ABOUT US
SEAN ABERNETHY
A composer & lyricist from London, who has written various works for chamber ensembles (some worse some better) as well as a concerto for string orchestra and works for big band. Sean has no formal training but has studied piano and theory with Geraldine O’reilly for most of his life, and composition with Kemal Yusuf since 2021.
Sean and Hal first met in 2023 and, while discussing their writing, discovered their shared interest in wanting to write a musical. They discovered through this conversation that the parts of that process that had been stopping them – writing music or dialogue – were the very parts that the other had strengths in. The next day, they decided to begin their collaboration together.
Over the following weeks and months, they plotted the storyline, began to write songs and scenes, and gradually, the show that would become Yield Not to Evil took shape. After many meetings in the sprawling foyer at the National Theatre and many more sessions in our own homes writing away, almost a year after we had begun, we had a full first draft.
Together with a number of our actor friends, we read through the piece, heard the songs aloud, laughed at the jokes and got a real feel for the characters. Following that read-through, we made some changes, added a scene and a song or two, and brought the show into its current form.
THE COMPANY
HAL BENNETT
A writer from Bristol, who has aspired to writerdom since the age of eight. Hal has written prose and script (some better some worse) for the greater part of twenty years, including two full-length novels, two plays and several other, smaller projects. Hal studied Creative writing at UEA, from which he graduated in 2019.