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Moira Buffini

MOIRA BUFFINI

  (1965 - )
Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    United Agents  represented by St John Donald

Born Cheshire. Film includes: Presence, Gabriel, the Enlightenment, Dibbuk Box, Jane Eyre. Moira Buffini's plays include Blavatsky's Tower (Machine Room), Gabriel (Soho Theatre), Silence (Birmingham Rep), Loveplay (Royal Shakespeare Company), Dinner (National Theatre and West End), Dying for It, adapted from The Suicide by Nikolai Erdman (Almeida), A Vampire Story (NT Connections), MariAnne Dreams (Almeida Theatre) and Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre). She lives in London with her husband and children.

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

         Asylum         Blavatsky's Tower         Chain Play, A         Chain Play, The         Dinner         Doomsday Girl         Dying For It         Fantasy Life Of Gilbert Cunliffe, The         Gabriel         Games Room, The         God Is Jealous         Greenland         Handbagged         Jordan         Loveplay         Marianne Dreams         Silence         Sold         Teacher, The         Then: Battle of the Bags         Thief Of Baghdad, The         Vampire Story, A         Welcome To Thebes         wonder.land

Asylum

Synopsis:
With tabloid hysteria about the influx of asylum seekers largely unchallenged by mainstream politicians, a refugee recounts his experience of the British asylum system and his hopes for a way forward

Notes:
the National presents the world premieres of five new monologues by leading playwrights, inspired by current events. Taken directly from interviews, each piece explores the personal stories behind the headlines. each monologue will be followed by A discus

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Monologue Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  1 m/f

Further Reference:
-

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Blavatsky's Tower

Blavatsky's Tower
On the twenty-fifth floor of a monstrous tower block Hector Blavatsky - visionary, architect and patriarch - dominates his family with God-like authority. Fearful of being tainted by the rest of humanity below ('the crushed') the Blavatskys are in full retreat from the world. But Hector is dying. and when an outsider arrives in their miniature universe the family must finally consider flying the nest and joining the crushed - but at what cost?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Moira Buffini Plays 1, Faber and Faber, London, 2006   -

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:
black comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Chain Play, A

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Samuel Adamson, Moira Buffini, David Hare, Charlotte Jones, Frank McGuinness And Roy Williams each wrote A link for the Almeida's first chain play, performed for one night only As the theatre's major fund-raising event.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, (not for commercial sale), 2007   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Chain Play, The

Synopsis:
One off performance of chain writing to celebrate the National theatre's 25th anniversary. a scene each from all the authors for a performance on one night

Notes:
Written By Terry Johnson, Philip Ridley, Charlotte Jones, Lee Hall, Sebastian Barry, Zinnie Harris, Kevin elyot, Nick Dear, Tanika Gupta, Frank McGuinness, Nick Stafford, Stephen Sondheim, Colin Teevan, Patrick Marber, David Lan, Sarah Daniels, Martin She

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Conceived and commissioned by angus Mackenchnie

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dinner

Dinner
an artist, a scientist and a sexpot are coming to dinner. Paige, hostess extraordinaire, is celebrating the publication of her husband's bestseller. the arrival of Mike, marooned in the foggy lane after crashing his van, provides an unexpected addition to the evening's entertainment. a silent waiter, sourced from an obscure website, completes the picture. Primordial Soup is first on the menu ­ let the dinner from hell begin.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2002   -

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:
Black Comedy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Doomsday Girl

Synopsis:
short comedy dangerously on the edge of sex and death

Notes:
part of Laughing Darkly

1st Produced:
Finborough Theatre, London >>>     14 Nov 1999

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

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Genre:
short comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Dying For It

Dying For It
Inspired by erdmans classic satirical comedy, banned by Stalin before a single performance. Dying For Ii centres on Semyon, unemployed, living in the hallway and watching his wife Masha slave all the hours God sends. When his last hope to earn a crust and gain some self-respect disappears. he decides to take his own life. Word gets out of his intention and he finds himself inundated with visitors begging him to die on their behalf On the night he is to shoot himself they hold a party. at which point events spiral to a glorious climax.
theatre List

Notes:
Original Playwright - Nikolai Erdman (the Suicide). Literal translation by Charlotte Payne

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2007   978-0571237449

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  4            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:

