The Playwrights Database
ANTHONY NEILSON
(1967 - )
Nationality:
Scottish
email:
n/a
Website:
n/a
Literary Agent:
Julia Tyrell Management represented by
Julia Tyrrell
Radio plays include the COLOURS OF the KING's and A FLUTTERING OF WINGS His first stage play ELFARE MY LOVELY was performed at the Traverse Theatre. His second, NORMAL, played at the Edinburgh Festival and transferred to the Finborough Arms. PENETRATOR (originally commissioned by Colin Ludlow as a BBC Screenplay) played the Edinburgh Festival '93, transferred to the Finborough and then to the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in January '94. Further works include the YEAR OF the FAMILY (Finborough 1994), HEREDITY (Royal Court) and WHITE TRASH (National Theatre Studio). He directed his play the CENSOR at the Finborough Theatre in April 1997 which transferred to the Royal Court, Duke of Yorks, had a third run at the Ambassadors and won the Writers Guild Award for Best Fringe Play 1997. Television credits include DEEPER STILL, a 10 minute film for C4 which he wrote and directed, A TERRIBLE COLDNESS (60') for the Granada Crime Story series, BIBLE JOHN an influential episode of In Suspicious Circumstances, a commission to write screenplay for CRACKER (spin-off from Granada series for theatric release) and a 2 hour Prime Suspect film, also for GranadA. His film debut the DEBT COLLECTOR was released in 1999. In 2002 the Theatre Royal Plymouth produced Edward Gant's AMAZING FEATS OF LONELINESS which he also directed, he wrote and directed STITCHING for the Bush/Red Room which played at the Traverse at the Edinburgh Festival, transferred to the Bush and toured England and Scotland afterwards and for which he was nominated Evening Standard Most Promising New Playwright. His third new play in 2002, the LYING KIND played in the main house, Royal Court. In Sept 2004, new play the WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA played at the Tron Theatre and Royal Lyceum Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and then at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. Currently he is working on a television commission for BBC Northern Ireland and is adapting the screen version of the NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, to be called USED TO SNOW for Vestry Films/Tartan Video which he will also direct. anthony directed the UK premiere of the John Adams opera the DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER for Edinburgh International Festival/Scottish Opera which won a Herald Angel Award.
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below is a list of Anthony Neilson's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Article 19 - Goodbye Princess
Censor, The
Dirty Laundry
Dussseldorf Ripper, The
Edward Gant's Amazing Feats Of Loneliness
Get Santa!
God In Ruins
Haunting Of Hill House, The
Heredity
Home
Hoover Bag
Lying Kind, The
Menu, The
Narrative
New Play, A
Night Before Christmas, The
Normal: the Dusseldorf Ripper
Orson Welles in the Land of the Peas
Penetrator
Realism
Relocated
Seance, The
Stitching
Twisted
Unreachable
Utopia
Welfare my Lovely
White Trash
Wonderful World Of Dissocia, The
Year of the Family, The
Article 19 - Goodbye Princess
Synopsis:
We asked four leading contemporary playwrights to write a 10 minute play in response to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. A bunch of desperate theatre types have apparently been contracted by Mohamed Al Fayed to appear in a play that reconstructs the last days of Princess Diana. We witness the rehearsal process that is supposedly leading up to the only performance: a presentation to the High Court as evidence of a conspiracy.
Notes:
written by Ramin Gray, April de Angelis, Anthony Neilson, Juan Mayorga, David Woodand Jon Haynes.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Ridiculusmus
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Censor, The
A gripping brief encounter between a pornographic film actress and the man with the licensing scissors. A moving parable of the critic and artist as a healing, and finally tragic love story
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Dirty Laundry
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Dussseldorf Ripper, The
Synopsis:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Edward Gant's Amazing Feats Of Loneliness
mixes Victorian meloDrama with a catalogue of grotesque comic tales
Notes:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Get Santa!
Synopsis:
It's Christmas Eve but Holly isn't happy. All she's ever wanted from Santa is to meet her real Dad for the first time. And every time, Santa's failed to deliver, bringing lots of useless presents instead. Well, Holly's had enough. This year she has a plan. She's going to wait up and trap Santa when he arrives and get from him the only present she's ever wanted
Notes:
Written by Anthony Neilson, Music by Nick Powell. Story by Anthony Neilson And Nick Powell
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Genre:
Youth Audience
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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God In Ruins
Synopsis:
the themes which have arisen out of the process include elements of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, online technology, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, and men becoming gods in their own bedrooms as they try to recreate themselves in virtual worlds like Second Life. But at the heart of the play is a human story as a Father attempts to communicate with his daughter.
- British theatre Guide
Notes:
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Organisations:
commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Haunting Of Hill House, The
Synopsis:
No-one ever visits Hill House, especially not after dark. When three strangers are invited to join the mysterious Dr Montague at the eerie house on the hill, not even their darkest dreams could have prepared them for what awaits. As their stay unfolds, they are plagued by a series of inexplicable events that propel them to the very edge of their existence. A terrifying psychological thriller that plays with our perceptions of reality, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House became one of the greatest horror films ever made (The Haunting, 1963) and her work influenced writers such as Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. This Christmas watch as Hill House stirs into life on stage, in a new adaption by Anthony Neilson (The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Realism and The Night Before Christmas) and directed by Olivier and Tony Award nominee Melly Still (Coram Boy).
Notes:
based on the novel by Shirley Jackson
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Genre:
psychological thriller 150 min
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Heredity
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Home
Synopsis:
scripted by 9-11 year olds. in their world, the head honcho is Mr fish and Chips, a half man, half cod who never gives a straight answer. A politician to the core.
