The Playwrights Database
CARL CAULFIELD
Nationality: British
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Literary Agent: n/a
Carl Caulfield works as a professional playwright, director, dramaturg and lecturer. He has had a number of plays produced including Seems Like Old Times, Human Resources, These Foolish Things and Dante's Dream (Stray Dogs Theatre Company) and The Caper, True Phoenix and Subterranean Uni Blues (University Of Newcastle School of Music, Fine Arts and Drama). Indecent Obsessions won a CONDA (City Of Newcastle Drama Award) for Best New Play in 2002. Human Resources won a CONDA for Best New Play, 2006. Shakespeare's Fools won a CONDA Best New Play, 2010. The Mystery Of Roger Mullaney was published by Macmillan in 2004 for use in the drama curriculum in secondary schools. Carl's one-man show about British Goon, Peter Sellers, Being Sellers, first produced in 1998 at the Playhouse in Newcastle, was performed at the Edinburgh Festival and then in London at the Man in the Moon Theatre, Kings Road, London. Being Sellers was recently reprised at the Waterloo East Theatre in London with David Boyle as Sellers and then went on to the 59E59 Theatre in New York. Recent plays include 2039, a dystopian thriller, commissioned by Tantrum Youth Theatre in 2010 and Shakespeare's Fools, about Shakespeare's relationship with Richard Tarlton, Robert Armin and Will Kemp. Carl is working on new plays and has a number of screenplays and novels in development. The VC's Smile is his first crime novel and he has just completed a full-length screenplay, The German Soldier. His new play, The Anatomy Of Buzz, will be produced in February 2014 at the Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. He has just completed a new play about Shakespeare's final days, Where Late the Songbird
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below is a list of Carl Caulfield's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
2039 Anatomy Of Buzz, The Angel Of Mercy Being Sellers Caper, The Dante's Dream Hecuba Reimagined Human Behan, The Human Resources Mystery Of Roger Mullaney, The Seems Like Old Times Shakespeare's Fools Subterranean Uni Blues these Foolish Things True Phoenix, The Where Late the Songbird2039
Synopsis:
2039 is an edgy, satiric, black comedy that looks to the future to examine the present. Directed by Brendan O'Connell, this dark, dystopian political thriller will use eye-catching multimedia techniques, including the integration of live and pre-recorded video and sound. Featuring the diverse acting talents of Tantrum's Senior ensemble, this new play by one of Newcastle's most popular Dramatists will explore ideas about religion, freedom, uses of technology, surveillance, terrorism, celebrity, and notions of reality. the play is set in a futuristic location know as Betaville and follows Gretchen appleby, a young woman who lives in Zone Two and spends her life dreaming of living like a celebrity in Zone One. She is a member of the Church of Kronos, an organisation that controls Betaville and to which all citizens must be loyal. a series of troubling events alter the course of Gretchen's path when she is thrust headfirst into a maze of lies and violence that endangers not just her own life, but that of the people closest to her. In her search for the truth about her own past, Gretchen becomes inextricably linked to a greater plot to overthrow the political regime and change the course of the future.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
The Playhouse, Civic Theatre Newcastle
18 Nov 2010
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
black comedy
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageAnatomy Of Buzz, The
Synopsis:
When American organisational change consultant and marketing guru Dixon Uzzi comes to Newcastle to bring Sunbeam Corp into the 21st century, Ben Quilty, Head of Sales, is ready to reinvent himself. "You've found the fear, Ben. Now market that fear," says Uzzi. Before too long, Ben has shaved his head and is twerking to Beyonce. But while Ben is busy anatomising buzz and conquering virtual frontiers with Dixon, his family begins to implode. His son Tom seems to be associating with terrorists while daughter Amy seeks fame through her laptop. His Head-Teacher wife Kristen, stressed to the eyeballs fighting off the bean counters at TAFE, is forced to question Ben's new faith when she finds him talking to his Action Man. Stray Dogs Theatre (Seems Like Old Times, Human Resources, Shakespeare's Fools) presents The Anatomy of Buzz, a new comedy about contemporary anxieties from the award-winning Newcastle playwright Carl Caulfield.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Civic Playhouse, Newcastle, Nsw
05 Feb 2014
Organisations:
Stray Dogs Theatre
1st Published:
- -
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:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageAngel Of Mercy
Synopsis:
a multi-media play that explores a random mass murder and was very loosely based on the final months in the life of Frank Vitkovic. a frighteningly timely play that was produced not long after the Port arthur massacre
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Newcastle Community Arts Centre
1996
Organisations:
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBeing Sellers
Synopsis:
Revered for his ability to transform into characters, from Clouseau to Chance the Gardener. Who was he? What was the personal cost of his comic genius? Being Sellers is the hilarious and confronting unmasking of a tortured Goon. Carl Caulfield's one man show brilliantly exploits the theatricality of Sellers' chameleon art. there is a gallery of memorable characters over a lifetime and Caulfield recreates them all in one night!
