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Lynne Harvey

LYNNE HARVEY

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

Literary Agent:    agent : sandra@sandybeach.cc

Lynne Harvey's plays including theatres, agent, synopses, cast sizes, production and published dates

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

         C         Clearance         Fade         Feltham We Have A Problem         Gone To Earth         Jack         Jingo Drill, The         Laugh Out Loud         Merop's Sons         Risk         Silver Machine         Snack Attack         Something For Grownups
C

Synopsis:
C' takes us into the seedy world of the contract killer for whom murder isn't a mission or a spree, but a vocation. What begins as an interview for an apparently straight forward assignment turns into a ritual of paranoia and corruption. Who's out to kill whom? Lynne Harvey's writing combines the rare qualities of lyricism, originality and wit; moreover it displays a genuine love of the english language - she wields it as expertly as a swordsman wields a rapier and she takes no prisoners.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Drayton Court Theatre, Ealing, London    

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:  5            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Clearance

Synopsis:
a girl takes refuge in a run down church, the other occupants are a man, a male dancer and his gay rough trade lover. a surreal epic which suggests isolation and solitude are the only means of escape and that memories whilst sweet can leave a bitter after taste.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Public Reading At The Red Room, London    

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:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fade

Synopsis:
a talking head for female voice, which touches on the themes of obsolence and corporal disgust

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Drayton Court Theatre, Ealing, London    

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:
25 min One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Feltham We Have A Problem

Synopsis:
It is 1956. estate agent John Rudyard Pinfold, who lives on a farm with his mother and brother, has discovered a new fuel - Spazuel - which will power a rocket to the moon. Not only that, this fuel in a seam beneath one of his fields can be treated to produce a super-hard material from which to make the rocket ship itself. He phones Prime Minister Anthony eden (who is much more interested in the cows and how his mother is feeling) and President eisenhower, who is, eventually, interested and sends over a team to develop Spazuel. and that's where things start to go wrong. It becomes clear that John Rudyard Pinfold will not, as he had hoped, be the first man to land on the moon and that he has become a tiny cog in a huge machine, excluded from the development of his discovery.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Sunbury And Shepperton Arts Festival    

Organisations:
Forward! Theatre 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gone To Earth

Synopsis:
Black comedy set in rural Somerset. a wily female farmer and a city gent shake hands over a six acre paddock. but what is the strange shape in the corner of the field?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bridgewater Theatre    

Organisations:
Forward! Theatre 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:
20 min One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Jack

Synopsis:
Set in a winter garden, an atmosphEric monologue for female voice

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Drayton Court Theatre, Ealing, London    

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:
8 min One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Jingo Drill, The

Synopsis:
Many people ask 'Why the Jingo Drill'? In military training, every aspect is geared towards the men in the ranks following the orders of the officer in charge. the training, drill and automatic response to an officer's command is imperative. It has to be. In WW1 'jingoism' was a word of the moment, war was talked up, 'having a pop at jerry' and travelling overseas to do it was an adventure that never was. So, in effect the Jingo Drill is a war of words, between men of differing backgrounds and beliefs while the war creeps upon them, right to the bunker into which they've all fled. Why Scottish soldiers? the Scots and the english have had many scuffles in the past, I wanted both sides to argue out their beliefs and to have those beliefs confirmed and denied. Many people have since pointed out that the characters represent aspects of a community. This maybe so, but it was never written with that intention. Why 1917? the play is set in the wake of the mutiny that started in the 'Bullring', the infamous training camp at etaples and on the eve of the first major tank battle at Cambrai. Questions were being asked, the men were being pushed, a hiatus was being reached, but the battles still needed to be fought - why? after three years of war what exactly were they fighting for? By this time a deep resentment had built up which founded a comradeship that will never be understood by those not involved. Yes there was humour, which is mirrored in the play, but not all of the 'jolly Tommy' humour used by newspapers of the time. the men, on the whole, were far more clever than that. Why did I write it? a deep interest in WW1 and what really happened. I never bought the widely held view that all Tommy's were cheerful warriors, that all officers were inexperienced and led from the back, and all deserters were cowards. Yes, these stereotypes did exist, but to take just these views and no other is doing the men discredit. Give them back their identities, many men went to war for a scrap, to get away from a stifling home life, to impress a suitor, for an adventure - a whole raft of reasons - but the majority were forced into a war they knew hardly anything about and were fed the jingoisms of the day to give them the wherewithal to get out there and do their bit. This also wasn't just about Tommy's in their trenches in France, we had a navy and an air force and there was fighting world wide. Americans and Canadians were volunteers from the start, nursing corps were started. the Voluntary aid Detachment was formed, nurses served in conditions that were dire, and the treatment they received was nothing more than an insult. For whatever reason, they did go out there, they did fight, and they were sustenance for the vast armoury built up against them. these men were not just black and white images you see on a TV documentary, medals in an antique shop or white crosses en masse. they were much more than that. Historians still argue about why the war started and there is never any easy answer, but there is an answer. To simplify what happened to the people involved during 1914 -1918 is to tell a lie.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Trinity Arts Centre, Paddington, London     1996

