doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


John Byrne

JOHN BYRNE

  (1940 - )
Nationality:    Scottish
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Casarotto Ramsay and Associates Ltd  

John Byrne was born in Paisley in 1940. He worked as a slab boy' at a F Stoddard, the carpet manufacturers, before going to Glasgow School of art. He became a full time painter in 1968 following his first London exhibition. John is also a distinguished Theatre designer and playwright. Other plays include the Slab Boys, Cuttin' a Rug, Still Life, Writer's Cramp, Normal Service, Cara Coco and Colquhoun and Macbryde. On television he is best known for his BAFTA award-winning seriesTutti Frutti (recently adapted for the stage by National Theatre of Scotland). He has also designed for the Traverse Theatre, 7:84, Hampstead Theatre, Bush Theatre and Scottish OperA.

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

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

         Babes In the Wood         Candy Kisses         Cara Coco         Cherry Orchard, The         Colquhoun And MacBryde         Cuckolds London, The         Cuttin' A Rug         Government Inspector, The         Hooray For Hollywood         London Cuckolds         Loveliest Night Of the Year, The         Normal Service         Nova Scotia         Slab Boys         Still Life         Three Sisters         Tutti Frutti         Uncle Varick         Writer's Cramp         Wrong Side Of 8th         Your Cheatin' Heart

Babes In the Wood

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
by John Byrne; music by John Gould, lyrics by David Dearlove

1st Produced:
Glasgow    1980

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Candy Kisses

Synopsis:
wonderful confusion is set in train by the accidental progress of an ancient handgun around the inhabitants of a pensione in Perugia in 1963.
- Susan Todd, New Statesman

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - acc.10577/11
Theatre Record Vol IV (1984) Page 0359 - [Theatre: Bush]

Top of Page Top of Page

Cara Coco

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Irvine, Ayrshire    1981

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Cherry Orchard, The

Synopsis:
Retains the main plot of the original but relocates the action to Scotland in the 1980s. In the far Northeast, time is almost up for the Ramsay-Mackays - their grand old house and the wonderful cherry orchard that goes with it are all that is left of their once-large fortune - and the vultures are circling. . .Malky McCracken is an up-and-coming young investor, eager to free himself from his working class roots and make his name as a serious businessman. His zealous pursuit of the estate is countered by his fondness for the family themselves, not least adopted daughter Verity. a comic and moving examination of a family, and those who surround it, revealing personal absurdities and tragedies in equal measure.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Colquhoun And MacBryde

Colquhoun And MacBryde
Based on the lives of Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde the painters. Colquhoun bumps into MacBryde at the Glasgow School of art and they become instant friends and lovers. after graduating they move to London and set up in a bed sit they become friends with many of the "Bohemian" set such as Dylan Thomas. But drink was their problem and they spend a lot of time drinking or drunk. they get their first big exhibition and are feted the artistic circles and the press. It is the Second World War, Colquhoun enlists as an ambulance driver despite the fact he cannot drive. MacBryde is exempt war service on medical grounds. War service proves to be too much for Colquhoun and he is discharged on medical grounds. they spend some time living with a friend in essex. Returning to their bed-sit they are evicted for non payment of rent. they descend even further into alcoholism. the owner of the gallery that put on their exhibitions dies and the new owner no longer wants to display their work. they have a hand to mouth existence sponging money from friends and living in a succession of grotty bed-sits.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1992   978-0571169597

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:
True Drama. - - Gay/Lesbian, historical characters

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Cuckolds London, The

Synopsis:
three beautiful wives, three ludicrous husbands and one overly ambitious, rapacious rake

Notes:
Original Playwright - edward Ravenscroft

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1986   -

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:  9            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Cuttin' A Rug

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
see Loveliest Night Of the Year

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Salamander Press   -

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Government Inspector, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Nikolai Gogol

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Oberon Books   978-1840020298

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:  12            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Hooray For Hollywood

Synopsis:
a writer's first collision with tinsel-town machinery

Notes:
part of the American Project: A compendium of short plays

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contact Actors Theatre of Louisville,    -

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:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

London Cuckolds

Synopsis:
Period 1600 two aldermen with young wives argue about the qualities in a woman that make for a secure marriage before finding themselves cuckolded

Notes:
Original Playwright - edward Ravenscroft

1st Produced:
Leicester    1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1986   -

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:  9            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Loveliest Night Of the Year, The

Synopsis:
famous study of the lives of a group of Paisley boys working in the 'slab room' of a local carpet factory. Looks more closely at the theme of class tension on one hand and masculinity defined by violence on the other; but he also opens up a sense of beauty and romance, of pure sexual magic, as a redemptive force in the lives he describes. - McMillan, Scotsman.

