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Julia Darling

JULIA DARLING

  (1956 - 2005)
Nationality:    British
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

although probably best known for her Booker Prize-nominated novel the Taxi Driver's Daughter (2003), her first love was poetry and her illness provided her not only with a subject but also a cause. She believed passionately in the value of poetry: "Poetry should be part of every hospital, not just to keep patients amused," she once said. "the more descriptive language you can use about pain, the better you're going to communicate what's happening, and it means you can control it better." She ran workshops with GPs and hospital staff on using poetry to cope with illness, and produced a series of poems dealing with her own illness. One collection of these poems became a song cycle, Sudden Collapses in Public Places, with music by David Scott and Neil Blenkinsop, which was performed at Newcastle's Live Theatre in September 2006. She was a frequent broadcaster, with many of her poems, short stories and plays being produced by BBC radio. She was writer in residence at Live Theatre in 2002 and winner of the Northern Rock Foundation prize of £60,000 in 2003, as well as being poet in residence for the Guardian and a fellow in healthcare and literature in the English department at Newcastle University.

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below is a list of Julia Darling's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Attachments         Cold Calling         Doughnuts Like Fanny's         Eating the Elephant         Head Of Steam         Last Post And Posties, The         Manifesto For A New City         Ne1         Personal Belongings         Philosophers         Venetia Love Goes Netting
Attachments

Synopsis:
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Notes:
part of Double Lives. for television As Cold Calling, presented by Tyne Tees TV

1st Produced:

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1st Published:
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Music:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Cold Calling

Synopsis:
a dark comedy about a door-to-door salesman.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
in Live theatre: six plays from the North east, Methuen, London, 2003   

Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Doughnuts Like Fanny's

Synopsis:
Maybe the story's a myth, but husband Johnnie turns to the watching millions after one of the famous TV shows. "Great cooking", he said, "is making doughnuts like Fanny's." the phrase passed into legend. Fanny Cradock was an extraordinary woman. She was the first celebrity TV cook. We remember her strange mask-like face on our black and white TV, ordering husband Johnnie about as she strutted between counter and cooker. She was ridiculous, rather glamorous, but frightening too. She introduced a new wave of sophisticated foods, including the prawn cocktail. Remember that Apron! But what was she really like? Julia Darling's play uses music and comedy to uncover the woman behind the mask.

Notes:
aka the Life And Loves of A Kitchen Devil

1st Produced:
Saville Row Theatre, North Shields     2002

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Eating the Elephant

Synopsis:
Carol is a cleaner, Miranda is a university lecturer, Laura works in a building society and Zimmy teaches Tai Chi. On the surface they have nothing in common, in fact they don't even like each other very much, but they are about to discover that they all have breast cancer. Thrown together through mutual need, the 4 women embark on a friendship which becomes the most important thing in their lives. they travel together through uncertain treatments, swimming pools, night clubs and even into the air towards a joyful and liberating solution.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Ashton Group Contemporary Theatre     1998

Organisations:
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1st Published:
New Writing North, Wickham, UK, 2005   

Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Head Of Steam

Synopsis:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
New Writing North, Wickham, UK, 2005   

Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
history play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Last Post And Posties, The

Synopsis:
an offbeat look at letters and their power and importance in people's lives. It asks questions about how people communicate with each other and in this age of computers and cyber communication, what part does letter writing still play in people's relationships with each other? Through the experiences of six characters, young and old, we see how letters help them through the ups and downs of life.

Notes:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Manifesto For A New City

Synopsis:
This is the manifesto of the City's bread-kneaders and stonemasons, its sculptors and chocolate fanciers, its egg painters and flower arrangers, its blacksmiths and conjurors. and each citizen embarks on the learning of a disappearing language. . .. "It's the manifesto of the disgruntled of Newcastle really", said Julia.

Notes:
collaborated with Jim Kitson And Duska Radosavljevic

1st Produced:
Queens Hall, Hexham     2005

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Ne1

Synopsis:
life on Tyneside in the year 2000

Notes:
part of A show of 12 monologues

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Live Theatre Company

1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short monologue

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Personal Belongings

Synopsis:
On a train bound for Newcastle, the inner thoughts of the passengers in carriage D are played out by one actor

Notes:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Philosophers

Synopsis:
Be part of the audience for a live broadcast of three new short plays by Sean O'Brien, Julia Darling and Peter Straughan. Each writer will create a new play about a philosopher who has had a connection with Newcastle or the North East. The plays promise to give a surreal and humorous view of the philosophers and their beliefs. The evening will begin with readings of new work by Sean and Julia.

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
BBC Radio and Live Theatre

1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Venetia Love Goes Netting

Synopsis:
centred on a retired postmistress who was given a computer that she didn't want

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
ne1 project

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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