The Playwrights Database
MICHAEL HASTINGS
(1938 - 2011)
Nationality:
British
email:
n/a
Website:
n/a
Literary Agent:
Johnson and Alcock rights
Michael Hastings, born 02 Sep 1937 died 19 Nov 2011, shot to prominence in the first wave of new playwrights at the Royal Court in the 1950s. His best known play, Tom and Viv, about the difficult marriage of TS eliot and Vivienne Haigh-Wood, was presented there in 1984, by which time he was well established as a novelist, biographer and author of short stories. He was an unclassifiable writer, despite his sporadic allegiance over the years to the Royal Court. Much of his work is imbued with his experience of travelling in Spain, Kenya and Brazil. the fractured domestic relationships which he documented in Tom and Viv, and in his last West end play, Calico (2004), reflect his own difficult childhood and a lifetime interest in psychoanalysis.
Guardian Obituary
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Blue As His Eyes the Tin Helmet He Wore
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
Granada TV 1967
1st Produced:
- 1966
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Calico
1928: the Paris apartment of James Joyce and his family. a world of secret lives and secret dreamsa young student named Samuel Beckett arrives and an unusual love begins. Calico is a fictional story inspired by fact. It is a captivating and exuberant play about a family in crisis. Scrupulously researched, Calico mixes sadness and great compassion to explore love almost to the brink of insanity.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Duke Of York's, London 03 Mar 2004
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Oberon, London, 2004 978-1840024050
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume 2004 Page 283
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Carnival War
Synopsis:
an acute political farce played out inside a police bus filled with under-cover cops set in the epicentre of the Notting Hill Carnival. Ruin and mayhem besiege the comic figures.
Notes:
aka Carnival War A Go Hot
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Penguin, London, 1981 -
Music:
-
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Cutting Of the Cloth, The
Synopsis:
about the minute by minute details of bespoke tailoring. the bellicose sick boss dies at his desk, his friends and enemies do not find a better world without him. there is a constant display of banter and cynicism which over-laps the human tragedy.
Notes:
produced: Southwark Playhouse (The Large), 11 Mar 2015
1st Produced:
London (Unperformed ?) 1973
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Oberon Books, London -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Dance Of the American Rattlesnake, The
Synopsis:
maps the extraordinary life of the art historian aby Warburg (1866-1929), who assembled in Hamburg the last great private library of the 20th century. During the rise of the Nazis in Germany, Warburg suffered mental collapses and was sent to the Kreuzlingen asylum. Using visual metaphor and dance, Hastings reveals the unique contribution Warburg made to the history of visual thought and ideas.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Oberon, London, -
Music:
-
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Play/Drama
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Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Death And the Maiden
Synopsis:
when dictatorships crumble right and left and the victims, the living dead, emerge from the shadows and present their accounts" Sunday Times
Notes:
Playwright - Ariel Dorfman
1st Produced:
London 1991
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Nick Hern Books, London, 1991 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Don't Destroy Me
Synopsis:
Don't Destroy Me, a nine character play about a tailors apprentice who cannot fit into the close knit world of cloth. Written in a heightened form of prose, the play focuses on the tender but inarticulate boy and girl who suffer a kind of aboulia, and cannot escape the suffocating grip of craft trade.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New Lindsay, London 25 Jul 1956
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Nimbus, London, 1956 -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Dream Of People, A
Synopsis:
a senior civil servant, Claude, and his staff present a damning internal report on future UK pensions to the Prime Minister. the PM responds with scant enthusiasm. Claude in a moment of madness physically attacks the PM Knowing he is to be removed from his position, Claude meets a number of individuals who face tough sunset years with reduced support from pensions. Claude becomes consumed by their problems. For reasons he can never quite make clear, he arranges for them all to meet up in a London park one bright afternoon. although none of them know each other. Claude stands on a hillside with his grandson. He watches the disparate group until they move away, some listless, some nonchalant, and his grandson hauls at a kite above him in the strong air. the boy asks Claude what he is looking at so intently?
