The Playwrights Database
ROBERT SHAW
(1927 - 1978)Nationality: English
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Literary Agent: n/a
Robert Shaw (Artistic Director of Inside Intelligence) graduated from Cambridge University in 1979. Since 1981 he has directed, translated and adapted over forty plays in London, Edinburgh, New York and Cambridge. His critically acclaimed production of Sylvia Plath's only play Three Women was seen in London (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Edinburgh (Assembly) in 2009 and Off-Broadway in October 2010. Happy New by Brendan Cowell extended by four weeks at the Old Red Lion Theatre in January - March 2012. Teddy and Topsy by Robert Shaw (Edinburgh 2010, London and Edinburgh 2011); Some Gorgeous Accident by James Kennaway, adapted by Robert Shaw (Edinburgh: Assembly 2010); Poem Without a Hero by Anna Akhmatova, translated by DM Thomas (Edinburgh 2010); Tejas Verdes by Fermin Cabal, translated by Robert Shaw (Jermyn Street Theatre, dir. Robert Shaw 2002, staged reading; Gate Theatre, dir Thea Sharrock 2005). Other productions include The Woods by David Mamet (UK premiere); shoot! by Fermin Cabal, translated by Robert Shaw; One God, One Farinelli! with Richard O'Brien; Up To Now, the autobiography of his grandfather, the English composer Martin Shaw, adapted by Robert Shaw; Ana in Love by Paloma Pedrero, translated by Robert Shaw - originally commissioned to mark the first anniversary of the Madrid terrorist bombings in 2004 and premiered in London in June / July 2006 to mark the first anniversary of the July 2005 London attack; As You Like It (music by Robert) and The Investigation by Peter Weiss. Opera: The Medium (London premiere), performed by Jane Manning, and The Lighthouse, both by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Productions before 1995: The Prince by David Drane (UK premiere); Dutchman by Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka; Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets; Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act by Athol Fugard; Fear by Mark Brennan; Inferno XXXIII by Michele Celeste; Reunion by David Mamet; Tell Me That I'm Dreaming by Mark Brennan; The Poker Session by Hugh Leonard; Measure for Measure; The Ruling Class by Peter Barnes; A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim and The Hostage (An Giall) by Brendan Behan - one of the hits of the 1981 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Robert is a jazz pianist/composer and speaks six languages, three of them fluently, which he has used in volunteer work for Amnesty International, including the 1990s crises in former Yugoslavia and Central Africa. Until recently, he was International Representative of the Chekhov Memorial Theatre in Taganrog, Chekhov's birthplace.
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below is a list of Robert Shaw's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
. . .I Sat Down and Wept Ana In Love Cato Street Children Of Fate Man in the Glass Booth Off the Mainland Shoot! Teddy and Topsy Tejas Verdes Up to Now. . .I Sat Down and Wept
Synopsis:
Love, loss and passion in music theatre.
Notes:
from book by Elizabeth Smart
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Inside Intelligence
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageAna In Love
Synopsis:
Three women spend their morning by the phone, waiting to hear from a man who, in different ways, defines them all. But the date is march 11, the year 2004 and the man in question normally takes the train to work. A deceptively simple play about the Madrid bombings showing the personal havoc wreaked by a grand political act.
Lucy Powell, Time Out London
Lucy Powell, Time Out London
Notes:
Original Playwright - Paloma Pedero
1st Produced:
Hackney Empire, Acorn, London
12 Jun 2006
Organisations:
Inside Intelligence
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Translation/Adaption
Parts:
Male: - Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
Top of PageCato Street
A group of working class men and women frustrated at the lack of reform to voting rights conspire to murder the Cabinet
Notes:
from his novel
1st Produced:
Young Vic, London
Nov 1971
Organisations:
Thistlewood Productions
1st Published:
Chatto and Windus 1972
Music:
-
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Genre:
Historical drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: large cast
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageChildren Of Fate
From multi-award-winning Chilean playwright Juan Radrigan comes the UK premiere of his heart-rending classic Children of Fate. Translated and directed by Robert Shaw, Children of Fate exposes with tenderness, humour and infinite love the devastating effects of Thatcherite ideology on the forgotten lives of millions dispossessed and brutalised by years of the Pinochet dictatorship. Much like Las Brutas, Radrigan's powerful play that received critical acclaim at Theatre503 in September 2011, Children of Fate speaks not only for the marginalised and oppressed in Chile but represents communities all over the world who are struggling against the odds to survive.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Juan Radrigan
1st Produced:
Clf Art Cafe, 133 Rye Lane, Peckham, London Se15 4St
29 Oct 2013
Organisations:
Inside Intelligence
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Translation/Adaption 65 min
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMan in the Glass Booth
Synopsis:
Goldman a self made real estate millionaire living in New York. He is kidnapped by Mossad and ends up on trial in Israel accused of being a torturer of Jews in concentration camps
Notes:
Based on the novel "The Man In The Glass Booth" by Robert Shaw
1st Produced:
St Martins, London
27 Jul 1967
Organisations:
Glasshouse productions
1st Published:
in "Plays Of the Year Vol.34", Flek, London, 1968
Music:
-
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Genre:
Historical drama
Parts:
Male: 18 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOff the Mainland
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Arts, London
1967
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageShoot!
Synopsis:
Black comedy of political and police corruption and of a woman's struggle for identity in a macho world.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Fermin Cabal
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Inside Intelligence
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:
Translation
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
Top of PageTeddy and Topsy
Synopsis:
Isadora Duncan was the greatest dancer in the world. Gordon Craig revolutionised the theatre. Using dance and her own words, Isadora reveals how two great artists loved each other eternally but were destined never to be together. --
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
C, Edinburgh: Fringe Festival, Scotland, Eur >>>
01 Aug 2010
Organisations:
Inside Intelligence
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
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Genre:
dance, Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTejas Verdes
As you enter the Gate auditorium, you are handed a torch. Snaking through a corridor full of piled-up files and and dusty memorials, you find yourself in a darkened forest; and there you stand enthralled for the next 75 minutes listening to the seven female monologues that make up Fermin Cabal's play evoking the horrors of Chile during the Pinochet years. About the murderous terror that followed General Pinochet's American-backed coup in Chile on 11 Sep 1973
Notes:
Original Playwright - Fermin Cabal
1st Produced:
Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, London >>>
07 Mar 2005
Organisations:
Inside Intelligence
1st Published:
Oberon Books, London, 2005
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:
7 monologues One Act
Parts:
Male: - Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
Top of PageUp to Now
Synopsis:
the great Edwardian producer/composer Martin Shaw looks back over his early life and the famous artists he worked with, giving a funny and fascinating insight into bohemian London and Europe at the dawn of the 20th century. --
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Inside Intelligence
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:
comedy, Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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