Phantom Limb Audio Drama

Aim

The aim of Phantom Limb is to produce and release a carefully made, human-led audio drama that supports emerging creative voices and values.

What this project is

Phantom Limb is my first audio drama - a long-form, audio-first narrative written for voices, silence, and careful listening.

It follows Frank Walker, a Brighton taxi driver who has lost a lower limb and is quietly contemplating suicide while running a six-month “experiment”: logging meaningful encounters with passengers to decide whether to live or die.

The story moves between present-day Brighton, Frank’s past as a student before the accident, and a future that offers quiet, unsentimental hope. It’s a restrained, intimate piece of storytelling - emotionally precise, and led by performance rather than spectacle.

Recording and post-production will take place during 2026, with release planned for late spring or summer on Spotify.

Why I’m making it

I’m an experienced creative writer, with work published in print and online on both sides of the Atlantic. While Phantom Limb is my first audio drama, it’s not a first attempt at serious storytelling.

Audio felt like the right home for this project. It allows voices, pauses, and silence to do the work - and invites the listener into close proximity with the characters, rather than explaining things visually or emotionally.

My hope is to release the finished audio drama on Spotify in late spring or summer 2026, with the longer-term ambition of reaching radio and a wider listening audience.

Where the project is now

The script is complete (around 17,000 words) and structured across intercut NOW / THEN / FUTURE timelines.

We’ve already completed a full rehearsal read-through with actors and a sound technician, and it was a total success, with strong performances and a clear narrative spine. A final read-through is scheduled for late February, following a focused rewrite that prioritises cuts, pace, and clarity rather than expansion.

This crowdfunder marks the move from development into realisation.

A deliberately human project

Phantom Limb is an intentionally human-made piece of work.

All performances will be by real actors. Sound design and post-production will be handled by a real sound technician. No AI-generated voices or performances will be used.

Any negligible use of AI (for example, basic artwork tools) will not replace creative labour. This project exists to support voices in a room, time spent rehearsing, and care taken in production.

The actors and sound technician involved are current students or recent graduates, all at the very start of their journey in the creative arts.

Backing this project is a way of supporting the creative arts at a grassroots level.

What you’re supporting

Your support will help fund:

• Fair pay for performers (current students or recent graduates)
• Professional sound design, mixing, and mastering
• Distribution and hosting for a Spotify release

£500 target – contributes directly to paying performers.
£1,000 stretch target – improves pay and supports paid social promotion so the finished audio drama reaches a wider audience.

Here's a small extract from the script (NOW timeline). *This extract references themes of disability and mental health. 

FRANK
Hove Lawns. April 21st, 2014.

My writing arm is rested now, and I’ve just done another quick job from Hove Lawns to Rottingdean, east of Brighton. I’ve driven back here to finish up my journal entry and unwind before bed.
Here’s where you left me and Iris.

IRIS
Wow. Ermm. It’s amazing of you to ask that. I’m not a confident swimmer either. Well, I used to be, but I’m not any more.

FRANK
If you don’t want to, Iris, I totally understand. Like I said, you must think I’m crazy.

FRANK (narrating)
For the first time since Iris sat on the backseat, I turned to look at her. Pixie-like. Pretty. Her face pale and soft, her eyes dark as can be. We locked eyes.

IRIS
What is it, Frank?

FRANK
I also have a body part that’s changed. Below my knee here—it’s a prosthesis.

IRIS
Oh. Really? I had no idea. Wait, the blue badge on your dashboard?

FRANK
Yes, old Bluey. I just keep it there all the time. Most people don’t clock it from the backseat.

IRIS
Frank, you’re really handsome.

FRANK (narrating)
Iris laughed. We both laughed. There was no more talking to do for now. We had to get moving before the temperature dropped and the light faded.

We walked together, slowly, to the Hove seafront pebbles. There were very few people around—dog walkers in spring coats, a paddle boarder or two.

Iris helped me in. We gasped and laughed as the water lapped our waists, and then we dropped. As dead weights we fell and submerged ourselves—gasping, panting—until the shock subsided.

Ten metres out to sea we could stand. I could balance on one foot, or hop, or float and stare skywards. Iris stood and let the breakers lap against her midriff and chest. Quietly, to herself, she looked back to land, arms outstretched, as if opening herself to it.

We were mad. A madness had come over us. Delirium. That childlike, hyperactive response to cold.

We stood and swayed together, alone in the water, and told each other everything about our differences—which we called our uniqueness, and Iris called our superpowers. We said things we hadn’t said out loud to anyone in years.

Now that I’ve taken Iris home, and recounted the greatest night of my twenties to you, the salt has dried across my body and in my hair, and it’s time to finally go home and take a long shower.

DIE: 3
LIVE: 2

Thank you

This is a small, careful project made with intention rather than scale in mind. If you choose to support Phantom Limb, you’re helping emerging creative voices, paid artistic labour, and a piece of audio storytelling made with care.

No hype.
No shortcuts.
Just people making work properly.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made