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Matt Hartley

MATT HARTLEY

  
Nationality:    English
twitter     email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    The Agency (London) Ltd  

Matt Hartley grew up just outside Sheffield in the Peak District. He studied Drama at the University of Hull, graduating in 2002. Since then Matt has lived and worked in London. He studied under the tutelage of Simon Stephens at the Royal Court Theatre and in 2006/07 was one of Paines Plough/ChAnnel Four's Future Perfect group. Matt's play Sixty Five Miles, was one of the winners of the inaugural Bruntwood awards. Matt's other work includes Mad Funny Just, which won the Old Vic New Voices award, Sentenced at the Union Theatre, Punch, for the Hampstead Theatre Heat and Light Company, the Bee at the Edinburgh Festival in 2008, epic for Theatre 503 and the Pursuit for Radio 4. Future work includes the full length productions of Sixty Five Miles, Microcosm, Silver Bullet, epic as well as the short film Whitby, which is going into production in late spring. Matt is currently under commission to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatres Valence and Theatre503.

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

         16 Minutes         Bird & the Bee: the Bee         Burning Cars         Come to Where I am From         Deposit         Dryfight         Earthworks, The         Epic         Gambling         Hacked         Here I Belong         Horizon         Life For Beginners         Mad, Funny, Just         Microcosm         Myth         Porters Brook         Punch         Rewind         Sentenced         Sixty Five Miles         Trolls         Wild Wood
16 Minutes

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Latitude Festival    

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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Bird & the Bee: the Bee

Synopsis:
Chloe and Jacob are beautifully in love. the first time they meet, they end their lives. 'the Bee' follows Chloe's journey. Written by Royal exchange Bruntwood award-winner, Matt Hartley.

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
Kandinsky

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:
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Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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Burning Cars

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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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

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Genre:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Come to Where I am From

Synopsis:
Sixty one playwrights from across the UK return to their home towns to write plays about the places that shaped them. At 14 theatres from Bristol to Belfast, Cardiff to Coventry and Nottingham to Newcastle, these plays will be performed by the playwrights themselves, coming home to tell their tale. Come To Where I'm From is a theatrical tapestry of the UK, woven by writers asking if home is really where the heart is.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Sheffield Crucible Theatre - Forge Festival     26 May 2010

Organisations:
Paines Plough

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Deposit

Deposit
Ben and Rachel want to buy a flat in London. Their friends Melanie and Sam also want to move to London. The trouble is the cost of housing that is the problem. They hit on an idea to save up money. They rent a one bedroom flat. But four people living in a one bedroom starts to get fraught

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Nick Hern Books 2015   

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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Earthworks, The

Synopsis:
On the eve of the activation of the Large Hadron Collider, two strangers a journalist and a scientist share their experiences of loss and hope in a funny but deeply touching one-act play.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Oberon Books   

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Epic

Synopsis:
Jennifer has a gift. When she and her husband andy are separated, she can see everything that happens to him. the question is: will she want to? and if she does, who will believe her? Commissioned by theatre503 for Latitude, epic is a story of love and faith on a galactic scale. Travelling between the intimate and the infinite, award-winning writer Matt Hartley's new play is an astonishing journey into the unexplained.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Theatre 503 At The Latitude Festival     15 Jul 2010

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:  cast of 14

Further Reference:
-

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Gambling

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Hacked

Synopsis:
all across London, phones are being hacked. Only now it's playwrights stealing the stories of brave volunteers. Will they score a scoop, or will they have to use a little artistic licence? and which will make the better story: the facts or the fiction?

Notes:
Playwrights: Ben ellis, Marcelo Dos Santos, Dominic Cavendish, Dawn King, Anna Jordan, Matt Hartley. Curated by Derek Bond And Lisa Cagnacci

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:
collaborative piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Here I Belong

Here I Belong
Elsie has lived in the village for sixty years. It is her ninetieth birthday and she looks back at life since 1953

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Nick Hern 2016   

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

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Horizon

Horizon
It's the last day of the summer holidays and for one group of friends that means there is only one place to be: Horizon Shopping Centre. For some it's a chance to gossip and flirt, grab a milkshake and a bargain in the sales, earn some money and catch a film. But for two sisters it's everything they've come to resent: an image of what their future looks like. As closing time approaches a summer of resentment and frustration can no longer be contained and two sisters stand up and fight for what they believe in.