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Man In The Moon Theatre, London
24 Nov 1998
Organisations:
1st Published:
- -
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:
Solo Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageCaper, The
Synopsis:
BILLY FITTS and his hand-picked criminal gang return triumphant to NaT's den in South London after doing the perfect heist and bringing home the loot. This job will seen them all in the annals of criminal infamy and retiring to Rio. everything smooth as a baby's bum and no cock-ups. Sorted. But BIG JeRRY points out one small detail that could become a big problem if not sorted and suddenly the perfect heist is looking very dodgy. What's the caper? Is there a conspiracy? Eddie HaCKeTT - who bankrolled the job - turns up unexpectedly to take charge and take no prisoners, in his unique and brutal way. But even Eddie was not prepared for aUReLIa PYM, NaT's landlady. If you liked Snatch and Lock Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, then you'll love the Caper, a madcap farcical comic heist with a colourful bunch of London geezers and one very feisty landlady&Tarantino on speed with a touch of the Ladykillers. What's the caper? It's not a condiment, it's a crime!
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Drama Theatre, The University Of Newcastle.
2009
Organisations:
School Of Drama, Fine art and Music at the University of Newcastle.
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:
comic heist play
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDante's Dream
Synopsis:
Dante's Dream is an exciting and ambitious Dramatisation of the artistic imPulse through the weird and tragic life of the brilliant pre-Raphaelite artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti's paintings of his muses, the doomed Lizzie Siddal and later Janey Morris, the wife of one of his best friends, shocked and captivated Victorian england with their sexual power. the great art critic John Ruskin recognised his genius, but Rossetti's life - and that of fellow travellers such as the decadent libertine poet Charles Swinburne and even Ruskin himself - descended into drugs, perversion and madness. Set in London in the 1850s, Dante's Dream will take you into a world where creativity and passion collide with reality. It's a rich and colourful tapestry of ideas, full of zest for life and art and humanity.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Civic Playhouse, Newcastle Theatre
2007
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: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHecuba Reimagined
Synopsis:
In Hecuba Reimagined Carl Caulfield has taken Michael Ewans' translation of Euripides' play, and completely reworked it into twenty-first century terms. As the title suggests, this play is a total reimagining of the original - very far from just a translation. It evokes almost every aspect of the horror of modern warfare. Drug taking is rife among the commanders; there are detention camps, PTSD sufferers, human sacrifice and revenge executions. This play will challenge you to think about the wars that beset the modern world. Some things have changed in 2,440 years in how men and women can become inhuman under the stresses of war; but much has stayed relentlessly the same since Euripides denounced the corrupting power of hatred - especially the use of what the fifth century knew as sophistry and we now call 'spin'.
Notes:
Hecuba Reimagined by Carl Caulfield (after Euripides). A Greek tragedy reimagined, with its bloodstained plot intact, to reflect on the realities of modern warfare and the evils of modern society.
1st Produced:
Civic Playhouse, Newcastle, NSW
12 Oct 2016
Organisations:
Stray Dogs Theatre
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:
Drama/Tragedy
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHuman Behan, The
Synopsis:
a biographical fantasia on the life of Brendan Behan. the play moves along like an Irish jig - fast, funny, furious - with music and much energy. the play examines Behan's dilEmmas not only as a human being and an alcoholic playwright, but also with his relationship with the IRa
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Mission Theatre In Newcastle, Nsw
1995
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: 3 Female: 2 Other: 2-3 musicians
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHuman Resources
Synopsis:
Human Resources a dark campus comedy about the corporatisation of Australian universities. Wil Lynot is an english lecturer whose private life is unravelling while he struggles to cope with the speed of change at work. a sinister rep from the Quality University assistance Division, the QUaD officer, arrives to monitor his teaching, a student lodges a complaint against him, his wife won't return his calls and he's had to move into his office for somewhere to live. as his ivory tower crumbles, Wil questions his faith in the transformative powers of education . . . until he decides to fight back!
