The Playwrights Database
CHRIS DUNKLEY
Nationality: British
email: n/a Website: Click here
Literary Agent: United Agents represented by Dan Usztan
Playwright Chris Dunkley's previous productions at the Finborough Theatre include Mirita which was named Time Out Critics' Choice, and transferred Off Broadway to the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City, alongside his short play Lisa Says, the world premieres of The Precariat in June 2013 and The Soft of Her Palm in October 2012. Other theatre includes Smallholding (Soho Theatre, Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, and High Tide Festival), Almost Blue (Riverside Studios), How to Tell the Truth (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough), Lucy is a Minger (Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton) and The Festival (Wimbledon Studio Theatre). Radio includes The All Colour Vegetarian Cookbook and The Architects, both for the BBC. Chris has been Writer in Residence at Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton, and Writer on Attachment at the Royal Court Theatre. He was the 2002 winner of the International Student Playscript Competition and winner of the PMA Writers Award in 2001.
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below is a list of Chris Dunkley's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Abundant Everlasting, The Almost Blue Attachment Festival, The How To Tell the Truth Kicking Snow Lisa Says Lucy Is A Minger Mirita New Play For The General Election No 1 Pavilion,the Precariat, The Smallholding Soft Of Her Palm, The VelvetAbundant Everlasting, The
Synopsis:
Jimmy believes the conspiracy theory and is taking steps. The post office must be saved from closure, not to help pensioners collect their money, but to prevent the wholesale destruction of everything he holds dear. But he cannot save the world alone. He needs the help of Elise, a fractious laundrette operative whose mother is on her deathbed. The future of the civilised world may just rest upon Elises safe return from Stevenage. The Abundant Everlasting is an imagined post-capitalist near-future tragicomedy in which a conspiracy theorist and a laundrette operative attempt to take their place in the resistance against an increasingly violent middle-class revolution making its way in all directions from Didcot.
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Now in its seventh consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre - the coalface of British Theatre - presents its annual explosion of new writing - Vibrant 2015 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, running on Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday and Thursday matinees between 25 October-12 November 2015. This year's festival features an eclectic and idiosyncratic selection of twelve staged readings of twelve new works by a dozen UK and international playwrights, both established and new, all discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre. Concentrated solely on full length works for the stage, this year's Vibrant 2015 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights includes playwrights from England, Scotland, Wales, the United States and New Zealand. As always we strive to be as diverse as possible, and this year's festival once again features 50% female playwrights, together with work from African-American, East Asian, British-Lebanese, British-Israeli and Maori playwrights.
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Top of PageAlmost Blue
Synopsis:
combines sophiticated sound technology, modern dance and Drama in a detective thriller with a difference. - Alice Jones, Independent
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from novel by Carlo Lucarelli. Winner of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Award.
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Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London W6 9RL >>> 20 Nov 2005
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Genre:
experimental theatre
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Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: doubling
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Top of PageAttachment
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Top of PageFestival, The
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theatre exchange National Young Playwright Award
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Wimbledon Studio Theatre 2000
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Top of PageHow To Tell the Truth
Synopsis:
Beneath the rubble of lies somewhere there's the truth. But is it good enough to make the newspaper headlines? With a married couple firing shots at each other outside the door, Milos and Shota hide in the old bar along with Marko. Daring only to venture outside when a ceasefire is called for mealtimes, they are trapped. Perhaps a Western journalist could be their salvation. If only people knew the real story maybe it would make a difference. But can an outside onlooker really understand what is happening until they have lived through it themselves?
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Top of PageKicking Snow
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1st Produced:
Arnhem Gallery, Fairfield Halls, Warehouse Phoenix, Croydon, London 29 Jun 2013
Organisations:
27th International Playwriting Festival
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short play reading extract
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Top of PageLisa Says
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theatre exchange National Young Playwright award
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Riverside Studios 1999
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Genre:
short play
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Top of PageLucy Is A Minger
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1st Produced:
Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton 2006
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Top of PageMirita
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Mirita is a young Kosovar Albainian. She lives in a small village next to an old Serb who is busy dismantling his own house, stone by stone. their friendship fuels Mirita's desire to understand the senselessness of ancient ethnic divides. In the pogram unleashed by occupying Serbian soldiers, it is this friendship which saves Mirita's life. But will it be enough to save the life of the old Serb, when the freedom fighters return?
