Moira Buffini

Songlight

Two young women arrive in a nameless British small-town. Their names are not their own. They don't declare their ages. Their relationship with each other is not clear. Are they sisters, as their assumed identities declare? Or are they mother and daughter?

A Vampire Story

Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre

In Nazi-occupied Guernsey, an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, the Becquet family’s home is requisitioned by SS officers. As widowed matriarch Jeanne navigates the dangerous game of Major Von Pfunz’s attraction to her, her Jewish daughter-in-law discovers a strange and beautiful man washed up on the shore. Wracked by fever, the man can remember nothing, including his own name; with equal probability he’s a downed Royal Air Force pilot or an overboarded SS officer, Jeanne’s daughters convince her to shelter him until his memory returns. But harboring this fallen Gabriel threatens the modicum of safety and stability Jeanne’s wrung from her family’s dispossession.

Gabriel

Handbagged

Moira Buffini romps through the centuries from the Romans to the present day, charting the changing fortunes of place, time and people at 29 Trick Street. Buffini brings her usual lightness of touch to this incisive, funny and sharply observed play about changing social, economic and sexual mores.

Loveplay

An artist, a scientist and a sexpot are coming to dinner. The arrival of Mike provides an unexpected addition to the evening's entertainment.

Dinner

Aly is struggling with all the pressures of being a teenager: family, school, friends and her own insecurities. Then she discovers wonder.land - a mysterious online world where, perhaps, she can create a whole new life. The web becomes her looking-glass - but will Aly see who she really is? A new musical inspired by Lewis Carroll's iconic story, Moira Buffini's wonder.land was created with Damon Albarn and Rufus Norris and premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2015 in a co-production with the National Theatre, London, where it transferred in November of the same year.

Wonder.land

He put this gun into my hand and made me human once again. Faced with an impoverished population, a shattered infrastructure and a volatile army, the first democratic president of Thebes, Eurydice, promises peace to her nation. Without the aid of Theseus, the leader of the vastly wealthy state of Athens, she doesn't stand a chance. But Theseus is arrogant, mercurial and motivated by profit. A swaggering opposition circles, impatient for insurrection. The body of the former dictator lies unburied. Set in the present day but inspired by ancient myth, Welcome to Thebes offers a passionate exploration of an encounter between the world's richest and the world's poorest countries in the aftermath of a brutal war. Moira Buffini's Welcome to Thebes premiered at the National Theatre, London, in June 2010.

Welcome to Thebes

On her tenth birthday, Marianne is forced to bed with a fever. Picking up a pencil she starts to draw a house. That night she dreams. As Marianne s sleeps, she finds herself transported to the house she has drawn, and the mysterious world that lies beyond. Together with a strange but familiar boy, she embarks on an adventure that runs between reality and dream. Catherine Storr s classic children s novel is adapted for the stage by Moira Buffini. Marianne Dreams premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in December 2007.

Adapted for the Stage

Marianne Dreams

HANDBAGGED imagines what really happened in the private meetings between two of the world’s most powerful women: the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, and Queen Elizabeth II. Born just six months apart, each leader has the capacity to change the world, but how the world should be changed is another story altogether. Will Mags and Liz find common ground in tumultuous times, or will the gloves come off at Buckingham Palace?

Together ten chronologically-organised scenes offer a vision of love and sex in England across two millennia, from classical times to the present day via the Renaissance and the Swinging Sixties.3 women, 3 men

Roy Williams

Suhayla El-Bushra

Set amongst the vibrant, intense cacophony of North West London, NW Trilogy is a collection of three vivid stories, told over one performance, that remember and celebrate people who changed the course of history. The personal is political in these soulful explorations of what it means to be part of one of the most dynamic communities in the world. First, we reel to a dance hall in 'County Kilburn' in Moira Buffini's Dance Floor where the Guinness flows, the music never stops and for homesick Aoife, there's far more at stake than a dance. In Roy Williams' bittersweet Life of Riley, Paulette is on a journey to connect with her estranged father Riley, a reggae musician once part of the influential Trojan Records scene, who can't seem to let go of the past. And, Suhayla El-Bushra's Waking/Walking introduces us to Anjali, a wife, mother and newly arrived migrant following Idi Amin's expulsion of the Asian minority from Uganda, who is torn between not making a fuss and seizing her moment to take a stand as the Grunwick dispute unfolds. NW Trilogy is powerful, funny and epic and shows us how we can change the world from our doorstep. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere as NW Trilogy at Kiln Theatre, London, in August 2021.

Dance Floor; Life of Riley; Waking/Walking

NW Trilogy

This place is about to blow. A violent storm sweeps the coast. Diana Stuckley and her daughter are struggling to keep the roof on their run-down manor house, when neighbours and strangers begin to appear on their doorstep, seeking shelter from the floods. One of these unexpected arrivals is Ted Farrier, the charismatic leader of a right-wing organisation: he could be Diana's saviour - or could pull the fragile household to pieces. Stranded together, this explosive mix of people must survive the weather, and each other. Manor by Moira Buffini premiered at the National Theatre, London, in April 2020.

Manor

Set in a city named Thebes, somewhere in the 20th century, the play is introduced by a militia sergeant named Miletus and two child soldiers under his command, Scud and Megeara. They discover the body of Polynices, a warlord in the recently-ended civil war and brother of Antigone and Ismene. Meanwhile, Ismene and the new female president of Thebes, Eurydice, widow of Creon get ready for the arrival of Theseus, fi rst citizen of the powerful democratic state of Athens, to discuss rebuilding Thebes after the civil war.10 women, 10 men

Jack Thorne

Penelope Skinner

Matt Charman

What on earth is happening to our planet? And who knows what to do? Certainties are few: every living thing is related to every other living thing; our actions have consequences; change is continual and inevitable. The National Theatre asked four of the country's most exciting writers to investigate. The team spent six months interviewing key individuals from the worlds of science, politics, business and philosophy to create a fast-paced and provocative new play. Greenland premiered at the National Theatre, London, in February 2011.

Greenland

Dinner 'A cracking black comedy that has you laughing uproariously one moment and jumping with shock the next . . . For those with strong stomachs, Dinner offers a delicious feast of comedy and the macabre.' Daily Telegraph Dying for It 'A subversive Russian classic: one that addresses the ultimate question of "why live?"' Guardian 'The play, freely adapted by Moira Buffini, presents a glorious gallery of comic types.' Independent Welcome to Thebes 'It's thrilling. Moira Buffini's strange and daring play is moving, wise, funny, horrifying . . . Full of resonances you weren't expecting, jokes you didn't see coming . . . It raises huge questions with wit.' The Times Handbagged Winner of the 2014 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre 'A phenomenon.' Sunday Telegraph 'Perfectly pitched between the comic and the serious.' Guardian

Dinner; Dying for It; A Vampire Story; Welcome to Thebes; Handbagged

Moira Buffini: Plays 2

Aly is struggling with all the pressures of being a teenager : family, school, friends and her own insecurities. Then she discovers wonder.land : a mysterious online world where, perhaps, she can create a whole new life. The web becomes her looking-glass - but will Aly see who she really is?

Moira Buffini

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