“I got an email from someone saying, ‘I’d like to reserve a ticket for The Love and Devotion of Ridley Scott,” playwright Miran Hadzic laughs. “And I was like – it’s not a biopic of Ridley Scott! I really hope they’re not coming expecting a biopic of the director.” Hadzic’s new play, actually called The Love and Devotion of Ridley Smith, has just gone into rehearsals the week I talk to him in preparation for its run at the Old Red Lion Theatre. It’s his first full-length play, commissioned by the theatre as a result of REDfest, a new writing competition held by the theatre in 2012. “For a theatre like the Old Red Lion, which is a really established fringe venue, it was very nice, to use a simple word, that someone believed in you so much to commission you to write a full length play.”

Hadzic, who was born in Sarajevo in Bosnia, grew up in London, and has been doing bits and pieces on the fringe since he graduated from university three years ago. Alongside being Literary Assistant at the Finborough, he will see Ridley Smith premiere this month. The play follows a young banker who “commits a kind of unscrupulous business deal”, and, inspired by a strange street artist, consequently quits his job in an attempt to become an artist. “But the thing about him is that Ridley doesn’t really understand art,” Hazdic explains, “It’s just that he sees artistic endeavour and he thinks – that’s what’s going to make me happier, and I’m going to try and pursue that.”

In a stark contrast to the work Hadzic has done on short plays with companies such as the Miniaturists, Ridley Smith has been in development for two years, with the first year very much about finding a voice and a subject for the play, and with the second year developing the work itself. “The Old Red Lion were brilliant with doing things like rehearsed readings and workshops, they gave us the space, which is really, really useful – you know, incredibly useful to hear actors say your words.” He was also part of a course at the New Plays from Europe Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany, where the play was also workshopped. “So the play’s been through a lot of eyes and ears,” Hadzic adds, noting the considerable journey both he and the play have been on over the last two years.

With rehearsals in full swing, Hadzic tells me that, having been into rehearsal once, he’s now planning to “steer clear”. What, then, is the role of the writer in relation to rehearsal? “You are the writer and you are writing for a collaborative medium, and it’s nice to just give stuff to people and let people do what they want with it and let people have that process with it,” he says. “There were bits when I was in rehearsal and I was thinking, ‘I wouldn’t quite do it that way’, but that’s not really the point, and it’s not really useful for you to be in the room.” The creative team itself is formidable, with the design supported by a brief run by IdeasTap and the production also supported by Arts Council England, “another thing that just boosts the whole thing and makes it a really, really exciting prospect.”

Despite planning on removing himself a little from rehearsal, that isn’t to say Hadzic hasn’t had a considerable influence on the physical presence of the play through his writing. “In the Old Red Lion space, I think you’re made acutely aware of the audience because of that weird shape,” he explains. “So you’re always aware of the audience’s presence there and I think that informed the way that I wrote the play.” He notes how Ridley Smith “spans many different locations, and I think there was a deliberate attempt not to try and convince the audience that we’re actually in a room somewhere, because you’re always aware that you’re in a theatre. So I wanted the play to have a kind of playful, almost wandering sense, because you can’t convince an audience in that space that they’re actually in a flat in East London or wherever.”

Katherine Armitage, who directed Hadzic’s REDfest-winning play Feral, is also directing Ridley Smith. Hadzic tells me how he “really, really trust her” as a result of her also having been working on the play for the last two years. That trust is evident in the way he is mostly unaware of how the production of the play is going to look. “But I quite like that,” he says positively. “I quite like that it’s almost a bit of a secret for me. Being with the play for two years, you kind of want to get rid of it after a while, and you’re happy for other people to take it on.”

After the exciting experience of his first full-length production, what’s next for Hadzic? “I want to obviously keep writing,” he says. With “a few things in the pipeline,” there’s also the possibility of Hadzic trying his hand at direction. He also adds that “the main thing is that this play goes well and that the production team and I are really happy with what we produce. That’s the kind of main objective at the moment.” When I ask him for advice, he modestly tells me that “What I think is important is to keep writing, to be nice, and turn up on time. I think it’s really important as a writer,” he adds, “to just be generous.”

The Love and Devotion of Ridley Smith runs from 23 September to 11 October at the Old Red Lion. For more information and tickets, visit the Old Red Lion’s website.