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Fantasy Life Of Gilbert Cunliffe, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1979

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gabriel

Gabriel
hurls you through the fractured lives of a family of women in occupied Guernsey in 1943

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Soho Theatre Company, London

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1997   -

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:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Games Room, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Part of Miniaturists 3 - Bringing you more of the best short plays by some of the most exciting playwrights in the UK today

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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God Is Jealous

God Is Jealous
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is a foundation stone of the english language. the KJV was composed as a collective project and written to be spoken. Sixty-Six Books has been created, in the spirit of the original, in the same way. Pulpit to print; stage to page; mediated through many forms oral and written, the KJV has, since its inception, been a fundamental part of written and spoken english.This is a work that has travelled to every continent of the globe. It has been shared as a melodic instrument of inspiration, illumination and mutual understanding; and it has also been wielded as a tool of colonial oppression. Sixty-Six Books is a fresh interpretation of the KJV for the new millennium, celebrating and challenging the traditions and achievements of this great work on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. the curators of this project have gathered together a formidable and inspiring line-up of the best established and emerging writing talent to produce a new version of the KJV for thetwenty-first century. each writer has created anew a book of the KJV - as prose, poetry, Drama, performance, song, or ground-breaking digital form. each writer has spoken back to the KJV with untrammeled inventiveness of the imagination. the voices of Sixty-Six Books, drawn from across five continents, innovate, transmute, transpose, reinvent and talk back to four hundredyears of history. all the works that make up Sixty-Six Books are written to be spoken. Culminating in major performance events at the Bush theatre and Westminster abbey in 2011 in London, Sixty-Six Books is a contribution towards the mutual curiosity, tolerance, and force of collective enterprise and shared humanity that characterizes the international and ancient Arts of writing and spoken performance

Notes:
Part of Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. Play is A response to the King James Bible book of Nahum

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Oberon Books (2011) >>>    978-1849432276

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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Greenland

Greenland
the questions we all have about the environment and the future are intricate. Knowing what and who to trust is an increasingly bewildering challenge. Only a few things are certain: every living thing is related to every other living thing; our actions have consequences; change is constant and inevitable. Seeking to understand a subject of great complexity, the National theatre has asked four of the most distinct and exciting playwrights in British theatre to collaborate on a new piece of documentary theatre. the team has spent six months interviewing key individuals from the worlds of science, politics, business and philosophy in an effort to understand our changing relationship with the planet. Greenland combines the factual and the theatrical as several separate but connected narratives collide to form a provocative response to the most urgent questions of our time.

Notes:
By Moira Buffini, Matt Charman, Penelope Skinner And Jack Thorne

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Handbagged

Handbagged
Handbags, hairspray and sensible shoes.The monarch - Liz.Her most powerful subject - Maggie.One believed there was no such thing as society. The other had vowed to serve it.Opening the clasp on the antipathy between two giants of the twentieth century, - See more at: http://www.faber.co.uk/catalog/handbagged/9780571312504#sthash.bj0reYKa.dpuf

Notes:
Based on the critically-acclaimed short play, Then Handbagged, from Women, Power & Politics (Tricycle, 2010)

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:
full length drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Jordan

Synopsis:
the true story of Shirley Jones, who kills her baby boy, Jordan, rather than have him taken away by his abusive father.

Notes:
written with Anna Reynolds

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:
Short Play One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Loveplay

Loveplay
Together ten chronologically organised scenes offer a vision of love and sex in england across two millennia, from classical times to the present day via the Renaissance anf the Swinging 60's.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Pit, London     05 Mar 2001

Organisations:

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2000   -

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:  3            Female:  3            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:

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Marianne Dreams

Marianne Dreams
This is the almeida theatre's first Christmas family production. Catherine Storr's novel was first published in 1958 and reprinted many times, soon becoming a much loved children's classic. the almeida production will use actors and dancers to convey the world of Marianne's dreams.

Notes:
from Catherine Storr's novel

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2007   978-0571241330

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Silence

Silence
an historical Drama set in grim and violent first-century england

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
StageScript, Faber and Faber, London, 1999   -

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:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sold

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Part of Miniaturists 43 - Bringing you more of the best short plays by some of the most exciting playwrights in the UK today

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Teacher, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

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:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Then: Battle of the Bags

Synopsis:
For over a decade Margaret Thatcher met the Queen for a weekly audience. With all her previous Prime Ministers the Queen enjoyed a fairly informal relationship, but with Mrs Thatcher, things were different. Handbagged speculates on the relationship between these two very powerful and private women.

