The Playwrights Database
GILES COLE
Nationality: British
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Literary Agent: n/a
Giles Cole was born in Oxford, educated at Dulwich College and trained for the theatre at the Webber-Douglas Academy. He worked as an actor in rep, regional tours, TV, radio and West End, 1971-87, then worked in the BBC TV Script Unit, 1984; served on the script panel of the Croydon Warehouse Theatre, 1980-85; on the judging panel for the London Fringe Theatre Awards, 1988-89; and as chairman of the theatre judging panel for the Writers' Guild Awards, 1992-97. Has also written numerous scripts for the corporate sector, including many awards scripts for celebrity presenters, and helped to establish the event production company, PTP, with fellow actor Philip Talbot, in 1987. Giles is Chairman of the Board of Directors for Frontier Theatre Productions, founded by James Roose-Evans. He is a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, the Garrick Club and the Worshipful Company of Scriveners, of which Company he is the Clerk. Has a postgraduate MA in Creative Writing (Plays and Screenplays) from City University, London. Giles is also a reviewer for Whatsonstage.com (Off West End) and some examples of his reviews can be found by clicking on journalism.
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below is a list of Giles Cole's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Art Of Concealment, The: the Life Of Terence Rattigan Beck Benevolence, Or, The Antiquarian Eccentric Redskin Frail Blood Going Astray Heart Of Things Living With Linda Old Schoolboys Romance Of the Century, The Secrets Suspects Wilderness Man, Or, The Broken CircleArt Of Concealment, The: the Life Of Terence Rattigan
Terence Rattigan was one of the most acclaimed playwrights and screenwriters of his generation. His fall from critical favour marked a turning point in modern British theatre. Terence Rattigan wore a carefully constructed mask of respectable, suave gentility in order to conceal his true nature. But who was the man behind the mask? Who was the real Terence Rattigan? the art of Concealment is a play not only about the demons that haunted one of our great playwrights but about the creative process itself, and the process of ageing, of loss, and the pain of love - with the ironic twist that we know Rattigan to be more honoured now than he would ever have expected in his lifetime.
Notes:
Music by Matt Gray Music
1st Produced:
Iambic Arts Theatre, Brighton Festival Fringe 06 May 2011
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Oberon Books (May 2012) >>> 978-1849434164
Music:
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Genre:
biographical Drama - - Gay, full length
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 1 Other: with doubling
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBeck
Synopsis:
To a certain extent, we all live within a world of our own creation. Beck is an elderly reclusive man, once a doctor, who attempts to create around him the family that he never had.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Spice Of Life, Cambridge Circus 1982
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBenevolence, Or, The Antiquarian
Synopsis:
Gerald, an antiquarian by profession, is a decent chap. He puts up with Trevor. He accommodates Daphne. then he meets Julia. and Pauline. and Ken. and Gerald loses his reasonable, middle-aged, academic cool. Will his world, as he knows it, crumble? Or should he have lost his cool a decade or two ago? Can love play a part in his life, or is he doomed to spend one day a week with a cleaning lady who steals things and a cat who comes and goes like a ghost? His houseplants have a story to tell as well.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
New Theatre Publications (Dec 2002) 978-1840943795
Music:
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Genre:
Full Length comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageEccentric Redskin
Synopsis:
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Notes:
sequel to Wilderness Man
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
TYA
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFrail Blood
Synopsis:
Love can be a dangerous business. FRaIL BLOOD is an erotic thriller in which four people are drawn into a terrifying spiral of deception, sexual entanglement and violent death. Stephen is an orthopaedic surgeon with political aspirations. Georgina is a publishing company executive, obsessed with social advancement. their aim is simplicity itself - to fulfil all their ambitions and desires, whatever it takes to do so. Meanwhile Helen is going quietly mad for lack of affection, and annie finds herself accused of a crime she didnt commit.
Notes:
part of NVT's HotBed presenting seven new one-act plays in An innovative format. All pieces performed for one night only, script-in-hand, with A short Audience discussion Afterwards.
