The Playwrights Database
STEPHEN SEWELL
(1953 - )
Nationality:
Australian
email:
Click here to contact
Website:
n/a
Literary Agent:
Currency Press, Australia
Well-known for his film and Theatre work, including his AFI Award winning script of 'the Boys' as well as plays such as 'the Blind Giant is Dancing', 'the Secret Death of Salvador Dali' (Best Show of the Adelaide Fringe, 2001) and 'myth Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America - A Drama in 30 Scenes' (Playbox Theatre, State Theatre Company of South Australia, June-July 2003; the Orange Tree Theatre, London 2004), Sewell is one of the most celebrated and experienced writers in Australia. Sewell chaired the Australian National Playwrights Centre for a number of years and is the recipient of numerous awards, including a two year Australian Council Literary Fellowship and the prestigious ANPC Award for Significant Contribution to Australian Theatre (2004) His first major musical piece, Three Furies - Scenes from the Life of Francis Bacon opened to enormous acclaim as one of the featured productions of the Sydney Arts Festival and continues to tour internationally. His play, Myth, Propaganda and Disaster was awarded both the 2004 Green Room Award, both the New South Wales and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, and the Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Play, making it the most awarded play in Australian history. His subsequent two plays, 'It Just Stopped' and 'the Gates of Egypt' are now in production. AWARDS: Australian National Playwrights Award Significant Contribution to Australian Theatre (Lifetime Award, 2004). Australian Writers' Guild Award for Best Play (Myth, propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America - A Drama in 30 Scenes, 2004). Victorian Premier's Award for Literature (Myth, propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America - A Drama in 30 Scene, 2004). New South Wales Premier's Award for Literature (Myth, propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America - A Drama in 30 Scene, 2004). Victorian Green Room Award for Best New Play, (Myth, propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America - A Drama in 30 Scene 2004). Adelaide Fringe Arts Festival Award for Best Show (the Secret Death of Salvador Dali, 2003). New South Wales Film and Television Office Writers' Fellowship (1 YEAR). Australian Arts Council Literary Fellowship (2002-2004). Victorian Green Room Award for Best Production (Dreams In An Empty City, 1990). Victorian Green Room Award for Best New Australian Play, 1989 (Hate, 1989). Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Screenplay from an Adapted Source (the Boys, 1998). Film Critics Circle Award (the Boys, 1998). New South Wales Premier's Literary Award (the Blind Giant Is Dancing, 1985). Australian Writers Guild Award (the Blind Giant Is Dancing, 1985)
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All Of Which Are American Dreams
Synopsis:
This large-scale collaborative work. . . takes as its central theme the corruption of America. . .. Its most powerful medium is metaphorical, expressed in an acting group that is freakish, violent . . . frightened and frightening.
Notes:
written by Barry Dickins, Ben Ellis,Melissa Reeves, Robert Reid and Stephen Sewell
1st Produced:
Theatreworks, St Kilda, Vic
04 Jul 2003
Organisations:
Theatre in Decay
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/29257
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Anger's Love
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Political satire musical
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Blind Giant is Dancing, The
Brutality in the workplace, rage in the streets, seething in the home. The vulnerability of political parties when they've forgotten why they're there. The intellectual torpor of modern Australia. How power corrupts. The Blind Giant is Dancing is an angry and tender depiction of an idealist, Allen Fitzgerald, who becomes so embroiled in a party power struggle that he loses sight of what's at stake. When it premiered in 1983, The Blind Giant is Dancing felt like a sharp slap in the face. Now, in an age of ICAC, Union credit cards, speculative housing bubbles, a pulverised working class and vapid leadership in the 21st century, this Australian classic has lost none of its brute force.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Adelaide, Australia
1983
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, 1983 978-0868194929
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 10 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Boys, The
Synopsis:
Based on the controversial stage playby Gordon Graham, the Boys is an unflinching analysis of the violence that lurks in Australian society. Returning home from prison, Brett sets about re-establishing control over his wayward brothers as he searches for an act the three brothers can participate in jointly, and thereby violate norms.
Notes:
the play of theBoys is Also Available
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, 1998 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Screenplay
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Burn Victim
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
written with others
1st Produced:
Sydney
1983
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Dreams in an Empty City
Synopsis:
Examines the nature of human corruption against the background of international high finance
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Adelaide, Australia
1986
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, 1983 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Urban Tragedy
Parts:
Male: 23 Female: 11 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Dust
Synopsis:
A man and his daughter, grappling with grief, guilt and a desire for a better world, search their dreams for one another in the debris of a broken civilisation
Notes:
part of trilogy the "Garden of Fartkhly Delights"
1st Produced:
Adelaide, Australia
1993
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: 9 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Father We Loved On a Beach By the Sea, The
Synopsis:
a powerfully felt study of an ordinary family caught up in the sudden depression of the late 1950s; and of the effects of that experience upon the children
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Brisbane
1978
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, 1976 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Garden of Granddaughters, The
Synopsis:
Max, a world-renowned Australian conductor, returns unexpectedly to Melbourne with his wife Moriley for a family reunion. their three daughters are in various stages of decline, success and reproduction; their granddaughters are full of hope and dreams. Most of life's questions are evaded, avoided and ignored in this compassionate comedy.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/script/ASC-1625 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Gates of Egypt
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
2007
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Hate
Synopsis:
One of Australia's richest men and a political force of the far right believes in a leaner, harder Australia.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Sydney
1988
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Identity By Helen Demidenko
Synopsis:
an old fashioned revue on the theme of human identity
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Junction Theatre, Adelaide
1996
Organisations:
Ace Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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In the City Of Grand-Daughters
Synopsis:
Comparisons between the generations
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Melbourne
1993
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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In The Club
Synopsis:
Four hard edged little tales reflecting the many facets of the Emnerald City.
