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When it comes to celebrated writer this talented artist, crafting resembles a wrestling match. “It’s genuinely difficult,” she admits. “The experience is far from graceful. It’s not just pouring out of me. It feels, yeah … not very healthy or whatever.”

She is celebrated for her blazing dramas that frequently include bold formatting and intensity. One of her earliest successes, a provocative theatrical piece, came together in a marathon session. Her newest work, titled Romans, was penned in roughly 10 days—but as she explains that its concepts had been brewing for almost a decade. “Naturally, it wasn’t created in just 10 days,” she emphasizes. “It was an eight-year journey. The dialogue had been mentally prepared.”

She explored unfamiliar territory: Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, 70s American novels, even attempting Ulysses without success.

The play presents a radical study of masculinity and narrative styles across recent history. Its focus is a character named Jack, played by a skilled performer. Audiences encounter him as a youth, and each act of his existence is presented in a distinct period-inspired format: Victorian prose, experimental forms, contemporary styles. “The idea that it’s almost impossible,” she explains, “is what makes it thrilling.”

Design is her priority in her process. Romans represents a debut employment of a main storyteller. “It has a classic feel,” she admits, “yet a narrative about masculine identity, demands a solitary figure addressing the audience.”

The playwright had long intended to write about masculinity over time. “I often get notes that the men in my works like they’re not as well formed as the women.” She saw this as a compelling opportunity. Romans opens in an era when women are giving birth separately with males relaxing nearby. It travels through private academies, detention centers, secret societies, and podcast recordings. “Lots of the later sections touched upon Andrew Tate and the manosphere,” she recalls with discomfort. “That was miserable.”

Across the years, she consumed voraciously beyond her usual preferences. She also, untangled ideas alongside her collaborator, her creative ally. Working together represents an initial effort in theater. “We were tentative,” Birch admits. “There was concern about failure.”

Birch gained recognition as a sharp adapter for television. Her credits include adaptations of Sally Rooney’s a hit series plus additional works. Currently, she is working on Ministry of Time.

Adapting existing material is, Birch acknowledges, “a rewarding task”, but she had been itching to start an original project. Earlier, she presented was a radical retelling of Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. With this new play, she innovates beyond a novel, but the entire concept. “That sounds really pretentious,” she admits, rolling her eyes. But she wanted to explore feasibility live performance.

The inspiration initially took shape upon listening to an old radio interview featuring a famous author on manhood and literature. “Men were at war or at sea or on mountains,” she elaborates. “Then, gradually, men were brought inside due to social changes.” It offered the edges of her structure, tracing narrative development to follow male-centric plots has shaped our world, “and what impact the presence of women changes these narratives.”

During the creative process, she experimented with allowing women in the story grapple the narrative back from male figures. “Yet it lacked authenticity.” Rather, societal attitudes toward women deemed unstable howls through the play. This topic recurs in her productions, in earlier pieces including a new cinematic version based on a novel. Co-written with a filmmaking icon, the psychological thriller stars Jennifer Lawrence portraying a mental health decline following delivery. Birch finds herself consistently engaged with such narratives. “In my view, little has progressed, how people think about women and mental health and creativity and rage,” she states. “There remains a sense that an angry woman is feared in society, something to suppress.”