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume 1990 Page 1024
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Emperor, The
Synopsis:
a devised piece of surrealism, jointly created by Hastings and the director Jonathan Miller. Based on the book by Ryszard Kapuscinski, sad and broken voices of servants in the palace of Haile Selassie, the revered emperor of ethiopia, create a chorus of mnemonic grief for an evil autocracy. Miller has devised a series of boxes and trap-doors, and the company of five dressed in dark suits and neat ties writhe and dance and assemble in tight knots to reveal their bizarre infatuation with the emperors iconic status. Perhaps, too, there are hints of political subjugation in other countries like Kapuscinskis own Poland.
Notes:
written with Jonathan Miller, novel by Ryszard Kapuscinski
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Penguin, London, 1988 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 5 characters
Further Reference:
-
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For the West (Congo)
Synopsis:
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Notes:
BBC TV 1964
1st Produced:
London 1966
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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-
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Further Reference:
-
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For the West (Uganda)
Synopsis:
examines the British involvement with Idi amin's lawless rule, portrays the irrationality and brutality of a man who was ruled by his dreams, and suggests the fascism in east Africa is a malign child of imperialist venture
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
in "Three Plays", Penguin, London, 1980 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Full Frontal
Synopsis:
seventy minute monologue, by a young Nigerian who has been rejected by his Caribbean friends, and suffers a terrible private tragedy of grief and betrayal. In an insane moment of self-denial and despair he applies to join an extreme Right political party. the logic behind the piece is Swiftian, and ultimately the end has a moving spirit of human dismay. Frequently performed. It has an unusual strength in its bitterness and anger.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
in "Three Plays", Penguin, London, 1980 -
Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume 2001 Page 1475
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Gloo Joo
Synopsis:
a farce about a West Indian on the eve of deportation, and how he uses extra-marital devices to stay in this country of his choice. equipped with farce tableaux, and entirely in character, the play has been criticised for its blatant use of racially motivated language. although this play has been performed in Trinidad, Kingston and New York. the penultimate scene includes a liberal Rabbi, a non-stop talking groom, an unlikely bride, and two customs officers who act as even less likely witnesses to the final wedding in a Customs holding shed at London Heathrow airport. the play transferred from Hampstead theatre to the West end for a long run
Notes:
won the evening Standard Best comedy Award And was Adapted for the screen in 1979
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
in "Three Plays", Penguin, London, 1980 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Farce
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume 1983 Page 665
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Going To A Party
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
London 1984
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Childrens Youth audience
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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La Nona
Synopsis:
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Notes:
from Roberto Cossa
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
translation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Lee Harvey Oswald: A Far Mean Streak Of Indepence Brought On By Negleck
Dallas, Texas. 12.30pm. Friday, 22 November 1963. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. 48 hours later, Lee Harvey Oswald himself was murdered.. If Oswald was in any way involved in Kennedy's death it could only have been as part of a wider conspiracy, it is possible that a nations desire to apportion blame has turned history into fiction. Told through the eyes of Oswalds wife and mother, coupled with extracts from the Warren Commissions report, we follow the unsettled drifting life of Lee Harvey Oswald his loveless marriage to his Russian wife, his challenging relationship with his mother and his pathological hatred of Kennedys life and achievements. Oswald had the means, motive and opportunity, but did he even do it? Could a man who never did anything on his own murder a President?
Notes:
aka the Silence of Lee Harvey Oswald
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Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Man And Boy: Dada
Synopsis:
the opera invents a period in the life of the great German artist Kurt Schwitters, when he spent time in North London, immediately after the war. Man and Boy: Dada is the powerful story of the friendship that grows between a displaced Schwitters and Michael, a boy who has lost his Father in a Doodlebug raid.