1st Produced:
New Venture Theatre, Brighton Fringe Festival 09 Feb 2002
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama 2 acts
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGoing Astray
Synopsis:
Her husband has left her for another parishioner, her daughter has gone missing. Evelyn throws off the shackles of a very respectable but deeply flawed marriage and embarks on her own voyage of discovery through the shadier streets of South-east London, searching both for her daughter and her own youthful ideals. She meets streetwise charmer Nick in a launderette in New Cross. Is he her Youthful Ideal, or a wolf in sheeps clothing? are good and evil mutually exclusive? and just what is going on in the bedsit over the road?
Notes:
music by David Baird
1st Produced:
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 1989
Organisations:
Outlook Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHeart Of Things
The Heart of Things is a poignant drama about family, ambition, love and loyalty. And birthdays. It examines the conundrum that exists in sexual identity and the 'minor disturbances' that have far-reaching effects in people's private lives. Over a weekend in May 2010, in the aftermath of the last general election, the political parties are wrangling over who will form the coalition government. Meanwhile, in a village near the Norfolk coast, a disillusioned English teacher and part-time election volunteer comes home for a rare visit and tries to put his life in order. However, the politics of family life can be every bit as vindictive and unpredictable as the Whitehall variety, and alliances can be made or broken without warning. In the course of one weekend, Peter, the English teacher, comes to a shattering realisation about himself, his relationships and his place within the family.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Oberon Books (2015) >>> 978-1783198672
Music:
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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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Top of PageLiving With Linda
Synopsis:
Toby is an is an earnest young man eager to gather the trappings of adulthood about him. Linda is the girl who bewitches him, with devastating consequences. LIVING WITH LINDa is a play about an obsessional love affair begun in the summer of 1975 and recounted, with the benefit of hindsight, thirteen years later.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Elephant Theatre 1988
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageOld Schoolboys
Synopsis:
Geoffrey Gibson is a retired schoolmaster down on his luck. He lives with his step-daughter Barbara, who is finding life with him a strain, but cant quite bring herself to desert him completely. an old pupil of Gibsons turns up out of the blue, and this courtesy visit turns into a very different scenario as he begins to claim recompense from his old teacher for an indiscretion in the past.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Warehouse Theatre Croydon, London 1979
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageRomance Of the Century, The
Synopsis:
an elderly couple live in elegant surroundings with little to do but relive their past glories and infidelities, and wait for an important visitor - who may or may not be the Queen - to come to tea. are they deluded, mad, or two people who were once the most glamorous couple in the world?
Notes:
first performed in A showcase production with four other plays At the Rosemary Branch theatre, Islington
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
ten min play
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSecrets
How much does one necessarily know about ones wife or husband? Or best friend? SeCReTS examines the nightmare scenario that befalls a woman whose husband works for the government and who disappears one day. Is Hannahs husband a traitor to his country? a spy? Can those emotive words really apply to someone so apparently close to her? Can she survive her own ordeal at the hands of the courteous and delicately mannered Felix Bennett, who appears out of the blue on her doorstep? Will she see her husband again? and if so, will he now be the same person she said goodbye to a few short weeks ago when he set off for a conference in Germany? SeCReTS looks at human trust and love when placed on a precipice.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1990 978-057312235-4
Music:
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSuspects
Synopsis:
People can be deceived by life, and by death. and most especially by love. ellen Stacey is deceived by all three. SUSPeCTS is a taut, claustrophobic, erotic thriller set in and around South London. Corruption lies just below the surface, offset by a vein of bleak humour. ellen is consumed with a passion for Mike. She is also an accomplice to murder. Mike appears to have betrayed her completely, and DI Tindall seems to be using the investigation to seduce her himself. ellen only has one person to turn to. and that person has an agenda of her own.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
Present Productions
1st Published:
Samuel French Ltd in 1991 and the text revised in 1997 -
Music:
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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 2 acts
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWilderness Man, Or, The Broken Circle
Synopsis:
Commissioned by the Redgrave theatre, Farnham, for touring in local schools, this play examines the nature of identity through the real life character, Grey Owl, famous in the 1930s for his conservation work and lectures on Indian life in the wilds of North America, but who was subsequently revealed to have been born as archie Belaney in Hastings, who emigrated to Canada in 1906. It also examined wider aspects of American history, as personified by Yellow Wolf and other American Indians, and recounted by such authors as Dee Brown, John Collier, TC McLuhan and Robert Claiborne.
Notes:
It subsequently led to Another play About Grey Owl, eccentric Redskin
1st Produced:
Farnham, Uk 1979
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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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:
TYA
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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