Notes:
part of Sydney Stories 2: The Blessing / Two Wongs / In the Club / The Way I Was. [1995 Festival of Sydney and Carnivale]
1st Produced:
Wharf 1, Sydney, Nsw
19 Jan 1995
Organisations:
Sydney Theatre company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/30832
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Isabelle Eberhardt
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
1993
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Screenplay
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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It Just Stopped
This savage comedy of manners explores our relationship to art, globalisation, death, technology, America, Campari, cardboard boxes and slavery. Sewell's play is funny and shocking in turn. It holds the mirror up to the things we value today and asks the questions - what will we value the day the world just stops, and what would we be willing to trade for our own survival?
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Merlyn Theatre, Southbank, Vic
05 Apr 2006
Organisations:
Malthouse Theatre Summer / Autumn Season 2006
1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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King Golgrutha
Synopsis:
King Golgrutha - A business titan fights the most important fight of his life - The struggle for his own deformed soul. King Golgrutha (Gutso) is a colossus of consumption. He is the id, the unconscious who wants everything. He has no morality and gets everything immediately. He is in conflict with the material world, with the frustration of other people. But they don't really contain him, he's constantly bursting forth. While the play has the form of a financial drama or comedy, the main thrust of it has something to do with the magnificence of human folly. It is a development from Dreams In an Empty City which was analytical with a strong thread of moral questioning through it. Golgrutha goes beyond that - the evil of the shenanigans is assumed, the details are essentially irrelevant. Gutso has created the world around him and given everybody nicknames- Hunchback, Gloucester, Lady Trollope- they are the goblins of his imagination. The storyline concerns the link between Gutso and the woman Golgrutha. Her name is an invention but it is a corruption of Golgotha. She is Gutso's hill of desolation, his calvary. Golgrutha represents the knowledge of suffering which trails all of us, and if we cared to listen to it, would make us better human beings.
Notes:
part of trilogy the "Garden of Fartkhly Delights"
1st Produced:
Adelaide, Australia
1991
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Political Satire 100 min
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Miranda
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Brisbane
1989
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Myth, Propaganda & Disaster In Nazi Germany & Contemporary America
This tough political thriller, based in the Liberal Arts department of New York University, is no play for the timid. But its violent language and extreme brutality, brilliantly choreographed, are essential elements for an enthralling study of a polarised world turned backto-front - a Kafka-esque nightmare of state terrorism condoned by liberty lovers in defence of the Land of the Free.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
-
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Genre:
Political Thriller
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Nathan the Wise
Synopsis:
It is the tale of a Jewish merchant in Muslim Jerusalem at the time of the Christian CrUSAdes-a tale which makes a remarkable plea for brotherhood. This timeless story of a world clinging to hope during an era of chaos poses the timeliest questions about tolerance and truth. In what is certain to become a holiday tradition, Nathan the Wise invites audiences to believe in reason and in the unlimited power of storytelling to bring good to the world.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
1st Produced:
Theatre 80, New York
2002
Organisations:
Pearl Theater Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Translation
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Secret Death Of Salvador Dali, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Edinburgh Fringe
2002
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: musician
Further Reference:
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Short Circuits
Synopsis:
Seven Australian playwrights' vision of the nation's largest city.
Notes:
written by Geoffrey Atherden, Beatrix Christian, Campion Decent, Bill Neidjie, Sam Sejavka, Stephen Sewell, Beth Yahp
1st Produced:
New South Wales, Nsw
04 Jul 1994
Organisations:
Festival of Sydney
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/20644
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Sick Room, The
brings together three generations of a family under the one roof to care for a terminally ill teenager. As she faces impending death, the other family members find themselves confronting their own lives
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
Malthouse Theatre
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, 978-0868195855
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Sisters
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Melbourne
1991
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Three Furies
Synopsis:
It's just before the Paris retrospective that would anoint the celebrated Anglo-Irish artist Francis Bacon as the greatest figurative painter of the twentieth century. On the eve of the exhibition Bacon's model, muse and lover, George Dyer, commits suicide. An exploration of the sexy, stormy and dangerous relationship between the couple, using Drama, dark poetry and satire.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Sydney Opera House
2005
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/ -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play with songs Play with Music
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Traitors
Synopsis:
Set in Russia in 1927 against the background of unrest at the dawn of Stalinism, Traitors charts the triumph of paranoia and betrayal over truth and innocence, as it simultaneously examines conflicts between the personal and the political.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Melbourne
1979
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Alternative Publishing Co-operative, Sydney, 1983 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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United States of Nothing, The
Synopsis:
Part satire, part biting political critique, this Katrina-inspired play focuses on a small white family left behind in the rush to leave Louisiana ahead of a hurricane. Set in a Superdome, the play takes an irreverent look at an America knee deep in trouble as it tries to bring democracy to the Arabs when it can't even evacuate hospital patients from a storm. Playwright Sewell peels away layers from initial caricatures to reveal humanity beneath Chip and Jackie and their children, Randy and Ashley.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Stables Theatre, Sydney
2006
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play One Act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Welcome the Bright World
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Alternative Publishing Co-operative, Sydney, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Why We Hate You
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
Originally performed As part of "All Of Which Are American Dreams"
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
Theatre In Decay
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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