The Playwrights Database
BARRIE KEEFFE
(1945 - 2019)
Nationality:
English
email:
n/a
Website:
n/a
Literary Agent:
The Agency (London) Ltd
Barrie Keeffe is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose work has been performed in over twenty countries. He has won several awards for his plays including the Paris Critic's Prix Revelation; a Giles Cooper award for Best Radio Play; a Thames Television Playwrighting award; the Mystery Writers of America Edgar allan Poe award; and for the screen script of the Long Good Friday. Shadows on the Sun was Barrie Keeffe's first stage play for ten years.
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Abide With Me
Louis, Paul and Jan are in London for Manchester United's Cup Final - but they do not have tickets. Louis has joined the army cadets and wants to make being a soldier his life. Jan is very tempted to join him
Notes:
Part two of the "Barbarians" trilogy
1st Produced:
Young Vic Studio, London
1988
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Barbarians" published by Eyre Methuen 1978
Music:
-
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Genre:
Contemporary Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Barbarians
concerns the fluctuating fortunes of three school leavers, two white boys and one black.
Notes:
includes Killing Time, Abide With Me (London 1976), In the City
1st Produced:
Greenwich Theatre, London
1977
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1978
Music:
-
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Genre:
Trilogy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Bastard Angel
Bastard Angel a rock group are on a European tour
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Warehouse, Covent Garden, London
23 Jan 1980
Organisations:
RSC
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1980
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play With Rock Music Play with Music
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Better Times
The 1921 Rates Revolt in London's East End involving George Lansbury
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Historical Play
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Black Lear
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Sheffield
1980
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Certain Vincent, A
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
written with Jules Croiset, from letters by Vincent Van Gogh
1st Produced:
Amsterdam
1975
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Chorus Girls
Synopsis:
The Prince of is kidnapped by the ladies of the title while he is visiting Stratford to close the theatre and turn it into the biggest job centre in Europe, Sustaining a blow to the head he suffers a bout of amnesia. A good deal of mileage is wrought from this as the girls endeavour to get his trousers down and his memory back. He reacts violently to such names as 'Margaret' and 'Philip' but doesn't know why. - Michael Darvell, What's On In London
Notes:
book by Barrie Keefe; music And lyrics by Ray Davies
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Musical
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Coming Apart
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
London
1975
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Frozen Assets
a Borstal boy is on the run after accidentally killing a warder, a victim of chance who needs help
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Warehouse, Covent Garden, London
20 Dec 1977
Organisations:
RSC
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1978
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Gem
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
in Gimme Shelter
1st Produced:
London
1975
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1977
Music:
-
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Genre:
Contemporary Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Gentle Spirit, A
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
written with Jules Croiset, story by Dostoevsky
1st Produced:
Amsterdam
1981
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Getaway
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
in Gimme Shelter
1st Produced:
London
1977
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1977
Music:
-
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Genre:
Contemporary Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Gimme Shelter
A powerful trilogy of short plays looking at an "achievement" based society.
Notes:
Gem; Gotcha; Getaway
1st Produced:
London
1977
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1978
Music:
-
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Genre:
Trilogy
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Gotcha
Synopsis:
Concerns a 16 year old misfit. On his last day at school he holds three teachers hostage by threatening to blow them to glory by holding a lighted cigarette over the open petrol tank of a motor·bike.