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:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Laugh Out Loud

Synopsis:
Laugh out Loud is based on the life on an American ex marine who lost all his friends in the Beirut Marine barracks bombing of 1983. the son of a marine major who never intended to follow the career path of his father. This is a play that puts 'apple pie and mom' against reality. What happens when a 'good ole southern boy' is manipulated into an elite fighting force and finds out he loves it? What happens when he finds friends only to lose them in horrendous circumstances? What happens when he loses that career through no fault of his own? What happens when the women in his life fail to make sense? What happens when he loses every base in his life? He climbs mountains and swims the ocean to get away, doesn't talk and doesn't socialise. . . and then one day he laughs out loud, because stuck up a mountain it all becomes as clear as the ice all around him. Lynne Harvey

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Sunbury And Shepperton Arts Festival    

Organisations:
Forward! Theatre 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Merop's Sons

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Forward! Theatre Company On Tour    

Organisations:
Forward! Theatre 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Risk

Synopsis:
Ghost of a GI returns to a northern theatre to search for the ghost of his british buddy killed in a game of chance in WW2

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Drayton Court Theatre, Ealing, London    

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:
12 min One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Silver Machine

Synopsis:
Comedy set in a London tube train. a commuter meets an alien sent to return him to the 1970's

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Drayton Court Theatre, Ealing, London    

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:
18 min One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Snack Attack

Synopsis:
Lynne Harvey's comedy ' Snack attack ', makes it's world premiere as nature intended. Three actors who have never whipped it all off 'because the script demanded it' before, play a bodybuilder, a soldier and a librarian who wake in a deserted park to find themselves stark naked with no idea how they got there. and if the soldier isn't gay, how come he's looking up that muscle Mary like a birdwatcher in the Hebrides?' Thud Magazine

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Joiners Arms, Hackney, London.    

Organisations:
Forward Theatre 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Something For Grownups

Synopsis:
With a plot that manages to encompass violent death, psychosis, infanticide and an alternative use for woodworking tools, it is clear from the start that we are not dealing with the latest John Godber. Lynne Harvey's teasingly-titled tale chronicles the motives, methods and madness of girlfriends Ronnie and Manda, two chip shop workers who spice up evenings in their grey seaside town by bumping off the men who come into their company. Louise Doherty is striking as ringleader Ronnie, a coldly manipulative pseudo-intellectual who takes out her small-town frustrations by goading her easily led pal Manda ( played by Fleur Soper ) and using her feminine wiles on their victims. the grisly murders, loosely connected by monologues, flashbacks and snippets of Smiths songs, are never more macabre than when the victims themselves narrate, andrew Love impressing in dual roles as a self-assured college boy and a hapless mechanic who both meet sticky ends. Ronnie's amiable fisherman husband ( Oliver Graham ) interrupts the beastliness to share cooking tips and in doing so, has the manner of an Alan Bennett character stumbling unwittingly into an episode of Twin Peaks. But this is an imaginatively staged, concisely written shocker which, although sometimes over-reaching itself with the psycho-babble, plays on the audience's sensibilities to just the right extent. In the central role, Doherty has a presence and malevolence that defy her diminutive frame. Her character's defence, that she kills because circumstance has robbed her of the life she always dreamed of, would hardly stand up in court but makes for an unrelenting gripping study in remorseless evil. - review by Chris Bartlett was published in 'the Stage

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Drayton Court Theatre, Ealing, London    

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:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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