doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


Owen Sheers

OWEN SHEERS

  (1974 - )
Nationality:    Welsh
email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd  represented by Zoe Waldie

Owen Sheers was born in Fiji in 1974 and brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales. the winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer's Award, his first collection of poetry, the Blue Book (Seren, 2000) was short-listed for the Welsh Book of the Year and the Forward Prize Best First Collection 2001. His debut prose work the Dust Diaries (Faber, 2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize and won the Welsh Book of the Year 2005. In 2004 he was Writer in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society's 'twenty Next Generation Poets'. Owen's second collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award and is a WJEC and AQA A level set text. Unicorns, almost his one man play based on the life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas was developed by Old Vic, New Voices. Owen's first novel, Resistance, has been translated into eight languages. His recent collaboration with composer Rachel Portman, the Water Diviner's Tale, an oratorio for children, was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms 2007. His essay Bomb Gone, about Britain's Christmas Island thermonuclear tests, appears in Granta 101. Owen is currently a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library.

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

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

         Fair & Tender, The         Mametz         Passion, The         Pink Mist         Two Worlds of Charlie F         Unicorns, Almost         Water Diviner's Tale
Fair & Tender, The

Fair & Tender, The
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is a foundation stone of the English language. the KJV was composed as a collective project and written to be spoken. Sixty-Six Books has been created, in the spirit of the original, in the same way. Pulpit to print; stage to page; mediated through many forms oral and written, the KJV has, since its inception, been a fundamental part of written and spoken English.This is a work that has travelled to every continent of the globe. It has been shared as a melodic instrument of inspiration, illumination and mutual understanding; and it has also been wielded as a tool of colonial oppression. Sixty-Six Books is a fresh interpretation of the KJV for the new millennium, celebrating and challenging the traditions and achievements of this great work on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. the curators of this project have gathered together a formidable and inspiring line-up of the best established and emerging writing talent to produce a new version of the KJV for thetwenty-first century. Each writer has created anew a book of the KJV - as prose, poetry, Drama, performance, song, or ground-breaking digital form. Each writer has spoken back to the KJV with untrammeled inventiveness of the imagination. the voices of Sixty-Six Books, drawn from across five continents, innovate, transmute, transpose, reinvent and talk back to four hundredyears of history. All the works that make up Sixty-Six Books are written to be spoken. Culminating in major performance events at the Bush theatre and Westminster Abbey in 2011 in London, Sixty-Six Books is a contribution towards the mutual curiosity, tolerance, and force of collective enterprise and shared humanity that characterizes the international and ancient Arts of writing and spoken performance

Notes:
Part of Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. Play is A response to the King James Bible book of Ezekiel

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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Mametz

Mametz
This large-scale, site-specific production performed in an ancient woodland near Usk, Monmouthshire, will give audiences a vivid glimpse into life - and death - in the trenches and battlefields of the Somme. Inspired by Welsh writer Owen Sheers' poem Mametz Wood, it will draw on written material by the poets who fought in or witnessed one of the war's bloodiest conflicts - the Battle of Mametz Wood, in which 4,000 of the the 38th (Welsh) Division were killed or wounded. Among the soldiers who took part were several key Welsh and English war poets, including Robert Graves, David Jones, Siegfried Sassoon and Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, and Sheers' own great, great uncle, William Cross.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff     24 Jun 2014

Organisations:
National Theatre of Wales

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:
site specific

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  5            Other:  ensemble

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Passion, The

Synopsis:
Easter. Port Talbot is in a battle for its life. Authoritarian forces have taken over the town and plan to change it forever. the atmosphere is explosive. Resistance is inevitable. How far will each side go? Into this comes a man who needs to listen. the stories he hears and the community he witnesses make him the most dangerous element of all. Love. Betrayal. Sacrifice. Passion. In a spectacular finale to its triumphant launch year, National theatre Wales joins forces with WildWorks and brings Michael Sheen home to star in a one-off ground-breaking theatre event which places the Port Talbot community at its very heart.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Port Talbot, Wales     22 Apr 2011

Organisations:
National Theatre of Wales and Wildworks

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:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Pink Mist

Pink Mist
Pink Mist is a verse-drama about three young soldiers from Bristol who are deployed to Afghanistan. School friends still in their teens, Arthur, Hads and Taff each have their own reasons for enlisting. Within a short space of time they return to the women in their lives (a mother, a wife, a girlfriend), all of whom must now share the psychological and physical aftershocks of their service. A work of great dramatic power, documentary integrity and emotional intensity, Pink Mist uses everyday yet heightened speech to excavate the human cost of modern warfare. Drawing upon interviews with soldiers and their families, as well as ancient texts such as the medieval Welsh poem Y Gododdin, it is the first extended lyric narrative to emerge from the devastating conflict in Afghanistan. Winner of Wales Book of the Year.

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:
verse drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Two Worlds of Charlie F

Two Worlds of Charlie F
the Two Worlds of Charlie F is a soldier's view of service, injury and recovery. Moving from the war in Afghanistan, through the dream world of morphine-induced hallucinations to the physio rooms of Headley Court, the play explores the consequences of injury, both physical and psychological, and its effects on others as the soldiers fight to win the new battle for survival at home. One of the biggest names in the West End is joining forces with the nation's leading Armed Forces charity to offer a group of wounded, injured and sick Service personnel a once in a lifetime opportunity. the theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass Trust and the Royal British Legion, working in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, have brought together 30 wounded, injured and sick Service personnel from across Britain to write, produce and perform their own play on the West End stage. the Bravo 22 Company will present two performances only of a new play based on their experiences in conflict and in recovery, entitled "the Two Worlds of Charlie F", under the artistic auspices of Trevor Nunn CBE and with the support of Ray Winstone as the company's ambassador. the aim of the project is to use a learning environment to aid the recovery of wounded, injured and sick Service personnel. the project will introduce the Service personnel involved to leading theatrical professionals and will give early Service leaders career opportunities in the theatrical industry.

Notes:
Performance rights through http://www.independenttalent.com/contact_us/

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Bravo 22 Company

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:  13            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Unicorns, Almost

Unicorns, Almost
Unicorns, Almost portrays the short life of World War II poet Keith Douglas, from his childhood through four engagements to his fighting in the Western desert, his accelerated education as a poet and his early death three days after the Normandy D-Day landings at the age of twenty-four. It is the story of his Faustian pact with a war that would nurture his unique poetic voice before taking it away. It is also the story of his desperate race to see his poems in print. Widely recognised as the finest poet of World War Two, Keith Douglas was championed by Ted Hughes as an important influence. Hughes wrote the introduction to Douglass Collected Poems, published by Faber.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Swan Hotel, Hay-on-Wye     24 May 2018

Organisations:
The Story of Books

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

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Water Diviner's Tale

Synopsis:
Owen's collaboration with Oscar winning composer Rachel Portman on the Water Diviner's Tale, a Dramatic song-cycle about climate change, was premiered in the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms 2007.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Royal Albert Hall, London     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:
song cycle

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page