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Craig Higginson

CRAIG HIGGINSON

  
Nationality:    South African
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Curtis Brown Group Ltd  represented by Jessica Cooper

Craig Higginson is a novelist, playwright, Theatre director, Dramaturge, editor and university lecturer. His first play, Laughter in the Dark, an adaptation of Nabokov's novel, opened at the RSC in 2000. His first original play, Dream of the Dog, has been performed in South Africa at Grahamstown, the Market Theatre, the Hilton Festival and in the UK as the Finborough and Trafalgar Studios. the Girl in the Yellow Dress is Craig's second original play. It opened in Grahamstown in 2010, transferred to the Baxter Theatre (Cape Town), the Traverse Theatre (for the duration of the Edinburgh Festival), Live Theatre (Newcastle), the Citizens Theatre (Glasgow), the Stadsteater (Stockholm) and then the Market Theatre (JohAnnesburg). Craig co-wrote Truth in Translation and Ten Bush, both of which have toured widely internationally, and adapted and co-adapted several other works into plays for the Market Theatre. His version of the Jungle Book will be published by Oberon in 2011. Craig's published novels include the Hill (2005, Jacana), Last Summer (2010, Picador Africa) and the Landscape Painter (2011, Picador Africa). He later adapted it as a radio play for BBC Radio 3. It won the Sony Gold Award for Best Radio Drama in the UK for 2004-5. Directing highlights include Laughter in the Dark (RSC, co-director), Edward III (RSC, staged reading), Blood Wedding (Pegasus Theatre, Oxford), Grimm Tales (Market Theatre), Dream of the Dog (Hilton Festival and SAFM), the Perfect Circle (which he wrote for the Wits students) and the Jungle Book (Market Theatre). Craig's writing and directing have been nominated for and won several awards in South Africa and the United Kingdom, including the Sony Gold Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First and a Naledi Award for Best New South African play. He is the Literary Manager and Dramaturge at the Market Theatre and teaches playwriting at Wits. He is currently doing his PhD at Wits University.

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

         Dream Of the Dog         Girl In the Yellow Dress, The         Jungle Book, The         Laughter In the Dark         Little Foot         Lord Of the Flies         Perfect Circle, The         Ten Bush         Truth In Translation
Dream Of the Dog

Dream Of the Dog
Set on a remote farm in kwaZulu-Natal, "Dream of the Dog" explores the terrible secrets that lie between Patricia, a sixty-year-old farmer's wife, and Look Smart, a thirty-year-old land developer who grew up there. In the background is Richard, suffering from the early stages of alzheimer's Disease, and Beauty, sister to the girl Look Smart once loved. . . Filled with extraordinary tension, revelation and dark humour, this brilliant and always surprising new South African play challenges some of our deepest assumptions about ourselves and each other. Higginson's subtle questioning of the memory as a fiction-maker makes this play of central relevance to South Africa's continued negotiation with its past and its struggle to find a workable identity for the future.

Notes:
nominated for four Naledi Awards (2007-2008), including Best New South African Play. Was At the Hilton Festival, 2008

1st Produced:
Grahamstown Main Festival And The Market Theatre, Barney Simon Theatre, Johannesburg     02 Jul 2007

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in at This Stage: Plays from Post-apartheid South Africa, Witwatersrand University Press (august 31, 2009)
Oberon Books, London >>>    

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:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Girl In the Yellow Dress, The

Girl In the Yellow Dress, The
South African writer Craig Higginson's powerful new play is a dark, witty and sexually-charged psychological Drama told through the eyes of a beautiful english teacher and her French-Congolese pupil. a state of the nation' exploration of the tensions between the first and third worlds the play explores issues around language, power, identity, sex, past trauma, class, exile and refugees.

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Jungle Book, The

Jungle Book, The
Mowgli was still a toddler when he was lost in the jungle - his parents feeing the tiger, Shere Khan. there, Mowgli was brought up by wolves, and educated by the bear Baloo and the panther Bagheera.He was happy while growing up and learning the ways of the jungle -and his name was soon known amongst all the animals. But Mowgli'sgrowing fame provoked resentment and envy, and his life was soon threatened from all sides. . . First published in the late 1890s, Rudyard Kipling's two Jungle Books have enchanted generations of children and adults. Often describedas an allegory for the society and politics of the time, the Jungle Book has now been adapted by critically-acclaimed South African playwright, Craig Higginson. the play asks: Who is your family? Those who look the same as you or those who love and nurture you? Here, the tales become a powerful examination of an emerging democracy, and the forces that threaten it. Based on a version by the celebrated director Tim Supple, this adaptation was first staged at Johannesburg's Market theatre in 2008. This powerful and magical version of a much-loved classic is as resonant now as it was when it first appeared - both within South Africa and beyond its borders.

Notes:
adapted by Craig Higginson from A version by Tim Supple from the novel by Rudyard Kipling

1st Produced:
Market Theatre, Johannesburg     10 Oct 2008

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Laughter In the Dark

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
as radio play: On BBC Radio 3 in 2004 And 2005 (winner of the Sony Radio Academy GOLD Award)

1st Produced:

Organisations:
RSC

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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Little Foot

Little Foot
Thirty miles outside Johannesburg, a group of school friends decide to spend the night in a network of underground caves. the area is known as the Cradle of Humankind. the oldest pre-human remains have been found there, including a four million year-old ape-man called Little Foot. As the friends go deeper underground, forces are unleashed between them and around them. Part reality, part nightmare, South African playwright Craig Higginson's dark and poetic play takes us on an unforgettable journey into our unconscious ancestral memory.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre Connections

1st Published:
in National Theatre Connections 2012, Methuen Drama (15 Mar 2012)
Published in an extended version for the Market theatre, Johannesburg, by 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  7 plus chorus

Further Reference:
-

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Lord Of the Flies

Synopsis:
a contemporary South African adaptation of the novel - one that will be a new piece of Drama rather than a literal transcription of the novel - which was given special permission by the William Golding estate.
Playwright

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Market Theatre, Johannesburg     2006

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Perfect Circle, The

Synopsis:
a play about a group of graduates about to leave university in present-day South Africa

Notes:
aka Creatures of Light

1st Produced:
Wits Theatre, Johannesburg     2008

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:  7 actors

Further Reference:
-

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Ten Bush

Synopsis:
Looks at the life of a young girl in a rural village who is branded as a witch at birth

Notes:
Co-written by Craig Higginson And Mncedisi Shabangu

1st Produced:
Grahamstown Main Festival And Market Theatre, Johannesburg     2007

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:  6 actors

Further Reference:
-

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Truth In Translation

Synopsis:
a play about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, told from the perspective of the translators

Notes:
Written by Tom Tammi with Additional dialogue And Dramaturgical interventions by Craig Higginson. the play has toured extensively through Africa, europe And North America. Won A Fringe First At the 2007 Edinburgh Festival. Nominated Best New Play Fleur du Cap And Naledi Awards

1st Produced:
-     2006

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:  -

Further Reference:
-

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