Notes:
Each year the National Theatre invites ten writers to create new plays for young people to perform. This spring 230 youth theatre companies will present the premieres of these plays in Venues from Scotland to Cornwall and Northern Ireland to Norfolk. Each company will also perform at one of 26 Connections festivals in professional theatres across the country, and ten companies will go on to perform at the National Theatre. Connections celebrates great new writing for the stage  and the energy, commitment and talent of young theatre-makers.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
NT Connections

1st Published:
Contained in: "Connections 2014" published by Bloomsbury Methuen 2014   

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:
TYA

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Life For Beginners

Synopsis:
"Some people described a plague, others a cloud. Some people found God, others lost him. Over one hundred people claim the incident caused them to fall in love." Tony meets himself but younger. Emma and Sam meet but can never touch. eva meets Quinn before either goes too far. Nina's not sure she should ever have met James. And Mark tries to stop Hayley making a tit of herself on national TV. In a play that spans all ages we explore the magical and joyful moments in our everyday lives.

Notes:
written by By Alice Birch, Ben ellis, Matt Hartley, Lizzie Nunnery and Rex Obano

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:  4            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Mad, Funny, Just

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Microcosm

Microcosm
Alex has his flat. His home. He's building a life with Clare. Nothing can derail his happiness - he just wishes those kids would stop hanging round outside his house. But they're just kids, with nothing to do. They're not dangerous, right?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
paper/scissors/stone

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:
family drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Myth

Myth
In one wine-fuelled evening, two couples debate their materialistic lifestyle. As their dinner party descends into chaos, their friendship and their lives are irreparably changed. A play about those things we don't want to see or say.

Notes:
written by Matt Hartley and Kirsty Housley

1st Produced:
The Other Place Studio Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon     24 May 2017

Organisations:
Making Mischief 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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Porters Brook

Synopsis:
Adam's life is saved by the spirit of Sheffield's people.

Notes:
part of Northern Spirit's new theatre production A Wondrous Place, four young writers challenge the it's grim up North' cliches and offer four fresh perspectives on contemporary Northern cities: Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester. A Wondrous Place brings these brand new short-dramas together within one dramatic story sequence.

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Punch

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Heat and light 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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rewind

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sentenced

Synopsis:
has at its invisible centre, Peter, a hitherto respectable man arrested for rape. Peter, though, we never see. Instead, we get his brother, his former secretary and in all four scenes, Janet, his wife, who is pregnant with their child. In the absence of Peter, it is her job to carry his shame, to be abused, accused and pitied for her crime of failing to know the man she married.
Jonathan Gibbs, Time Out

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Union Theatre, London, Eur >>>     04 Oct 2006

Organisations:
part of ShorTheatre Companyuts 2006

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:
Short play One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sixty Five Miles

Sixty Five Miles
a devastating Drama about family and the ties that bind us together. Sixty five miles. the distance between Hull and Sheffield. the distance between a man and the daughter hes never met. Pete and Rich are two very different brothers. Reunited after nine years, both are seeking forgiveness. Rich needs to confront ex-girlfriend Lucy, and the shadows of his recent past. Petes search is for the one woman in his life he has never known, his daughter.

Notes:
Under-26 Award, Bruntwood Playwriting Competition. Rehearsed reading Royal exchange, Manchester, 13 Jul 2007

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Paines plough

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:  doubling

Further Reference:

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Trolls

Synopsis:
When Debby and Matty witness the worst thing of all, they flee to start a new life. But is the place they're running to any safer or happier than the life they're leaving behind?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
commissioned by e15 acting School

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:  7            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wild Wood

Synopsis:
PLAYlist is back - short plays inspired by songs by brilliant writers you know, and brilliant writers you don't. This PLAYlist is something special - an exchange between Theatre503 and Live Theatre in Newcastle. Each theatre has nominated three writers, each will take inspiration from bands from their theatre's region and write a play. As usual, the only rule is: the play must be no longer in running time than the song that inspired it. Will it be London Calling? Or Fog on the Tyne?

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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