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David Benedictus

DAVID BENEDICTUS

  (1938 - )
Nationality:    English
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

David Benedictus has been almost everywhere and done almost everything. In this irreverent memoir we get his tumultuous life at eton, his weird job as a tutor to the Rothschilds, the world of BBC Drama inthe great days of the Wednesday Play, filming in New York with Coppola, working in the explosion of fringe Theatre in the sixties, assistant to Trevor Nunn at the RSC, commissioning editor making movies at ChAnnel 4, and running the Book at Bedtime for BBC Radio. He interviewed Judy Garland, and attended an academic orgy in San Francisco. He chatted up the Rolling Stones, whom he had failed to recognise, and gave a party for Tom Jones's first golden disc. Paul McCartney came to his party and chatted up his auntie. He was a tour-guide in London, and the director of the first amnesty Celebrity concerts. He directed almost every actor of note, from Gielgud to the prickly Berkoff, from O'toole to Ralph Fiennes, and his dog was responsible for Judi Dench getting married. He had his portrait painted by John Bratby, who mistakenly thought him 'one of the great thinkers of the 20th Century' and sat between Susan George and Olivia Newton-John at the cinemA. This is a book with something to entertain and enrage just about everybody. Its final controversial chapter deals with the last two years during which he has been teaching Drama to the posh girls at Putney High School.

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

         Angels (Over Your Grave) And Geese (Over Mine)         Betjemania!         Dromedary         Dylan Thomas By Himself And His Friends         Esprit De Corps         Fortune And the Fishmonger         Fourth Of June, The         Golden Key         Happy Hypocrite, The         What A Way To Run A Revolution
Angels (Over Your Grave) And Geese (Over Mine)

Synopsis:
exploring, light-heartedly, the bleakness of casual relationships

Notes:
written 1966

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

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:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Dep.256/Box 5/10

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Betjemania!

Betjemania!
entertainment based on the poems of the Poet Laureate

Notes:
Music by John Gould; lyrics by John Betjeman; book by David Benedictus And John Gould

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: TeR (1002) 1976

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 entertainment

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
Theatre Record Vol XVI (1996) Page 0039

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Dromedary

Synopsis:
a hunchback circus performer at large in a world of London Savagery

Notes:
from his own novel 'Hump'

1st Produced:
People's Theatre, Newcastle     1969

Organisations:
-

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  Large Cast

Further Reference:
-

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Dylan Thomas By Himself And His Friends

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
A compilation for 4 voices ; only 2 performances

1st Produced:
Little Theatre, Bristol     1968

Organisations:
-

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:
Compilation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  for 4 voices

Further Reference:
-

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Esprit De Corps

Synopsis:
Follows the sexual adventures of a family whose head has invented a trombone slide and whose fortune is made by military bands. a hymn to bi-sexuality.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Unproduced    

Organisations:
-

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:
Saga

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  cast of 8

Further Reference:
-

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Fortune And the Fishmonger

Synopsis:
the last days in the life of Crockford, the celebrated 19th century bookmaker and club owner

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bbc Radio 4    

Organisations:
-

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:
radio play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fourth Of June, The

Synopsis:
Dramatisation of Public School life

Notes:
from his own novel

1st Produced:
Brighton     1964

Organisations:
-

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  18            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Golden Key

Synopsis:
incorporating nine Grimm's fairy stories in a modern setting in the mind of an adolescent girl recovering from a road accident

Notes:
music by Keth Amos

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

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:
Musical play Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Happy Hypocrite, The

Synopsis:
Romantic and concerned with masks

Notes:
based on story by Max Beerbohm

1st Produced:
Unproduced    

Organisations:
-

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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What A Way To Run A Revolution

Synopsis:
Investigation of the General Strike of 1926. the action is set in the House of Commons, the miners tunnelling under the table, the audience choosing to sit either on Tory or Labour benches

Notes:
music by Guy Woolfenden. Written 1970

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
Theatre Record VolV (1985) Page 0331

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