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1st Produced:
Cherry Lane theatre
38 Commerce Street, New York, NY 10014 01 Aug 2001
38 Commerce Street, New York, NY 10014 01 Aug 2001
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
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Top of PageNew Play For The General Election
Synopsis:
Using material generated through a process of research, improvisation and writing, the play will focus on a moment of desperation by an opportunistic loner presented with a one-in-a-million opportunity to come face to face with the ruling elite. What follows is a pressure-cooker exploration of power, disenfranchisement and pain tolerance... The run will be accompanied by the return of our FINBOROUGHFORUM, a series of informal discussions and debates on the General Election, after every performance on Sunday and Monday evenings. All events are free to ticketholders for that evening's performance of the new play. FINBOROUGHFORUM events will all be Twitter friendly with live tweets from @FinboroughForum. Using the hashtag #finfor, the speakers will also answer questions posed on Twitter so everyone can be included, no matter where they are in the world.
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written by Chris Dunkley and Chris New
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one act piece 70 min
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Top of PageNo 1
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1st Produced:
Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre 2000
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Top of PagePavilion,the
Synopsis:
Ed has moved into a rented flat under a pseudonym. Temporarily, until the reality of splitting from his wife hits and events catch up with him, he is anonymous, untraceable. . . lost. Julia has left her husband. After a year in which their son became ill and her Father in law died, her husband turned to religion for comfort. Being entirely at odds with the atheism they once shared, this is a change too far for Julia a path she cannot follow him down. Her choice to leave is also temporary. Ed's exile takes place across several months. Julia's across three days. their paths cross briefly in an intimate, excoriating encounter between two restless and disorientated individuals.
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Vibrant 2013 A Festival of Finborough Playwrights
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Top of PagePrecariat, The
In amongst the flying debris, the semi-distant crackle of burning shops and chanting rioters, Bethan freezes, staring at the chicken. Pecking inscrutably at the cracked pavement and calmly dodging sprinting looters, it crosses the high street towards the video shop. Bethan realises the chicken, so sure of its place in the world, has outranked her. She shouldn't be here. Neither should her unborn child. As she confronts her situation and struggles to find a foothold, the pressures of poverty and single parenthood force her to face an uncomfortable truth.
Notes:
reading as part of Vibrant 2012 - A festival of Finborough Playwrights (18 Nov 2012
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Severed Duck
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Oberon Books (2013) >>> 978-1783190300
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Genre:
90 min one act
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Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: voices played by actors
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Top of PageSmallholding
She's got no business being a junkie. . .She had looks, brains. . .everythin' goin' for her. Whereas you, Andy. . .You deserve addiction.. Andy and Jen have just moved on to a new farm, returning to the village they grew up in. the plan is to plant parsnips, breed pigs and live off the fat of the land. But escaping their shared demons was never going to be easy. While the couple make a fresh start, trust, responsibility and bio-dynamic farming challenge their rehabilitation in this darkly comic love story. Hope and optimism are tested in Smallholding, a fizzing new play by Chris Dunkley.
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Oberon Books (2013) >>> 978-1849433983
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
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Top of PageSoft Of Her Palm, The
"Isn't it funny? the thoughts your brain is capable of having even while you're lying there, bleeding on the carpet?. . ." the Soft of Her Palm is a devastating exploration of domestic violence, telling the story of Phil and Sarah's troubled and complex relationship. It begins in the present day, moments after Sarah has crashed her car outside Phil's house - by accident or on purpose? As we return to the past and the horrifying story unfolds, our allegiances shift as the truth is slowly revealed. Jumping from moments of sheer joy to volcanic ferocity and underscored with a vein of sharp, brutal humour, the shadow of violence creeps insidiously across the landscape of Chris Dunkley's painfully honest new play.
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Oberon Books (2012) >>> 978-1849433938
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Genre:
90 min one act
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Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: 1 girl
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Top of PageVelvet
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1st Produced:
Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre 2000
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