playwrights
The Resurrection of Conor McPhersonThursday, 23 January 2014
The transfer this week to the West End of The Weir has reminded theatre-goers of Conor McPherson’s hypnotic powers as a dramatist. In the Donmar's revival of the play you can palpably feel the playwright’s storytelling magic casting its spell all... Read more... |
Perfect Nonsense: adapting Jeeves and WoosterFriday, 08 November 2013
“She paused and heaved a sigh of relief that seemed to come straight from the cami-knickers.” Recounted our brother Andy, many years ago……. "A silence ensued." This was not his own observation, but a quote from P.G. Wodehouse, whom neither Bobby nor... Read more... |
Why write about Ruth Ellis?Thursday, 04 April 2013
"Why write about Ruth Ellis?" It’s a question I’ve been asked many times in the run-up to The Thrill of Love and it’s a good one. I’d like to know the answer, too. Three years ago, I was commissioned by the New Vic Theatre in... Read more... |
Interview: Martin Crimp in the Republic of SatireMonday, 10 December 2012
Playwright Martin Crimp defies labels. He has been called obscure and oblique, too difficult and, worst of all, too Continental. But although he is feted on the European mainland — George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin, with text by Crimp, comes... Read more... |
At Your Service: The Birth of Privates on ParadeSaturday, 01 December 2012
It was in Singapore in 1947 that my real education began. For the first time I read Lawrence, Forster, Virginia Woolf, Melville, Graham Greene and Bernard Shaw’s political works, becoming a lifelong Leftie. When Stanley Baxter explained... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Playwright Martin CrimpSaturday, 10 March 2012
Playwright Martin Crimp is one of British theatre’s best-kept secrets. Although his neon-lit name appears in the theatre capitals of Europe, with his work a big hit at festivals all over the continent, here he is better known to students - who love... Read more... |
Opinion: There's more to children's theatre than pantoMonday, 05 December 2011
So, Christmas again then. Ho ho ho. It comes around every year. Cards, crackers, baubles, TV specials. And panto. I am a playwright. I write mostly for children and their families. I tend not to say I'm a children's writer because it's rare that a... Read more... |
My City, Almeida TheatreFriday, 16 September 2011
Welcome back Stephen Poliakoff. With his first new play for 12 years, the master penman has set aside his television excursions into history and memory — most recently Glorious 39 for the BBC — for a haunting, contemporary tale of chance encounters... Read more... |
Truth and Reconciliation, Royal Court TheatreMonday, 05 September 2011
Can an ordinary wooden chair be an instrument of torture? Of course, every brute investigation makes use of such furniture, whether as a place to tie the victim down, or as a weapon to attack them with. But, as Debbie Tucker Green’s new play so... Read more... |
Page Eight, BBC TwoMonday, 29 August 2011
I think I owe David Hare an apology. When I sat down to watch Page Eight, last night – being, as it is, his latest probing of our moral and political universe – I just assumed that our national intelligence services would be in for a trendy-... Read more... |
Anna Christie, Donmar WarehouseWednesday, 10 August 2011
The talented Mr Jude Law is back on stage in what must be the hottest ticket in the West End. Although not everyone warmed to his 2009 Hamlet, the mere presence in central London of one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars is enough to bring a touch... Read more... |
The Rattigan Enigma, BBC FourFriday, 29 July 2011
In a recent article, David Hare complained about “a national festival of reaction” in the arts, exemplified by such supposedly Establishment-leaning works as The King’s Speech and Downton Abbey. His real target was Terence Rattigan, currently being... Read more... |
