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John Donnelly

JOHN DONNELLY

  
Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Dalzell & Beresford Ltd  represented by Kara Fitzpatrick

John Donnelly is a graduate of the Young Writers Programme and his first play Bone was performed at the Royal Court as part of the Young Writers Festival in 2004. His most recent credits include his adaption of Chekhov's The Seagull for Headlong, Little Russians, as part of First Blast at the Tricycle, The Knowledge at The Bush Theatre and Encourage the Others for Almeida projects. John is a past winner of the Tom Erhardt Award, the PMA Award for Best New Writer and the NSDF Sunday Times Playwriting Award. On television he recently wrote the short film Henry for ChAnnel 4's Coming Up.

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

         Alarm And Distress         Bone         Burning Bird         Dryfight         Finally the Girl         Five Songs Of Grace And Redemption         Hack!         Hope To Die         Knowledge, The         Little Russians         Myrna Molloy         Odyssey, The         Pass, The         Personal Matters         Pleasure         Seagull, The         Sex And Death         Showtime         Slave/Teacher         Songs Of Grace And Redemption         There
Alarm And Distress

Synopsis:
Beach parties, spray paint and dead end jobs

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Drama Centre, Redbridge    

Organisations:
Redbridge Youth 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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bone

Bone
Three people. Stephen wants his ex to realise he's got what it takes. Helen wants her dead husband back. Jamie wants a girl to see him off to war. Three lives stripped bare in a modern world.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Burning Bird

Burning Bird
By the time Daisy gets home, everything will have changed. everything will be different. That I guarantee you. the height of Summer. It's Daisy's fifteenth birthday and trouble is brewing there's a curfew in place, school is suspended and the city is changing. But Daisy has an important delivery to make across town. So when Morell offers her a ride in his uncle's car, she sets off down a road from which there might be no turning back. Set against the backdrop of the London riots, Burning Bird questions the decisions we make and explores the freedoms we find when authority goes missing.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Synergy Theatre Project

1st Published:

Music:
-

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Genre:
TYA 60 min

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  7            Other:  doubling possible

Further Reference:
-

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Dryfight

Synopsis:
It's ingeniously simple. they perform twice over the weekend: each performance features four short scenes of fights, all of them beginning verbally and becoming physical. at the start of the show every audience member is given four simple coloured paper hats. Before each scene begins we are introduced via the booming Pa system to each of the characters it will involve - they strut onto stage, pose and flex and grimace like Mickey Rourke, and we don a hat of a certain colour to "cast our vote" on that particular character coming out on top. Of course this is before we know anything about the nature of each fight, so it's interesting in theory to wonder what makes us side with one character over another purely on first glance. Do the women go for the women? Do we back the scrawnier man to try and predict the unpredictable? Which of the nuns looks the most muscular? as it is though, there are few easily apparent trends. all our attention really is focused on screaming out our support of whoever we have arbitrarily chosen to back. This is theatre for closet wrestling fans, quite excessively happy to suddenly be encouraged to watch Drama and make noise. as an experience it's infectious - but I fear not to be too often repeated, as only certain contexts allow it to work. I also wonder how long before the concept becomes stale - once you have seen it I doubt you'd feel the need to experience it again - unless the company push it in a new direction. In summary, we have two nuns attending a school reunion and discovering that their schoolmate of the time, who inspired both of their religious conversions, now views them with contempt. a man tries to hastily get rid of a woman after a one-night-stand, but his girlfriend bursts in on them. a jilted boyfriend challenges his ex-girlfriend's new lover to a fight to win her, which he will video for her to prove his devotion. But the final scene has an unexpected spike. Two old friends, one gay one straight, emerge from a gay club late at night, the straight one distraught having broken up with his girlfriend, and in a moment of drunken confusion makes a sexual advance on his friend. the ensuing fracas is him being fought off by his friend, who is trying only to beat sense into him. there's no-one for us to cheer for, the emotions of the piece are too true to make for easy side-taking. and the ending is horrifically unexpected and downbeat. We stop shouting long enough to think about what we have been doing. It's a canny achievement. But for all that, the show overall is too enjoyable for us not to emerge with smiles all over our faces. Guilty though they may be.
- Corinne Salisbury, British theatre Guide

Notes:
Writers include John Donnelly, Ashanti Dhawan, Matt Hartley, Joel Horwood, Phil Porter, Penelope Skinner

1st Produced:
East End Pub, London     2009

Organisations:
DryWright

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:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Finally the Girl

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Fervour Collective

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Five Songs Of Grace And Redemption

Synopsis:
In the city, there is who we are and who we want to be. Five lost people make life-changing decisions to rescue themselves - and each other - through random acts of kindness. Seductive and penetrating, Songs of Grace and Redemption is the story of ordinary people struggling to break out and break free - an urban fairytale of house wine, home porn, maps, cats and heavy metal.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Liminal 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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hack!