Notes:
music by Michael Nyman, lyrics by Michael Hastings
1st Produced:
Organisations:
almeida Opera
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Opera
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Midnite At the Starlit
Synopsis:
a five-hander comedy set on a south London dance floor. Two girl dancers finally give up on their male partners, and strike a chord for their independence. But the rules of the competition insist two girls cannot perform together. First produced in Birmingham, this particular play has had success with amateur productions. a mix of bravura and sham glitter in a strangely enticing world.
Notes:
York TV 1980
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Penguin, London, 1981 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Miser, The
Synopsis:
the miser loves his gold but decides to take a second wife, four lovers plot to save themselves, Period 1668
Notes:
Original Playwright - Moliere
1st Produced:
Cambridge 1982
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Murder Rap
Synopsis:
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Notes:
BBC TV 1980
1st Produced:
- 1980
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Silence Of Saint-Just, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Brighton 1971
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1970 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Six Characters In Search Of An Author
Synopsis:
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Notes:
from Luigi Pirandello
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
translation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Stars Of the Roller State Disco
Synopsis:
written for the Brixton Drama Festival one summer. the production was cancelled, and a televised film was subsequently made by the BBC. a job agency is imagined as a roller rink. Kids aimlessly circle the space. One boy is so immured in the tedium of the life, even when he is found the perfect job, he is too far lost from us, and he commits suicide. Trash music, junk food and the hint of leisure facilities provided by the state. the play is an angry essay on unemployment in the Thatcher years.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- 1984
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Three Into Two Won't Go
Synopsis:
a lost comedy about two Brixton Jamaicans and a white girl who wont be fooled by their playfulness. This play had one in-house reading in north London, but later all scripts disappeared.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
comedy
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Tom And Viv
TS eliot's wife, Vivien, suffered from a severe hormonal imbalance during their seventeen years together. their pained private life was the source of some of eliot's finest work. Despite the complex nature of their relationship, he spoke of her as someone who gave him everything he wanted, and to whom he owed everything. Thoroughly researched, with new biographical information, the play attempts to move eliot away from the doctrine of impersonal modernsim. Here he is portayed as a deeply subjective poet. Tom and Viv received its premiere at the Royal Court in 1984, and subsequently transferred to the West end. It has been made into a major motion picture starring Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
Biographical
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume 1984 Page 80, 86, 134; Volume 2006 Page 1034
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Two Fish In the Sky
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
New York 1982
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Unfinished Business
Synopsis:
a memory play. It begins with an elderly man in a large country pile now transformed to a nursing home. We learn that he was once the dangerous owner of this mansion. the large estate belonged to a family revealed as nazi sympathisers waiting for Hitler to launch his attack Britain (Operation Sea Lion). and the mans secret plans with others to support the nazi take-over is a central issue. there is cruelty and a sense of wasted years anticipating a Third Reich future. a woman who once worked on the estate as a maid visits the nursing home. She confronts the man with his past.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume 1994 Page 72
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World's Baby, The
Synopsis:
given a Sunday night performance by the Court at the embassy theatre, starring Vanessa Redgrave as an independent-minded heroine. Something of a panoramic portrait of a woman, anna, between the thirties and fifties. Her only child could be the natural son of any one of three men. It is a mystery play. We follow her through the thirties to the fifties with all three lovers. Ultimately, she learns it doesnt matter who the real Father is. It is the childs future she wants to believe in. an epic play which ranges from the Spanish Civil War to the collapse of Suez
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Royal Court At The Embassy Theatre 1965
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "Three Plays", W.H. Allen, London, 1966 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 26 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Yes, And After
describes the immediate catatonic after-effects of rape on a young girl. a device in the play allows the girl to act out a number of scenes leading up to the attack. Towards the end of the piece, a poignant catharsis emerges, an angry calm begins to descend on the girl.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in New English Dramatists 4, Penguin Books 1962 B000SV1aXC
Music:
-
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Genre:
Modern Drama Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
Wearing - the London Stage 57.133
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