Notes:
part of ten new pieces to launch the National theatre of Scotland. Playwrights: Jessie Bowman (11), Euan Crowe (9), Dionne Devine (11), Katie Lawson (9), Amanda Rathney-Quinn (9), Allana Stanton (10) Aimee watson (9)
1st Produced:
Edinburgh, Queens Hall, Clerk Street
2006
Organisations:
Queens hall
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Pieces Piece
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Hoover Bag
Synopsis:
Horror in contemporary life is explored in this study of loss and erotomania. An elderly woman receives a phone call from her dead son
Notes:
aka Meat And Two
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
Theatre record 1966 Page 1264
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Lying Kind, The
Constables Blunt and Gobbel have one last duty to fulfil before they finish their Christmas Eve shift: to tell the old couple at number 58 some terrible news. But what if the shock is too much for them? Maybe they'd be happier not knowing. And maybe the constables would also be better off if they weren't in the middle of a lynching.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Menu, The
Synopsis:
the Menu is an odd thing set in a retro-futurist world. Its quite likely to be rude but it also has songs by Vera Lynn.
Press Release
Notes:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 5 young actors
Further Reference:
-
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Narrative
A new play about stories. Against a cool white set, seven actors, all using their own names and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with photos of their childhood selves, play various urban types, including a couple of actors, a PR, a bar worker and a mother haunted by her son's suicide.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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New Play, A
Synopsis:
"Why no title?" "Because I want to write from passion, not obligation. Because I want to write for the actors I've cast, not cast for the parts I've written. Because I want to be stupid enough to do the wrong thing when it's right. Because risk is everything. Because everything is changing. Because I'm doing something else right now. Because I want to surprise myself. Because I want to surprise you. That's why". - Anthony Neilson
Notes:
Anthony Neilson's play will be created in the rehearsal room with a cast of actors to be announced.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Night Before Christmas, The
A funny but ultimately warm-hearted cri de coeur against the Christmas industry
Notes:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Normal: the Dusseldorf Ripper
Anthony Neilson's controversial exploration into the mind of Peter Kurten, the notorious Dusseldorf Ripper. Neilson is at his stark and subversive best in this dark, emotional and gripping production.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Orson Welles in the Land of the Peas
Synopsis:
Orson Welles is the actor, writer and director regarded by many as the greatest cinema artist of all time. In 1941 he releases Citizen Kane. By 1980 he is voicing adverts for frozen food on British television. Examining ambition, myth and the eternal clash between art and commerce, Orson Welles in the Land of the Peas takes a comic yet humane look at the one of the defining figures of twentieth century culture and attempts to fill in the gaps between the famous out-takes of this recording session.
- British theatre Guide
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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2010
Organisations:
Headlong
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- -
Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Penetrator
This play thrusts into the male psyche with a rigour and insight which is by turns hilarious and horrific but always compulsive.
Notes:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Realism
It follows the life of one man during an ordinary day but veers off from the commonplace to become a deliriously comic trip inside his wayward imagination. Dreams and day dreams are brought to life to hilarious effect exposing the faultlines between everyday life and the world of the imagination in which fantasies ignore conventions of taste and political correctness.
Notes:
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1st Published:
Methuen Drama, London 978-0713687156
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: doubling
Further Reference:
-
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Relocated
Synopsis:
a girl has gone missing, a German man has done terrible things in a basement and a woman - who may or may not be called Connie - is chasing clues.
- Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard
Notes:
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Genre:
Thriller
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Seance, The
A group of teenage friends try to contact one of their number who has died
Notes:
performed by the Moat School, London
1st Produced:
Organisations:
New Connections
1st Published:
in New Connections 2009, Faber and Faber, London and National theatre 978-0571251353
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Stitching
in the light of a pregnancy, a faithless couple pick apart their sexual history stitch by painful stitch. Can it be mended?
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
the Red Room & the Bush Theatre
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Twisted
Synopsis:
Twenty years ago Willis committed a crime, he believes himself reformed. the investigator looking at his case has other ideas. A powerful and explosive tale.
Notes:
originally produced for radio
1st Produced:
Theatre Workshop, Edinburgh Festival
2003
Organisations:
Rapture Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Unreachable
Synopsis:
A film director on an obsessive quest to capture the perfect light.
Notes:
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Organisations:
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Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Utopia
Synopsis:
Enough of the dystopian visions, austerity measures and extreme renditions. UTOPIA is a night of humanity at its best, looking at a different vision of our future, a vision of humankind being both human and kind. Just look at what we could have won. . . Soho theatre and Live theatre collaborate on the ambitious new writing project - UTOPIA; directed by Artistic Directors Steve Marmion and Max Roberts who will commission writers to create new short plays challenging visions of our future.
Notes:
written by Michael Chaplin, Zoe Cooper, Thomas Eccleshare, Alistair McDowall, Dylan Moran, Anthony Neilson, Janice Okoh, Simon Stephens, Chi Onwurah
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Live Theatre & Soho Theatre
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
short plays
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Welfare my Lovely
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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Organisations:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Acc.10180/38
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White Trash
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
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1st Produced:
National Theatre Studio, London
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Wonderful World Of Dissocia, The
Dissocia is a place Lisa visits sometimes. Nobody wants her to go there but she doesn't understand why. Yes, like anywhere, it has its dangers - it can be a dark and mysterious place - but mostly it's colourful and funny and exciting; and populated by some of the most eccentric people you're ever likely to meet. But the people she loves made her promise not to go there and she's kept that promise. Until now. Now she has no choice but to return. the future of Dissocia depends on it. Her life depends on it. As she is soon to learn, the two are not as separate as she thought..
Notes:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Year of the Family, The
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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Music:
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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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