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John Spurling

JOHN SPURLING

  (1936 - )
Nationality:    British
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Macnaughton Lord Representation (Theatrical and Literary Agents)  

See my website above, which also includes details about five of my plays, whose texts are available for reading or downloading from the website, though anyone who wishes to perform them must of course seek permission from my agent.

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

         Achilles On the Beach At Troy         Antigone Through the Looking Glass         British Empire, Part One, The         British Empire, Part Two, The         Butcher of Baghdad, The         Char         Coming Ashore in Guadeloupe         Death Of Captain Doughty         In the Heart of the British Museum         King Arthur In Avalon         MacRune's Guevara As Realised by Edward Hotel         McGonagall and the Murderer         Mutiny in Paradise         On a Clear Day You Can See Marlowe         Peace In Our Time         Racine At the Girls School         Robinson Crusoe Meets His Maker         Romance         Shades of Heathcliff         While Rome Burns

Achilles On the Beach At Troy

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Yorkshire    1994

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Antigone Through the Looking Glass

Synopsis:
Comings and goings in the green room during performance 'off stage' of Sophocles' Antigone

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Direct Current Theatre 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:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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British Empire, Part One, The

Synopsis:
Events in India, Africa, Tasmania, Whitehall, 1820-1858. Viewed from Palm House at kew. 9 interwoven plots, 40 scenes

Notes:
Parts 2 & 3 broadcast BBC Radio 3

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Marion Boyars, London, 1982   -

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:
Epic

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  70 characters

Further Reference:
-

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British Empire, Part Two, The

Synopsis:
the story continued from rebellion in Jamaica to Gordon's death in Khartoum 1860-1885

Notes:
Parts 2 & 3 broadcast BBC Radio 3

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:
Epic

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  70 characters

Further Reference:
-

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Butcher of Baghdad, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Grace, London    1993

Organisations:
Cherub Theatre 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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Char

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Oxford    1959

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Coming Ashore in Guadeloupe

Synopsis:
the discovery of America, from Columbus to Raleigh, as seen mostly by the Indians

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Royal Hall, Harrogate    1982

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Death Of Captain Doughty

Synopsis:
drake executes his friend Doughty on their way round the world

Notes:
televised BBC 1973. Directed by Bob Taylor

1st Produced:
St Patrick's College, Maynoth, Ireland    1977

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Marion Boyars, London, 1975   -

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:
Historical T.V. Play

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In the Heart of the British Museum

Synopsis:
Metamorphoses of Ovid, his life and work, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Aztec Gods and British Museum attendants

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscript 65, Calder and Boyars, London, 1972   -

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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King Arthur In Avalon

Synopsis:
Seven years after RACINE AT the GIRLS' SCHOOL, John Spurling wrote a second play for the Cheltenham Ladies' College to perform at the 50th Anniversary Cheltenham Festival of Literature. Judi Bond, the Head of the Drama Department, was again the director, Michelle Walton again created authentic costumes and this time the College's Princess Hall was itself a plus factor. Equipped with long fretted wooden galleries in Victorian Gothic style, with painted Pre-Raphaelite figures over the proscenium arch and Pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows at the back of the hall, this interior had been somewhat out of keeping with the world of Racine and Louis XIV, but it came straight out of the world of Tennyson's poems and Burne-Jones's paintings

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cheltenham Literary Festival    1999

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  girls

Further Reference:
-

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MacRune's Guevara As Realised by Edward Hotel

Synopsis:
A distorted view of Che Guevara

Notes:
National Theatre Workshop Season in collaboration with the Central School of Art & Design. Music by Michael lankester

1st Produced:
Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre, London    Feb 1969

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscript 33, Calder and Boyars, London, 1969   -

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:  11            Female:  3            Other:  with doubling

Further Reference:
-

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McGonagall and the Murderer

Synopsis:
A man who has failed to assassinate Queen Victoria and is now confined to Broadmoor tries to win a second chance by entering the mind of the poet McGonagall

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Pool, Edinburgh    1974

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mutiny in Paradise

Synopsis:
the Bounty story

Notes:
Directed by Bob Taylor

1st Produced:
Hm Prison Kingston, Portsmouth    2004

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:
45 min One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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On a Clear Day You Can See Marlowe

Synopsis:
the playwright Marlowe, his life, works and death, seen mainly through fog

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Peace In Our Time

Synopsis:
A descent into hell, to reanimate those who brought about the Second World War.

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Racine At the Girls School

Synopsis:
John Spurling: "Since the play was intended for the Cheltenham Ladies' College, the subject that immediately suggested itself was one that had lain at the back of my mind for many years. Racine's last two plays - Esther and Athalie - were partly operatic Biblical stories written for Madame de Maintenon's new girls' school at St Cyr and performed entirely by teenage girls. Why, after his masterpiece Phedre, did he write no more plays for ten years and never again for the professional theatre? My research provided the answer, which this play incorporates."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cheltenham Literary Festival    1992

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Robinson Crusoe Meets His Maker

Synopsis:
the main characters are Defoe and Crusoe

Notes:
Directed by Bob Taylor

1st Produced:
Hm Prison Albany, Isle Of Wight    2003

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:
45 min One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Romance

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
music And lyrics by Charles Ross

1st Produced:
Leeds    1971

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shades of Heathcliff

Synopsis:
themes, variations and modern echoes from 'Wuthering Heights' and the lives of the Brontes, narrated by Heathcliff.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Lucky's, Sheffield    1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscript 70, Calder and Boyars, London, 1975   -

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:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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While Rome Burns

Synopsis:
English middle class refugees of the near future perish miserably in a version of Edgar Allan Poe's 'the Masque of the Red Death'

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Marlowe, Canterbury    1976

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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