First of all, congratulations! Players is about to hit the stage at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, so what does it feel like to see this whole writing process almost finished?

Ever so slightly scary and exciting at the same time! It's been about a year in the writing which is far too long, really. But I guess for a first play it had to be that long because I want to get everything right. All I can say is it's been like being on a rollercoaster for a year [laughs]. It's gonna be interesting! I'm actually quite relieved that everything's done now, so I can step back and let the actors and everybody else do their thing. But I imagine that calm will disappear when the lights go down, the actors are on the stage and I'm foaming at the mouth having a tension fit in the corner. It's certainly a slightly surreal experience, but it's a good experience too.

The play itself is set in a pool hall in Bradford, but that's really just the background for events to unfold against isn't it?

A Bradford pool hall sets the scene for Tajinder's latest play

As you say, it's set in Bradford and for me that's quite important to the play actually. It's about four friends. There's Ali, the older brother figure who's in charge of the hall; there's his younger brother Aftab who's a cocky young lad; then there's Kal, this bitter ex-cricketer who's now a mechanic. Over the course of an evening these three are waiting for Bobby, an old friend who left for London seven years before to make his fortune. His return back to the North is a catalyst or what happens next. His leaving wasn't exactly, er, smooth let's say. A very large skeleton falls out of the closet when he arrives!

You had the idea, you came up with the words, but now you've handed Players over to a whole group of people at the West Yorkshire Playhouse to get the thing on stage. Do you have any say in how they do that?

It's been fairly minimal. I don't mind that because writing a play is a collaboration. My job is primarily to provide a script and then let the actors, the designers and the director take it where they need to take it. I don't really want to be one of those moaning writers on the sidelines. Ultimately you've just got to have some trust in what you've written and trust in the people around you. I've known the director, Mark Catley, for a while and I get on with him very well. He's a writer too so I feel utterly relaxed in giving him that role. As I've said, it's a surreal experience because you have to care a lot about the play - but once you leave it you have to not care. It's a strange state to be in because ultimately if you get too involved in the process after it's been written then you'll be a nervous wreck by the time it gets round to the performance because you've got so much of yourself invested in it.

The city of Bradford is clearly one big influence on your writing, but where else do you get your ideas from - if it's not asking you to give away the tricks of the trade!?

"I've been doing a lot of eavesdropping!"

Well, oddly enough, I've started going on public transport a lot more over the last two years, so I've been doing a lot of eavesdropping! Writing-wise it's difficult to say because I'd call myself more of a novice. I suppose the setting for this play, as you say, was the big trigger. Just being in a pool hall is an influence too, it's a very interesting place to set a drama. No light's allowed in, its all-male, it's very smoky. It's an incredibly unnatural setting, it's like being in a big black box. I've not spent that much time there, in fact I think it's probably a good idea to just visit occasionally because if you're massively familiar with something then you don't actually notice things. I'm, er, rubbish at pool actually!

You were born in Bradford, brought up in Bradford, you still live in the city so you must like it despite the image it sometimes seems to have in the world at large. Does this mean you find the place helpful to what you do?

Well, that's the thing about this play. Some of the characters have a very antagonistic relationship with Bradford and some of them don't. From a writing point of view it's a fascinating place. That sounds a bit mercenary but what I mean is that there are just so many stories in the city. I don't want to slag off other cities, but Bradford is pretty unique. I've always lived here and you do write about what you know, I guess. One thing that has struck me is that there's a...I wouldn't use the word 'braindrain'...but there's a strange attitude that people in Bradford have towards Bradford. A lot of them just want to get out, so it's a kind of vicious circle. Also its proximity to Leeds means the two cities are virtually merging in a disturbing sense. All the money, all the attention, goes to Leeds - and so Bradford is in the orbit of this bigger brother. Despite all this, I like living in Bradford. I can't really see myself living anywhere else. Bradfordians have a weird love-hate relationship with Bradford!

You're only 24, you've already had a play broadcast on the radio, you've now got a play about to open at a very high-profile venue, where do you go from here?

Tajinder: "I dabble!"

I'm actually studying to be a teacher at the moment. I'm on a placement at Bradford University teaching Creative Writing which has been really useful in writing this play. Its made me think about the work in a more focused and concrete way. I have plans for the future, of course, but I'm not disciplined enough for them to be highly-regimented. I'll just have a go at whatever comes my way. If anybody out there wants to throw money at me I'm more than willing to accept it! I'll do anything really. We do live in an interesting age where writers aren't so limited geographically, so you can be in one place while something you've done is happening in another place. There's also a lot of flexibility in the genres you can work in now.

Do you still have things you really want to write about?

I'm trying to do a short film set in Bradford. I've talked to producers and I would like to direct that myself, just to see if I can really do it. I'd also like to have a go at radio. I started writing a radio play almost as an antidote to writing plays for the stage. I dabble!

Players, by Tajinder Hayer and directed by Mark Catley, is on at the West Yorkshire Playhouse from 31st May until 4th June 2005.