Acting alumni brings student project to world-renowned festival
01 July 2025
What began as a short film created during Piers Mackenzie’s final year at Falmouth has blossomed to become a stage production that has already received glowing five-star reviews and sold-out international performances. Entitled COURIER, the production is a solo show written by and starring Piers and is inspired by the Acting BA alumni’s time working as a Deliveroo rider while studying at Falmouth.
Described as “a masterful piece of theatre” by Theatre Reviews Perth, COURIER has now finished its Australian run and is making its UK debut at London’s Seven Dials Playhouse later this month. In August, the production will entertain and inspire audiences with a run at Edinburgh Fringe, where Piers will star in his show with daily performances after it was awarded the ‘Keep it Fringe’ fund.
We caught up with Piers to learn more about how he transformed his student work into a solo show that has impressed both critics and audiences alike with its intimate exploration of isolation and identity.
Can you tell us what COURIER is all about?
COURIER is a dark comedy set in Falmouth, inspired by my time working as a Deliveroo rider. It follows Benny, a newly minted "Essential Worker" as he pedals through Falmouth’s streets with a thermal backpack full of KFC. But when one delivery goes unexpectedly wrong, he’s pulled into a series of increasingly strange encounters. What starts as a simple food delivery becomes a descent into a fractured mind where isolation, obsession, and agoraphobia collide, and the wheels start to come off.
COURIER began life during your final year at Falmouth. Can you tell us more about this connection?
My final year at Falmouth took place during the pandemic, which meant one of our modules - aptly titled 'Show in a Bag' - had to be taught and performed entirely online. I had no idea where to begin.
I’d head out on my Deliveroo shifts, still turning it over in my head, wondering what on earth I could make. Then it clicked: write what you know.
I know Deliveroo far more than any human probably should; I’ve completed over 2,500 deliveries now. So, with plenty of inspiration to draw from, I strapped a GoPro to my helmet and set off.
Senior Lecturer Agnieszka Blonska, who taught the module, really helped me shape it into something more than just a ‘day in the life of a courier’ piece. She kept pushing me to dig deeper, and that process really helped it evolve into becoming something more. When I decided to adapt it from a short film into a stage production, both Agnieszka and fellow Senior Lecturer Gareth Farr generously offered their time and advice.
What skills did you gain that have proved invaluable in bringing COURIER to life?
So many! Working with Associate Lecturer Alister O’Loughlin on the ‘Acting and Story’ module in my first year was a real turning point for me. It opened a whole world of solo performance and multi-rolling, which I hadn’t really explored before. In COURIER, I play nine different characters, so being able to switch quickly and clearly between them is essential.
The voice and accent work I’ve done with Voice Lecturer Gemma Wright has been incredibly helpful. Even now, if I’ve got an audition coming up or I’m stressed that my Cockney accent is sounding increasingly Australian, I’ll book a session with Gemma to get it back on track.
I try to keep the habits I built at university – such as learning to take feedback, constantly workshopping and refining my material – alive and I find them incredibly helpful.
COURIER has already had its initial run in Australia - how did you find this experience?
It was such a blast! I was nervous beforehand - would this very English show about cycling around a fishing village on the south coast of Cornwall land with an Australian audience? But it turns out isolation and gig economy frustration are very universal themes!
The act of being the producer of a show in Australia was one of the most time-consuming challenges. I had two great venues - The Blue Room Theatre in Perth and The Mill in Adelaide - who were super helpful. But then there was everything else: learning how to market your show, writing media releases, inviting reviewers, spotting a reviewer at another show and chasing him down the street to ask if he'd come to yours the next day, spending hours agonizing over whether the poster's font should be Times New Roman or Elephant Pro only to settle on Impact. But through all that trial and error, I've gained a much clearer picture of what I need to do for the London Preview and Edinburgh Fringe run.
How have you found both acting and writing your own solo production?
When you're both the writer and the performer, there’s nowhere to hide. If the acting’s bad, you can’t blame the script. If the writing’s bad, you can’t blame the performance. But that also means when it does land, it’s incredibly satisfying, because it feels more personal.
It’s the kind of process that needs an outside eye. I was lucky to work with an amazing director called Rachel McMurray for the Australian run who understood the style I was going for and gave such valuable feedback when it came to the writing.
For the first week of rehearsals, I’d bring in ideas and we’d explore them in the room; - seeing what worked, what didn’t, and what needed rewriting. Then, in the final week, I had to switch off my writer brain completely and focus solely on the acting. One of the great things about this process is that I’ve written characters I probably wouldn’t get the chance to play in any other context.
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