Leo Butler

A dark love story, written in response to The Tempest, Leo Butler's I'll Be the Devil is set in occupied Ireland in 1775. Knowing that her soldier lover is leaving for England, a local woman unleashes a sequence of events that will result in tragedy for both their children. With a poetic fearlessness, Leo Butler looks at what happens when a brutal foreign power is in intimate and callous contact with the primitive heart of an ancient society. This is an epic play that marks an exciting departure from the stark realism of Butler's earlier work and that provides a powerful demonstration of Butler's maturity and ambition as a writer.

I'll Be the Devil

Butler Plays: Two brings together a selection of Leo Butler's work, currently both published and previously unpublished, covering the years 2007 to 2013. It showcases his incredible variety in style and tone, and brings together some of his best-loved works alongside some of his lesser known pieces. Airbag (Royal Court, Rough Cuts, 2007) an old woman is lying on her death bed, imagining that she is being terrorised by gorillas. Butler's play is an exploration of death and the dying. I'll Be The Devil (RSC/Tricycle Theatre, 2008): With a poetic fearlessness, Leo Butler looks at what happens when a brutal foreign power is in intimate and callous contact with the primitive heart of an ancient society. Faces in the Crowd (Royal Court Theatre, 2008): Faces in the Crowd is a darkly comic play that offers a unique insight into twenty-first century London and the debts we accrue in the wake of seeking out our ambitions. Juicy Fruits (Paines Plough and Òran Mór, 2011): a one-act comedy set in a coffee shop in which two old friends from university meet again after many years. 69 (Natural Shocks Theatre Company; Pleasance, 2012): a series of 69 short vignettes, all on the subject of sex, offering a glimpse on a whole range of issues surrounding sexuality. Do It! (Royal Court, Open Court Season, 2013) is an unsettling journey through the secrets and innermost thoughts of a group of pedestrians, unwittingly watched over by a violent force. The volume includes an introduction by the playwright.

Airbag; I'll Be the Devil; Faces in the Crowd; Juicy Fruits; 69; Do It!

Butler Plays 2

The Early Bird taps into the darkest fears of any parent - what if your child simply disappears? Debbie and Jack blame each other and themselves, and in doing so reveal the inner secrets of their own relationship in this disturbing and darkly humorous play. Butler's language moves between naturalism and hyper-realism, brilliantly capturing the surreal quality of the worst time in this couple's life. The play premiered at the Belfast Theatre Festival in October 2006.

The Early Bird

Simon Longman

Jordan Tannahill

Ed Harris

Lisa McGee

Shamser Sinha

Alison Carr

Jon Brittain

Molly Taylor

Avaes Mohammad

National Theatre Connections 2023 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK's most exciting and popular playwrights. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test the boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities. The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Touching on themes like climate change, politics, toxic masculinity and gang culture, the collection provides topical, pressing subject matter for students to explore in their performance. This 2023 anthology represents the full set of ten plays offered by the National Theatre 2023 Festival, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.

10 Plays for Young Performers

National Theatre Connections 2023

"You will come back though won't yere, Darren? Yer will come back? Say yer'll come back. Come back." Lucy is 17. She dreams of love, security and a bright future. But first she must confront reality - and reality means deciding who to trust. Leo Butler won the 2001 George Devine Award for REDUNDANT. His first play, MADE OF STONE, produced in the Royal Court Young Writers' Festival 2000, was praised for its "rock-hard characterisation with buzzing dialogue" (Evening Standard).

Redundant

Over Christmas dinner Sue and Eddie gossip and discuss the good times they used to have together before their son left home, leaving a void in their lives. But then Eddie disappears with the dog and their neighbour's son comes round to liven things up and stay the night. Through the creation of a seemingly banal universe, Butler creates an intense atmosphere of guilt and suspicion within this couple's world. Published to tie in with the Royal Court premiere in May 2004

Lucky Dog

The drug laws in this country- the drug laws IN THE WORLD - all stem from this attitude that pleasure is a bad thing... In 2015, acclaimed British playwright Leo Butler accepted an invitation from former Government drugs tsar, Professor David Nutt, to be a guinea pig in the world's first LSD medical trials since the 1960s. Monty Python, Being John Malkovich, and Alice in Wonderland all resonate in this exhilarating and original comedy as we watch Leo jump down the rabbit-hole of a medical trial in search of enlightenment - and a good story. Along the way he meets an array of characters from Aldous Huxley and The Beatles, to Steve Jobs and Ronald Reagan, whose own stories in the history of LSD are hilariously and poignantly uncovered. Does the world still need a psychedelic revolution? And will Leo make it back home in time for tea? Part history, party wild fantasy, this darkly humorous new play illuminates the drugs debate that won't go away and examines the freedom we have to make our own choices in life, and death.

Leo Butler

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