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Polly Stenham

POLLY STENHAM

  (1986 - )
Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    United Agents  represented by Rose Cobbe

Polly, the daughter of Anthony (Cob) Stenham, a City businessman, and the artist Anne ORawe, she was born on 16th July 1986, she and her younger sister, Daisy, lived with their father following their parents divorce. Their father died in 2006 and their mother in 2012. Educated at Wycombe Abbey and Rugby, she spent a gap year travelling and working for the Ambassador Theatre Group and the Arcola Theatre, before enrolling on the Royal Court Young Writers Programme and beginning a degree in English Literature at University College London. She abandoned her degree place to work on her debut play: T the 2007 theatrical hit THAT FACE at 19 years old. It was produced at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court and was directed by Jeremy Herrin. It was later transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in 2008 by Sonia Friedman Productions and like the original production starred Lindsay Duncan and Matt Smith. THAT FACE received its US premiere production at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York in April this year with Sarah Benson directing. Awards for THAT FACE include: Winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best New Play 2007, Winner of the Most Promising Playwright Award, Critics' Circle Awards 2008, Nominated for Best New Play, Olivier Awards 2009. Her second play TUSK TUSK also received fantastic reviews and sold out the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court in May 2009. TUSK TUSK was also directed by Jeremy Herrin. Polly is currently working on a new commission for the Royal Court called NO QUARTER and is under commission to the Donmar Warehouse to write a new version of ANTIGONE called FILIA REX. She is also working on a feature film adaptation of TUSK TUSK for Film4/Origin Pictures that is due to shoot in 2013. In July 2012 Polly made her directorial debut by directing a staged reading of LOOK BACK IN ANGER at the Duke of York's Theatre with Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall and Anna Maxwell-Martin. Polly also is the co-director of the Cob Studios & Gallery which opened in February 2011. You can visit their website www.cobgallery.com

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

         Children's Monologues, The         Hotel         Laws Of War, The         No Quarter         That Face         Tusk, Tusk

Children's Monologues, The

Synopsis:
Dramatic Need (DN) is a UK-registered charity that sends international Arts professionals to do workshops in underprivileged and rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Gifted, heavyweight actors will perform monologues written by Lynn Nottage, Bola Agbaje, Polly Stenham, Dennis Kelly, Gabriel Bisset-Smith, Oladipo Agboluaje, Zawe Ashton, Joel Horwood, Anya Reiss and Jamie Minoprio, based on autobiographical stories written by the some of the children DN works with.

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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

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Genre:
short monologue

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Hotel

Hotel
And what does sorry mean? Nothing really. It's just a word. It's what people say when it's too late. It's a sorry little stick of a word. Slick with your spit at my feet. Secluded, isolated, the perfect desert island escape. Just what Robert and the family need. But beyond the white sand and beautiful sunsets, dark clouds gather. A tropical thriller that explores the cost of integrity.

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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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  extras

Further Reference:

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Laws Of War, The

Synopsis:
London's burning! A civil war is raging in modern England threatening to turn the land of cricket, and warm beer into a hell of displaced people, rape, child soldiers and warlord militias where violence is trumps, and the laws of war are screwed up and used to light the campfires. Human Rights Watch applies the skills it has learned in Sri Lanka, Georgia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to this blessed plot, this realm, this England.

Notes:
Written by (in Alphabetical order) Richard Bean, Aschlin Ditta, David Grossman, Kate Hardie, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Polly Stenham, Tom Stoppard, Jack Thorne And debbie tucker green

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Cries from the Heart 2015

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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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  9            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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No Quarter

No Quarter
Fleeing a world he has rejected, Robin finds solace in his music and the sanctuary of his remote family home. But as his kingdom begins to crumble around him, how far will he go to save it and at what cost?

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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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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That Face

That Face
Mia is at boarding school. She has access to drugs. they are Martha's. Henry is preparing for art college. He has access to alcohol. From Martha. Martha controls their lives. Martha is their mother. That Face is a hard-hitting, intense and visceral dissection of parent-child relationships.

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1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2008   978-04571244218

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Tusk, Tusk

Tusk, Tusk
"Come on troops. Let's take check: Finnbar, slightly ruffled but still in fighting form. Maggie, could do with a full night's sleep but otherwise all in order. . . Stay here. Don't answer the door." Once upon a time in what feels like another country, three children play hide and seek. Fifteen year old Elliott wears a crown, thirteen year old Maggie wraps herself in silk and little Finn draws on the walls. Together they watch a mobile phone intensely, willing it to come to life. Whose call are they waiting for and why are they home alone? As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, Tusk Tusk, Polly Stenham's second play, is a tale of family ties as an uncertain future circles.

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1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London (2009)   978-0571249725

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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