For Glynde-based playwright Phil Porter, the genesis of Blink was pretty unusual. “The story just popped into my head,” he admits as the two-hander makes its Brighton debut, following critically acclaimed appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe and London’s Soho Theatre.

“The story was about stalking. It felt like a psycho-logical thriller, which isn’t really what I write and isn’t necessarily what theatre is particularly good at.”

It was when he layered a love story over the top that the piece became “something quite strange”.

“I had lots of ideas before I knew who these people were,” he says. “I knew I needed a character who had a need to be watched and a character who needed to be a voyeur, who both felt a very strong need for each other.”

His first creation was Jonah, the voyeur, who had grown up in a self-sufficient religious commune in Lancashire.

“I wrote it with the original actor [Harry McEntire] in mind, which helped develop the character quite clearly,” he says. “Once I’d got him figured out, I was able to work out the ying to his yang.”

He also explored having the actors speak directly to the audience to establish a direct relationship with those watching the play.

‘Genuinely unsettling’

“They are both relatable but both very strange,” he says. “It’s quite nice to tell a story about two people who you like, but you also find genuinely unsettling.”

Blink focuses on two lonely characters – played in this tour by Thomas Pickles and Lizzy Watts – who fall in love through a video baby monitor before they even meet.

“Loneliness is an interesting thing – you can be surrounded by people but that can make you feel more lonely,” says Porter.

“Both the characters come from very sheltered backgrounds. They expect London to be a place where they will make more friends, but it doesn’t work out that way.”

Porter’s own life experiences add a touch of realism to the play.

“There are little details – the girl grew up on the Isle Of Man, where I used to go on holiday as a kid,” he says. “In London they live in Leytonstone, where I used to live. The boy feeds a stray fox with mange living in his back garden, as I did.

“I included these details as the audience will relate to them – they have a ring of truth. If there’s a bedrock of experience underneath it liberates you to be very imaginative with what else is going on.”

Porter is currently adapting his play for radio, reducing the hour-and-a-quarter running time to 44 minutes.

“For large parts of the play the characters are telling the story to the audience,” he says. “If it played out without direct address, the script would only be about three pages long!

“I’ve had to rethink a few little moments because they only work visually, but so far it doesn’t seem too tricky. The hardest thing is the cutting – all the structural stuff isn’t the most interesting but it’s the stuff you can’t get rid of.”

The play itself is also going to New York in June, having already toured to Bangalore in India.

“I had no idea what to expect in India,” admits Porter. “The audiences were really into it. There was a mix of ex-pats from the UK, US and Europe, and people who had an experience of London.”

Porter and the production had an interesting experience getting into the country.

“When we went to India, we had to take a big green carpet with us,” says Porter, referring to designer Hannah Clark’s lawn set which provides a backdrop for much of the action.

“It was very difficult to explain that we were bringing this carpet with us for two weeks and then taking it back to the UK.

“They would only let me in if I could name an Indian playwright, which was a little intimidating. Luckily Tagore – their Shakespeare – got me through!”

Exciting projects

As well as looking forward to returning to New York, having taken one of his first plays to Broadway in the early 2000s, Porter has a stack of exciting new projects for 2014.

He is working on a new play for Plymouth Theatre Royal focusing on drugs in sport and how modern-day heroes can disappoint you – inspired in part by the Lance Armstrong story.

This summer his Moomins musical is set to make its London debut, while his 2010 children’s opera Skitterbang Island is also returning to the stage.

And last week he was announced as the writer for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s winter play, which will mark the 100th anniversary of the famous 1914 Christmas truce, when German and British soldiers left the trenches for a game of football.

“It’s a real honour to be asked” says Porter, who has visited the Belgian trenches for inspiration.

“Most of my work is conjured from the subconscious, I haven’t written a lot of historical plays. It’s quite daunting, especially with five new books on the First World War coming out every day!”