned by LNER, the publicly-owned train provider, to celebrate the variety of regional accents and dialects stretching the length of its East Coast line from London to Aberdeen/Inverness. Ben wrote and directed the piece, which was performed by a combination of members of the public, local school pupils, LNER staff, and professional actors, in a campaign fronted by Edith Bowman.
Books Are moving
‘Books Are Moving’ was commissioned at the start of Ben’s tenure as writer-in-residence for Inspire, Nottinghamshire’s library service, to celebrate the launch of the County’s two new mobile libraries. The vehicles, which Ben has likened to a ‘fourth emergency service’, visit remote areas without their own library buildings and help people who might otherwise struggle to access books and library services.
sovereignty
‘Sovereignty’ is a short poetry film commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse as part of Ben’s Creative Associateship, directed and produced Fraser Youngson. The film interrogates some of hypocrisies at the heart of the Brexit movement, taking aim not at voters, but at the machinery of tabloid media, big business and self-interested politicians intent on furthering their own ends. Ultimately, it asks if loving one’s country and loving Brexit truly are the bed fellows we’ve been led to believe…
The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Family
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Family is Ben’s debut one-man show, a spoken-word theatre piece exploring Ben’s relationship with his father, and with masculinity more generally. It won the 2015 IdeasTap Underbelly Award at the Edinburgh Fringe before touring the UK extensively over the following two years, including a sold-out run at Southbank Centre, finishing at the 2018 Adelaide Fringe in Australia.
The Liquid You
What becomes of a place once you leave it? And what about the people we leave behind, or who leave us? Is it memory we carry, or myth? Returning to Nottingham to see his ailing gran, Sam has a lot of questions. 'The Liquid You' is a poetic monologue about home and history, death and departures, and how sometimes it's easier to love an idea than reality. It was written and performed by Ben Norris, and was his Radio 4 debut.
Send Her Victorious
'Send Her Victorious' is a short film commissioned by Channel 4 as part of their Random Acts programme. It documents an evening with Jaye, a drag queen whose racial politics don’t necessarily align with his queer ones, and seeks to challenge the preconception that sexual fluidity and wider liberalism go hand in hand. It was Ben’s debut short film, for which he was nominated for Best New Talent at the 2016 Royal Television Society Awards.
Poem-a-Week
Poem-a-Week is a poetry vlog series, for which Ben wrote and recorded a poem every week for a year from March 2016 - February 2017. And what a seismic year it was; personal and societal shifts course throughout these 52 poems, including a move to London, a death in the family, a relationship beginning and ending, as well as the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump. Strap in.
Rebel Heart
'Rebel Heart' is a video poem written to support Nottingham's 2023 European Capital of Culture bid, commissioned by Nottingham 2023 and DYT. It's a celebration of Nottingham's rich history of social justice movements, its part in the civil war, the luddite rebellion, technological and textile innovation, and - perhaps most famously - home of the original re-distributor of wealth, Robin Hood. A month or so after the poem was released, to viral acclaim in the city, the European Commission cancelled the UK's involvement in the ECoC programme altogether. Nice one Brexit.
Salvage
'Salvage' is a poem commissioned by Hosta Consulting for their back-to-back garden 'A Drop of Urban Green', which won the gold medal at the 2016 Royal Horticultural Society's Tatton Park show. The poem, which explores and celebrates our relationship with nature in urban environments, was engraved onto two of the garden's walls. The garden featured prominently in the BBC's coverage of Tatton Park, and has since been relocated to Sneinton, Nottingham. Listen to Ben reading the poem.
Equal Love
A spoken-word poem commissioned by the anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label to celebrate romantic love in all its forms, and to normalise non-hetero relationships for young people. It explores some of the universal struggles and joys experienced by almost all people in love, regardless of their identities, and was released 2 days after Donald Trump's US election victory. Deep breaths all.
The Breathing of the Bellows
Two poems commissioned by the Southbank Centre to mark the restoration of the Royal Festival Hall's pipe organ. The first poem, 'A Tonic Bomb', was published in an exhibition in the Clore Ballroom and a reading was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of an interview for In Tune. The second, a piece for performance called 'Tour de Force', was performed live in the Royal Festival Hall with accompaniment from beatboxer Shlomo and organist Tom Bell, also broadcast on Radio 3.
