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Stewart Parker

STEWART PARKER

  (1942 - 1988)
Nationality:    Irish
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Alexandra Cann Representation  (estate)

born in Belfast in 1941. His first stage play, 'spokesong', won the 1976 Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award and his 1987 play, 'Pentecost', won the Harvey's Irish Theatre Award. Plays for radio include 'the Iceberg' and 'the Kamikaze Ground Staff Reunion Dinner'. Film and TV credits include 'Eat the Peach' and 'I'm a Dreamer, Montreal', 'Iris in the Traffic, Ruby in the Rain', 'Blue Money' and 'Lost Belongings'. Stewart Parker died in 1988.

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

         Actress And the Bishop, The         Catchpenny Twist         Heavenly Bodies         Kingdom Come         Nightshade         Northern Star         Pentecost         Pratt's Fall         Spokesong         Tall Girls Have Everything

Actress And the Bishop, The

Synopsis:
the love between an actress and a young bishop is blighted by verbal embarrassment

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
-   -

Music:
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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:
Short play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Catchpenny Twist

Synopsis:
Dismissed from their teaching jobs, two young Belfast songwriters form a songwriting outfit to churn out fodder for all occasions, including Protestant ditties and instant Catholic ballads to fallen heroes. After receiving two live bullets through the post and warnings from an old teaching colleague, they set off in flight to Dublin and then to London. Success seems at hand, Belfast seems very far away. . . but for how long?

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
Gallery Press, Dublin, 1980   -

Music:
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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:
Charade

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  musicians

Further Reference:
-

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Heavenly Bodies

Synopsis:
A recreation of the highs and lows of one of Irish theatre's legendary figures which raises interesting current questions about celebrity, success and the responsibility of the playwright to his own place and people. This stage biography, written in the style of Victorian meloDrama, Dramatises the struggle between Boucicault's creativity and the socio-cultural and political forces of the time.

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
in "Three Plays for Ireland", Oberon, London, 1989   -

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:  9            Female:  3            Other:  students

Further Reference:
-

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Kingdom Come

Synopsis:
the factions on a Caribbean Island, originally colonised by the Irish, are defined through creed instead of colour

Notes:
music by Shaun Davey

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Nightshade

Synopsis:
the story of Quinn, a mortician, who performs as an amateur magician, ably assisted by his attractive but morbid tap-dancing daughter, Delia. the disappearance (and death?) of his wife, a strike of coffin-bearers, and the subsequent collapse of the business lead him to a complete breakdown and a kind of living death. Images, allegories, and fairy-tales are all mixed in with bewildering complexity

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
Co-op Books, Dublin, 1980   -

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:
Black Comedy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Northern Star

Synopsis:
After the "botched birth" of the 1798 rebellion, Henry Joy McCracken struggles to compose his last address to the people of Belfast before he hangs, and recalls the seven ages of his life, from youthful idealism to disillusion and despair. Each age is presented in the style of a famous Irish writer, including Boucicault, Behan and Beckett. In the end, his last words are drowned out by the thump of a Lambeg drum

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
in "Three Plays for Ireland", Oberon, London, 1989   -

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:  18            Female:  6            Other:  doubling possible

Further Reference:
-

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Pentecost

Synopsis:
Four people are gathered together in a Belfast working-class parlour-house where, against the background of the Ulster Workers' Strike, they work out their relationships to each other, to the world outside, to the past. Only Marian is aware of a fifth presence - the ghost of Lily Matthews, the previous occupant.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Guildhall, Derry, Ireland    1987

Organisations:
Field Day Theatre Company

1st Published:
in "Three Plays for Ireland", Oberon, London, 1989   -

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:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pratt's Fall

Synopsis:
Having found an old map which seems to prove that the Irish discovered America. George Mahoney seduces Map Curator Victoria Pratt with it.

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:

1st Published:
in Stewart Parker Plays 1, Methuen, London, 2000   -

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:  17            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Spokesong

Synopsis:
the story of a bicycle-shop owner, Frank, who is passionately convinced that bicycles will be the salvation of the modern city. Frank is a romantic with great nostalgia for the past. His brother Julian, who had been in London, where he became an anarchist, has now returned home determined to destroy what he sees as a hopelessly corrupt society. the conflict between these two brothers lies in Parker's exploration of the roots of the present-day conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. the story really concerns Frank's painful education into the realities of Belfast life. the play includes a conventional love story and a chorus figure called the Trick Cyclist who sings most of the songs and embodies the spirit of Belfast. Jimmy Kennedy, who wrote "Red Sails in the Sunset," "Isle of CApri," and "South of the Border," did the music for the songs. there are seven songs, ranging from an 1890s music hall song to a 1930s Noel Coward type of song. Not only does the play span eighty years, but it

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
published in Plays and Players, 1976   -

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 with Music

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tall Girls Have Everything

Synopsis:
A quick witted American woman inspects an Irish musician's Flat for possible accomodation and challenges his various cultural biases.

Notes:
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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:
Short Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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