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Suhayla El-Bushra

SUHAYLA EL-BUSHRA

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

Literary Agent:    David Higham Associates Ltd  represented by Georgina Ruffhead

Suhayla writes for film/TV and stage. Her film/TV credits include Hollyoaks, feature screenplays, children's drama and several scripts for Doctors. Suhayla developed an original screenplay, Left Luggage as part of the Guiding Lights scheme where her mentor was Christopher Hampton. Suhayla's stage work includes Pigeons which was produced as part of the Royal Court's Open Court season in 2013 and on a subsequent tour, Cuckoo (Unicorn Theatre, 2014) and The Kilburn Passion (Tricycle, 2014 - two runs). She is undertaking several new stage commissions this year and also developing an original series with Headstrong.

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below is a list of Suhayla El-Bushra's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Cabaret On A Sinking Ship         Cuckoo         False Teachers         Iphigenia         Pigeons         Suicide, The

Cabaret On A Sinking Ship

Synopsis:
Cabaret on a Sinking Ship uses a rousing blend of politics, satire, song, sex and laughter to capture the spirit of the naughty noughties', much in the same way cabaret artists of the 1930's responded to their broken society. Part cabaret, part musical theatre, part straight theatre, Cabaret on a Sinking Ship entertainingly explores the darkness behind the cabaret glitter.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Workshop Production, Nightingale Theatre, Brighton     26 Sep 2009

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cuckoo

Synopsis:
Erica's bored. She used to go on research trips to the Congo, now all she has is Woman's Hour, Waitrose and wearisome dinner parties. Then one morning she discovers her daughter's new and only friend sitting in the kitchen and life gets interesting. But good things can't last forever and sooner or later, someone's going to get hurt. . .

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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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:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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False Teachers

False Teachers
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is a foundation stone of the english language. the KJV was composed as a collective project and written to be spoken. Sixty-Six Books has been created, in the spirit of the original, in the same way. Pulpit to print; stage to page; mediated through many forms oral and written, the KJV has, since its inception, been a fundamental part of written and spoken english.This is a work that has travelled to every continent of the globe. It has been shared as a melodic instrument of inspiration, illumination and mutual understanding; and it has also been wielded as a tool of colonial oppression. Sixty-Six Books is a fresh interpretation of the KJV for the new millennium, celebrating and challenging the traditions and achievements of this great work on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. the curators of this project have gathered together a formidable and inspiring line-up of the best established and emerging writing talent to produce a new version of the KJV for thetwenty-first century. each writer has created anew a book of the KJV - as prose, poetry, Drama, performance, song, or ground-breaking digital form. each writer has spoken back to the KJV with untrammeled inventiveness of the imagination. the voices of Sixty-Six Books, drawn from across five continents, innovate, transmute, transpose, reinvent and talk back to four hundredyears of history. all the works that make up Sixty-Six Books are written to be spoken. Culminating in major performance events at the Bush theatre and Westminster abbey in 2011 in London, Sixty-Six Books is a contribution towards the mutual curiosity, tolerance, and force of collective enterprise and shared humanity that characterizes the international and ancient Arts of writing and spoken performance

Notes:
Part of Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. Play is A response to the King James Bible book of 2 Peter

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Oberon Books (2011) >>>    978-1849432276

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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Iphigenia

Iphigenia
Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter, Clytemnestra must try to stop him, Iphigenia must accept her fate, the Chorus must watch. Ships lie dormant in harbours, and thousands of troops sit on the shore, growing restless and unruly. Helen is gone, and pursuit of her has been stalled by windless seas. To raise the winds to send his fleet to Troy, Agamemnon is commanded by the gods to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia. But his deceit of his wife, Clytemnestra and the killing of his child, will end up tearing him and everything around him to pieces. Euripides' story of a father moved to murder his daughter, Iphigenia at Aulis, is one that has been reinvented and retold anew throughout history. The Iphigenia Quartet sees four of the UK's most exciting and radical playwrights - Caroline Bird (Agamemnon), Suhayla El Bushra (Iphigenia), Lulu Raczka (Clytemnestra), and Chris Thorpe (Chorus) - create explosive responses to this classical tragedy. Each play is a reimagining this story of familial catastrophe from the differing perspectives of the key characters in the play: Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia and the Chorus.

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Oberon Books (2016) >>>    978-1783193202

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:
classic tragedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pigeons

Synopsis:
Amir and Ashley are best mates. Ashley spends as much time as possible at Amir's house losing at chess to Amir's dad, flirting with his sister and eating his mum's food. As the pressure and prejudices of the outside world start to invade into their lives, the cracks begin to show. A searing insight into the reality of growing up in an apparently multicultural society.

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Suicide, The

Synopsis:
Things are getting tough for Sam. No job, benefits stopped and stuck in a tiny flat with his girlfriend Maya and her mum. The pressure is building. It feels like there might be only one way out. But every ending is a beginning and there are plenty of people keen to capitalise on Sam's momentous decision. From corrupt local politicians to kids trying to raise the number of views of their online videos, everyone wants a piece of Sam's demise. It scarcely matters what Sam actually wants. Faced with the promise of immortality, what's his life worth?

Notes:
Original Playwright - Nikolai Erdman. Suhayla El-Bushra takes the satiric masterpiece by Nikolai Erdman and smashes it into contemporary urban Britain. It's provocative, fast-paced and very funny.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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