Notes:
in Gimme Shelter
1st Produced:
London
1976
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1977
Music:
-
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Genre:
Short Play One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Here Comes the Sun
Synopsis:
A group of English women on holiday in Spain looking for love
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
London
1976
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "act 3", Hutchinson, London, 1979
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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I Only Want To Be With You
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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In the City
Time moves on. Jan is now a soldier spending his last night before deployment in Northern Ireland with Paul at the Notting Hill Carnival. They run into Louis smartly dressed with a flash car
Notes:
Part three of the "Barbarians" trilogy
1st Produced:
London
1977
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Barbarians" published by Eyre Methuen 1978
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Contemporary Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Killing Time
The Queen's Jubilee 1977. Louis, Paul and Jan having left school have been unemployed for a year. Paul's cousin wants a Rover 3500 - left hand drive and they are looking around Lewisham for one
Notes:
Part one of the "Barbarians" trilogy
1st Produced:
London
1977
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Barbarians" published by Eyre Methuen 1978
Music:
-
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Genre:
Short Play One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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King Of England
Synopsis:
After 35 years as a driver on the Underground Mr King is retiring - he plans to return to Trinidad. He takes his two daughters Linda and Susan together with Linda's fiancé to Soho for a meal at an expensive restaurant. There he tells them that he is giving his house to the two of them jointly. After a disagreement with Susan she storms out so Linda gets the house
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play with Music
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Long Good Friday, The
Synopsis:
Harold Shand has made it from Whitechapel to running his own 'corporation' and owning his own yacht and classy mistress. He has the police and the local authorities in his pocket, is planning a major London property development and forging links with the
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Central Studio Theatre Company
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Mad World, My Masters, A
Synopsis:
takes its title from a Jacobean play by Thomas Middleton shows, in a farrago of wild episodes, that the establishment and anti-establishment appear to be equally avaricious
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
London
1977
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1977
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Mahoney
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of Page
Melissa
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of Page
Mick
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of Page
Murray
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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My Girl
Synopsis:
a love story set in Newham, east London about the stifling of idealism in Thatcher's Britain
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
Top of Page
My Girl 2
Bitingly funny, challenging, angry and deeply humane, My Girl 2 is Barrie Keeffe's reworking of his iconic play for Dilated Theatre Company. My Girl 2 is a play for now, a play about making hard moral choices in difficult economic times - a play for 2014. "Ideals are worthless if you can't pay the bills." Anita and Sam live in East London. Burdened by debt, and on the eve of giving birth to their second child, Anita begins to wonder whether it was a good idea for Sam to become a social worker. Can they survive in Cameron's London on his wage with two children? Anywhere else it would be fine, but where he's needed most, can Sam make ends meet? Will their marriage take the strain, as the needs of family are pitted against the greater good?
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Dilated Theatre Company
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Not Fade Away
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play with Music
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 8 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Only A Game
Synopsis:
end of the road for a soccer star
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Shaw Theatre, London
1973
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of Page
Scribes
Synopsis:
Fading Fleet Street. A newspaper is plunged into crisis by a printers' strike
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Newcastle Upon Tyne
1975
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Shadows On the Sun
Synopsis:
Shadows on the Sun is an epic play. It traces the events which led to Danton's death and concludes with the guillotine execution of Robespierre. It provides an alternative to Buchner's Danton's Death and highlights the differences between the charismatic, womanising Danton and the obscure, apparently dull provincial lawyer Robespierre who secured Danton's death 'to save the Revolution' and in so doing unleashed the 'reign of terror'.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Greenwich Playhouse, London
02 Oct 2001
Organisations:
Galleon Theatre Company
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: 2 Other: Large Cast
Further Reference:
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She's So Modern
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Hornchurch, Essex
1980
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Sight Of Glory, A
Synopsis:
a year in the life of an east end boxing club
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
National Youth Theatre, London
1975
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Still Killing Time
Synopsis:
about the dashed hopes of east end school leavers at the time of the 1977 Silver Jubillee.
Michael Billington, Guardian
Notes:
part of Sextet: to celebrate its 50th Anniversary the national Youth theatre commisioned six writers to do plays About six decades.
1st Produced:
Soho, London
04 Aug 2006
Organisations:
National Youth Theatre
1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1979
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Sus
You see, what this country needs is a strong government to sort out the laws, bring order" election night 1979: the sus laws made it legal for police to stop and search anyone - purely on suspicion. Two detectives on the graveyard shift in an east London police station place bets on which party will win. a black man is picked up, accused of his wife's murder. He is incensed, believing that he'll be fodder for an incoming government keen to flex its law-and-order muscles.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Soho Poly
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Up For None
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Up the Truncheon
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
London
1977
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Wild Justice
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Thriller
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
Top of Page