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Civic Playhouse, Newcastle
2006
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:
Dark Comedy Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMystery Of Roger Mullaney, The
Synopsis:
a tale of mystery and intrigue that moves from surface comedy to dark thriller. Roger Mullaney has been missing for 20 years. Is he dead or alive? Timothy and Imogen, hired to investigate the case, uncover much more than they bargained for. This detective Drama for middle-upper secondary students has a contemporary Australian edge with echoes of Bogart
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Workshopped By The Hunter School Of Performing Arts
2003
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Macmillan, London, 2003 -
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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Top of PageSeems Like Old Times
Synopsis:
an ensemble comedy set in Lake Macquarie. It's Miranda's 50th birthday and her husband Steve has organised a reunion of their former cabaret act, the Incidentals. as the guests arrive the night is full of laughter and promise, but as the evening unfolds old resentments surface and tensions flare
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New Playhouse, Newcastle
2005
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 PageShakespeare's Fools
Synopsis:
Shakespeare's Fools explores the evolution of the Fool through the actors who helped create the original characters. Richard Tarlton, Will Kemp (who famously jigged all the way from London to Norwich circa 1600) and Robert armin were the 16th century's equivalent of our contemporary stand-up comics, as well as prima donnas with party pieces.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Civic Playhouse, Newcastle, Nsw
27 Aug 2010
Organisations:
Stray Dogs Theatre Company
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
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSubterranean Uni Blues
Synopsis:
Newcastle landlord Norm Piggot suffers from student rage. Twenty years of renting out properties to students have given him prostate problems and anger management issues. there's a button in the middle of his forehead, he says, and students keep pressing it. One particular group of no-hoper Arts undergraduates sharing in Islington have stretched him to boiling point, flouting his no pets allowed rule, whinging about the water heater and stealing his property. the hapless pushers of his button include Matty, the eternal student and armchair existentialist; his side-kick Phil Mould, Tarantinoesque auteur and Shoot-out veteran; cat loving, rule flouting Phoebe, house Nazi and closet trumpet player Yvette; radical feminist and luscious lesbian Mary Jo; the Broadway musical loving engineering student Tom; and Todd "Trotsky" McGrath, a student activist fast on his way to aLP pre-selection. then there's Nick Gano, a go getting enterpeneur who's so impeccably dressed he can only be dealing drugs. When Yvette presents Norm with a list of demands, his button gets overloaded. He's about to blow and when he does, it won't be pretty. But, as the housemates discover, Norm has secrets of his own.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
The Civic Playhouse, Newcastle
2005
Organisations:
Conservatorium Drama, the University Of Newcastle
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: 6 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of Pagethese Foolish Things
Synopsis:
Separating couple (TOM and FIONa) divide up the property of their married life with help of old friend (DaVID.) a dark but very funny examination of modern relationships
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Civic Playhouse, Newcastle
1998
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: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTrue Phoenix, The
Synopsis:
Carl Caulfield's new play Dramatizes the amazing life of Lorenzo da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for Mozart's three great comic operas the Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosė fan Tutte. the action of this picaresque comedy moves between Venice, Vienna and Prague, as da Ponte encounters a wide and varied cast of characters including Mozart, Salieri, two emperors, several opera singers, several mistresses - and Casanova!
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Civic Playhouse, Newcastle
2007
Organisations:
School Of Drama, Fine art and Music
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: 11 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWhere Late the Songbird
Synopsis:
It's 1613 and William Shakespeare has retired from the London stage and returned to the family mansion in Stratford, hoping for a quiet, pleasant life as a gentleman. But all is not well at home: his wife Anne is distant and his two adult daughters troubled - Susanna still bruised from being falsely accused of adultery and Judith hostile at her father's long absences. How will he reconcile the gulf? None of the women in his life seem overly impressed by his status as England's greatest living playwright and nor do the parochial citizens of Stratford, who are deeply anxious about the future of their farms and see Shakespeare, a believer in the enclosures, as the enemy. On top of all this, Shakespeare is under pressure from his London players to write a new comedy, a stage version of Don Quixote. But his health is rapidly declining and The Fool keeps appearing in his fevered sleep, reminding him of his mortality and the urgent need to sort his life out.
Notes:
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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:
-
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