Projects

Sounds, Familiar

Experiencing 24 hours in Wandsworth through sound

Commissioned by Welcome to Wandsworth as part of the year of Wandsworth, London Borough of Culture and in collaboration with Sound Minds, Sounds, Familiar will be an immersive sound installation using the sounds of Wandsworth and its people recorded over one, twenty-four hour period.

Due to be open to the public February 2026

Shanty-singing sessions at Sound Minds

Inspired by the accessibility for all to be able to enter into communal singing together in a relaxed and supportive environment of communal friendship with a form that is by-nature an orally learned tradition, I began the Shanty Sessions with the kind support of Sound Minds. It has since proved to be increasingly popular. Sessions weekly. Contact Sound Minds for further information.

Foodbank : 2021

‘Food Bank: 2021’ is written by former Food Bank manager Tara Osman and directed by Lawrence O’Connor. Their successful play ‘Food Bank As It Is’ has, since spring 2017, played to many hundreds of people in venues across the UK and was due to be performed in Northampton but had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. And so Lawrence directed, filmed and edited this film under lockdown conditions instead.
How does it feel to go hungry for days, yet be surrounded by plenty? What is it like to rely on a food bank to feed yourself and your family? The Coronavirus pandemic heightened this with many more people needing to access food banks to support themselves and their families.
‘Food Bank: 2021’, using the words overheard in and around North Paddington foodbank, is an online theatre piece which provides a window into the world of food poverty in the UK for those who want to look. Documented by a food bank worker who is incensed by what she has seen, these are dramatised stories of people’s real life struggles with financial hardship.
Click here to watch it.

My Man & Me: A show about masculinity – 2020

A 4-day R&D workshop with writer, Tara Osman, and theatre-maker Lol O’Connor, investigating masculinity from a female and male perspective.
Click here to see a sample of the work-in-progress.
Halted by covid-19, this project became one of the inputs for I’ll Drown My Book, a performance developed as part of Lol O’Connor’s MSc in Creative Arts and Mental Health at Queen Mary University of London.

The Tempest – 2016

Click here to find out more about this six Off West End award-nominated production that incorporated community workshops in the Worlds End Estate.
Click here for stills of an example scene, relationship and character development exercise used in the development process.
Click here for a taste of the Ariel as Ceres and Iris: Bacchanal
Click here for a taste of Prospero Unleashes the Spirit Hounds of Hell
Click here for Cooking Up a Storm : Creating the maelstrom of The Tempest

A Kiss, A Cross, An Ocean – 1986

Click here to watch this experimental piece, filmed and edited on 8mm celluloid, with sound recorded on 4-track cassette, transferred and re-edited on VHS.

How Planes Fly – 2016

An interactive performance based on what might have become of the aviator-author of the Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

My Giddy Arc – 1985

An experimental 8mm film. Link to watch available soon…

A Trip In a Boat – 2007

After The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Made by Lawrence O’Connor as per the rules of Straight 8, one super 8 cine film cassette, edited in-camera then handed-over for processing.
First viewing for Trip in a Boat was in front of the invited audience at The Curzon cinema, Mayfair, London.
Multiple exposures by rewinding the film cassette inside a darkroom bag and using matte and masque cutouts infront of the lens. Lawrence particularly liked the way the process captured the storm-raising cherub-angels, played so beautifully by his daughters Lily and Siân.
Story-boarded by Lawrence the night before filming, him sleeping intermittently on the floor of Loz Vegas Studios in Alperton, fuelled with bottled-water till it was done.
Conception, direction & cinematography by Lawrence O’Connor
Sound design & music by Archie Arciero
Click here to watch it.