Relocation
In 1978, he moved to West Berlin where, after six months at Peter Stein's Schaubühne Theater with Robert Wilson, he decided to stay.
During the 1980s he not only appeared in a number of English language theatre productions in West Berlin, he also kept up his music performances with local Berlin musicians as well as his UK friends. As anti-glitter rocker "Arfur Sparkle" or "Shaun Lawton & The Flying Pigs" they toured around Berlin, Hamburg and wine festivals on the Mosel. In November 1989 they played the "Quasimodo Jazz Keller" as the Berlin Wall was falling down. Time in another fit of stage presence.
Currently he is on tour as the magician Merlin in the Purcell and Dryden semi-opera, King Arthur, with the Berlin based Lautten Compagney. The tour takes in historical baroque theatres in Germany, such as the Markgräfliches Theater in Bayreuth as well as the Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmunds.
In 2008 he sang for Rita Kantimir-Thomä after the International Women's Day Awards in Berlin at which she received the 'Woman of the Year Award' for her continued commitment to protecting refugees.
He continues to write poetry and songs and acts in theatre, television and films (in English as well as German) including the upcoming film John Rabe, alongside Ulrich Tukur, Steve Buscemi, Daniel Brühl, Anne Consigny, Dagmar Manzel and Gottfried John. He is also a busy voice artist.
He is together with trauma specialist Sibylle Rothkegel who set up treatment centres for torture and war victims in the Balkans in the 1990s. She holds a post at the International Academy (INA) at the Free University of Berlin, and she evaluates UNHCR projects on Gender Specific Violence (GSV) in refugee camps in Africa and South America. She champions the fight against the practice of female genital mutilation.
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