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hope To Die

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
St Martin's, Melbourne, Australia    

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Knowledge, The

Knowledge, The
Being a teacher means weekends. It means thirteen weeks holiday. It means a secure job in uncertain times. But Zoe doesnt want to have to rescue her students. She doesnt want to be called a slag. She doesnt want to sleep with the Head of Science. and she doesnt want to teach a group of kids how to do life. Because thats something Zoes not sure she knows how to do herself. examining what happens when a young teacher goes off the rails in a failing school.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Little Russians

Little Russians
the Soviet Union's sudden collapse into chaos leaves the Ukraine and Kazakhstan with their fingers still on the nuclear button. the Russians and the Americans form an uneasy alliance to try to locate the missing missiles. However, deep in the countryside, a Ukrainian family have other ideas, and seize their chance of making quick money on the black market. In an anarchic look at power and politics, the ambitions of two super-powers are tested by a wheeler-dealing pair of scrap metal merchants.

Notes:
Part of the Bomb  A partial history. FIRST BLaST: Proliferation

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

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Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Myrna Molloy

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
part of Writers' Block 4: A week of new (world) work.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Operating 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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Odyssey, The

Synopsis:
the Factory turn their unique spirit of spontaneity, playfulness and imagination to Homer's epic tales this spring. Combining movement, song, text and improvisation, each performance will be a spontaneous re-telling that re-creates the original spirit of one of the world's oldest oral storytelling traditions.

Notes:
adapted by Tim Carroll, John Donnelly, Federay Holmes, Jay Luxembourg, Barbara Norden, Cathy Rosario After Homer

1st Produced:
Oxford: Blackwell's Bookshop     33/2012

Organisations:
Creation Theatre and the factory

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  large cast

Further Reference:

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Pass, The

Pass, The
In a high end hotel room, rising football stars Jason and Ade are living the dream. Goals, girls and glory. Tomorrow they make their first team debut. But the game starts before you've even walked out the tunnel. Twelve years. Three hotel rooms. A lie lived. An agile new story about sex, fame and how much you're willing to lose in order to win.

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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Personal Matters

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
BAC 1, London >>>     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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Pleasure

Synopsis:
Pleasure' examines love relationships in the 90s illuminating the disenfranchisement and 'cold-calling' structure of the personal columns. Characters set about their objective projecting inaccurate images of personalities that are no more real then fictional characters on film or in advertisements. the story eases us in with some humour as two brothers couple up with their blind dates. On their behaviour, of course, and not always revealing their true colours, the characters gradually reveal the tragedies of self mis-representation in a world which seems to judge the book by its cover.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Metropolitan University, Leeds, West Yorkshire     26 Nov 1997

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:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Seagull, The

Seagull, The
- Idea for a story. A beautiful young girl lives by a lake all her life. She loves this lake. She's happy and free, like that bird was once. then a man comes along and for no reason at all . . . what do you think he does? - He destroys her. A story about hope.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Headlong and the Nuffield, Southampton

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sex And Death

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Showtime

Synopsis:
Written in collaboration with students on the Three Year acting Course at LaMDa, Showtime was created as part of the academy's Long Project initiative. a policeman wants to see his daughter. an immigrant wants to run her own tapas bar. a manager in a multinational corporation wants to do the right thing. a DJ wants to change the world through his music. and an anarchist wants to take his clothes off in public. against the backdrop of a fictional May Day demonstration, Showtime charts three months in the lives of a group of disparate Londoners, and asks what it really means to be political. How do you show how you feel about someone or something? In an angry world, is saying I love you a political act?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Lamda, London     26 May 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Slave/Teacher

Synopsis:
This is a story about blackness, what it is to be black in Britain today, and what it was to be black and enslaved in the 1800s. Working with traditional dances and historical text, woven with rap, street dance and new harmonies, the Lyric Step Up Company have created a performance that follows the journey of a Black British brother and sister into their family's past.

Notes:
written by Belinda earle; Chrissie Adesina; John Donnelly And Chudi Obiora

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Songs Of Grace And Redemption

Synopsis:
Seductive and penetrating, Songs of Grace and Redemption is the story of ordinary people struggling to break out and break free. In the city, there is who we are and who we want to be. Five lost people make life-changing decisions to rescue themselves - and each other - through random acts of kindness. - I had a dream where every time I ever did anything or went anywhere or said anything, people would say: 'someone else just did that, you're just copying them aren't you?' Turns out I never had a single original thought my whole life. How scary is that? - That's funny. I had that dream too. an urban fairytale of house wine, home porn, maps, cats and heavy metal.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Liminal Theatre, Time Won't Wait and Theatre 503

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:  -

Further Reference:

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There

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Rampage Festival - Young Writers Festival

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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