Notes:
part of Women, Power & Politics: then

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:
Short play

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Thief Of Baghdad, The

Synopsis:
a post-modern dance theatre version of the Thief of Baghdad with inventive design and self-conscious storytelling. Scared, lost, and hungry, Megan, her sister Bee, and their friend the thieving Callum, sheltering in a bombed building from the war raging outside, discover a backstage aladdin's cave of wardrobe baskets, fake food, dressing up clothes, and an old lamp. the building was once a theatre. Luckily for them, the kindly stage door keeper (Christopher Colquhoun) is on hand to help. He encourages them to create their own story as a diversion from their dire predicament. theatre as therapeutic flight from reality; life-enhancing theatre as an antidote to war. "What is theatre? It's magic." "It can make you forget you're cold and hungry".
- Vera Liber , British theatre Guide

Notes:
By Sarah Woods from A concept by Moira Buffini

1st Produced:
Roh2 Linbury Studio Theatre, London     2008

Organisations:
Royal Opera House

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 theatre

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Vampire Story, A

Vampire Story, A
Two young women arrive in a nameless British smalltown. their names are not their own. they don't declare their ages. their relationship with each other is not clear. are they sisters, as their assumed identities declare? Or are they mother and daughter? the eldest, Claire, takes a job in a pub. the youngest, eleanor, goes to school. During a truth exercise in her Drama class, eleanor confesses that she has been alive for over two hundred yeas and has survived by drinking human blood. Her classmates think she is utterly crazy and Mint, her teacher, puts her in touch with the school counsellor. She makes one friend, Frank, a boy who has been home educated and is as much of an oddity as eleanor. He tries to get to the bottom of her vampire delusion, thinking it an epic and compelling psychosis. Why would anyone want to be undead? Frank's parents believe that Ella is an anorexic - why does she never eat? eleanor has started to write her life story as a play. She describes Claire's background as a prostitute in 19th century London and her own as a child in a private orphanage. Meanwhile, things are falling apart. People are disappearing. are eleanor and Claire vampires? Or are they troubled young women on the run?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
New Connections

1st Published:
in New Connections, Faber and Faber, London, 2008
in Plays 2, Faber and Faber Ltd, London (2015) >>>
Samuel French, London (2016) >>>    978-0571324903

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Youth audience

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  6            Other:  2 m/f

Further Reference:

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Welcome To Thebes

Welcome To Thebes
He put this gun into my hand and Made me human once again. Faced with an impoverished population, a shattered infrastructure and a volatile army, the first democratic president of thebes, eurydice, promises peace to her nation. Without the aid of theseus, the leader of the vastly wealthy state of athens, she doesn't stand a chance. But theseus is arrogant, mercurial and motivated by profit. I've always been susceptible to handsome egomaniacs. You get in there. exploit his weaknesses as he would exploit yours. Will eurydice and her government get what they need for their fledgling state - on terms that they can live with? a swaggering opposition circles, impatient for insurrection. the body of the former dictator lies unburied. a boy soldier is carelessly murdered. You're only old enough to kill, not vote. Set in the present day, but inspired by ancient myth, Moira Buffini's Welcome to thebes offers a passionate exploration of an encounter between the world's richest and the world's poorest countries set in the aftermath of a brutal war.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2010
Samuel French, London (2016) >>>    978-0571258734

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  10            Other:  ensemble

Further Reference:

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wonder.land

wonder.land
Aly is struggling with all the pressures of being a teenager: family, school, friends and her own insecurities. Then she discovers wonder.land - a mysterious online world where, perhaps, she can create a whole new life. The web becomes her looking-glass - but will Aly see who she really is?

Notes:
inspired by Lewis Carroll's iconic Alice in Wonderland, with music by Damon Albarn and book and lyrics by Moira Buffini, created with Damon Albarn and Rufus Norris

1st Produced:
Manchester International Festival     02 Jul 2015

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:  10            Female:  9            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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