Notes:
part of "the Slab Boys Trilogy" Aka Cuttin' A Rug (London, 1982), Threads (London, 1980), broadcast As the Staffie

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Threads in "a Decade's Drama: Six Scottish Plays, Woodhouse, Todmorden, Lancashire. Cuttin' a Rug, Edinburgh, Salamander Press, 1982, 1980   -

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:  6            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Normal Service

Synopsis:
the everyday non-events of Caledonian Television circa 1963

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays and Players", May, London, 1979   -

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia
30 years on from when we last met him and Lucille in the Garden of Remembrance, Phil McCann faces the New Millennium with fortitude and good humour. the leading Arts correspondent of the day is on her way to the far north to record a radio profile which Phil's confident will relaunch his career as a painter and establish him once and for all as a colossus of contemporary Caledonian culture. . .the only fly in the ointment is his new and much younger partner, Didi, a video-artist of some renown, who has just been added to the shortlist of nominees for the Turner Prize. Unfortunately, there are other flies buzzing about this particular ointment. . .

Notes:
part four of "the Slab Boys Story"

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber (1 May 2008)   978-0571242641

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:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Slab Boys

Slab Boys
from the fifties to the seventies, through Brylcream and Elvis to fluorescent underpants and hash cookies, catches the vibrant idiom of a whole generation. Powerful high farce out of the tension between Phil and Spanky's youthful wit and exuberance, and the dark undercurrent of sheer cruelty in their treatment of the Slab Romm wimp, Hector, and other victims.

Notes:
part one of "the Slab Boys Trilogy". Originally called Paisley Patterns.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 'on the argot', Scottish Society of Playwrights, Glasgow, 1982
Penguin Books   978-0140482119

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:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Still Life

Synopsis:
famous study of the lives of a group of Paisley boys working in the 'slab room' of a local carpet factory. the hero, Phil Cann, confronts the premature deaths of the trilogy's two great victims, poor Hector and his own mad mother, and evokes a fairly bleak image of youthful hopes aborted, or diverted into an absurd circus of hip 1970's culture, before proposing Phil's redemption through fatherhood and his true marriage to Lucille, always every Slab Boy's dream. - McMillan, Scotsman.

Notes:
part three of "the Slab Boys Trilogy"

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Salamander Press, Edinburgh, 1982   -

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:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Three Sisters

Synopsis:
Its the not-so-swinging sixties in a Dunoon naval base. Three sisters, Olive, Maddy, and Renee have spent the last eleven years looking longingly across the Clyde Estuary. Surrounded by military suitors, overbearing in-laws, and worthy Presbyterians, they yearn for Londons Carnaby Street and the love, culture and thrills they are denied in Argyllshire. Will they ever escape?

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Tutti Frutti

Synopsis:
Twenty-three years on from their slightly dodgy, single foray into the charts, Scottish pop sensations the Majestics are mourning the loss of Big Jazza - their charismatic frontman - whose Ford Sierra just collided with a bus shelter via an unwelcome late-night kebab. With a Silver Jubilee tour booked, an album to cut and a TV documentary in the offing, can Jazza's brother, Danny, just washed up from New York with only four dollars to his name, save the day? It was 1987 when John Byrne's award-winning comedy-Drama burst onto the nation's TV screens, searing itself into a generation's consciousness in the process. Now he has adapted his own original script, as the National theatre of Scotland and His Majesty's theatre, aberdeen, bring Vinnie, Eddie Clockerty, Miss Toner, Suzi Kettles, Bomba et al to the stage for the very first time.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen    2006

Organisations:
National Theatre of Scotland

1st Published:
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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical Play Musical

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Uncle Varick

Synopsis:
How funny is Chekhov? In John Byrne's witty transposition of Uncle Vanya to north-east Scotland in 1964, the laughs come thick and fast. But, although Brian Cox lends his massive presence to the ineffectual, hops-producing Varick, the sheer ingenuity of Byrne's adaptation somewhat diminishes the pain of the original play. Byrne, as we know from Writer's Cramp, has a sharp eye for cultural pseudery. and he has most fun here with the character of Sandy Sheridan - the equivalent of Chekhov's Professor - a metropolitan art pundit who pens patronising pieces claiming "the landscape of Landseer is wasted on the Scots" and who, according to the envious Varick, has all the visual sophistication of Blind Pew. Byrne keeps up an endless supply of 1960s satirical jokes, with Varick's muddled mother poring over a slim volume entitled "the Rise and Fall of the Penis in 20th-Century art." - Billington, Guardian

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov (Uncle Vanya)

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:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Writer's Cramp

Synopsis:
takes satirical swipes at anglo-Scottish cultural pretensions.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Calton Studios, Edinburgh    01 Nov 1977

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays and Players", December, London, 1977   -

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:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Wrong Side Of 8th

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - acc.10365/57

Top of Page Top of Page

Your Cheatin' Heart

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Twentieth Century Scottish Drama an anthology" published by Cannongate   -

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page