Rory Mullarkey

A remarkable writer – an original fresh voice, with a sharp political edge (Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director the Royal Court Theatre). British writer Rory Mullarkey is the winner of the Harold Pinter Commission, the James Tait Black Prize for Drama and the George Devine Award for most promising playwright. His original work has been staged at the Royal Court Theatre, the National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. His first play collection brings together three previously published plays with two unpublished works. A writer of “considerable talent” (Telegraph), this is a powerful and diverse collection from an established contemporary voice. Single Sex: “a truly disturbing and twisted tale of obsession” (Culture Bean) Tourism: A compelling and humorous take on modern cultural identities. Cannibals: “Brilliantly exciting drama” (Independent) Wolf From the Door: “Fervent and bracingly original...laced with exuberant absurdity and moments of twisted humour...” (Evening Standard) Each Slow Dusk: 'A great war play, original and richly reflective in form . . . [It] encapsulates the British soldier's experience in under an hour . . . Remarkable.' ReviewsGate

Single Sex; Tourism; Cannibals; The Wolf From the Door; Each Slow Dusk

Mullarkey Plays: 1

When Lizaveta's simple farm life is smashed apart, she has to run. Her quest to start again leads her through mud and blood, past holy fools and icon painters, to things she has never even imagined. From a war-torn ex-Soviet state to the streets of Manchester, this bold and gripping play questions death, love and consumerism in the twenty-first century. Rory Mullarkey's first play premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, on 3 April 2013.

Cannibals

A village. A dragon. A damsel in distress. Into the story walks George: wandering knight, freedom fighter, enemy of tyrants the world over. One epic battle later and a nation is born. As the village grows into a town, and the town into a city, the myth of Saint George which once brought a people together, threatens to divide them.

Saint George and the Dragon

The Private misses the farm. The Captain dreams of painting. The Corporal relishes the fight. And a hundred years later, The Woman seeks to understand. 1916 – In the darkness of the French night, three young soldiers, a private, a corporal and a captain, cross no man's land towards the enemy trench. Stealth is key to their survival and so they walk in silence, with nothing to communicate the thoughts in their heads save for the barest of gestures. 2014 – A woman goes on a day trip to visit the touristic monuments commemorating the Battle of the Somme at Vimy Ridge and the Loghnagar Crater – the site of a mine explosion that killed over 6,000 people – where she encounters remembrance, restaurants and bright, themed gift shops. Each Slow Dusk is a startling play about action, humanity, and the legacy of war. Immersing you in the reality of conflict through vivid, thrilling detail, it gives you a fresh way of thinking about war – from the past soldiers' perspective to the woman's present-day experience. Each Slow Dusk was published to coincide with the first production and national tour of the play by Pentabus Rural Theatre Company, in autumn, 2014.

Each Slow Dusk

Aeschylus

He who learns must suffer. Before setting out for the Trojan War, King Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. Many years later, when Agamemnon returns to his palace, his adulterous Queen Clytemnestra takes her revenge by brutally murdering him and installing her lover on the throne. How will the gods judge Orestes, their estranged son, who must avenge his father's death by murdering his mother? The curse of the House of Atreus, passing from generation to generation, is one of the great myths of Western literature. In the hands of Aeschylus, the story enacts the final victory of reason and justice over superstition and barbarity. The original trilogy, comprising Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and Eumenides, is distilled into one thrilling three-act play in this magnificent new translation by award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey.

The Oresteia

Lady Catherine and her prot.g. Leo set out on a wild road trip across Middle England in this play from one of the most astonishing young writers in Britain.

The Wolf from the Door

Craig Higginson

Meera Syal

Steven Sater

Anders Lustgarten

Nancy Harris

Samir Yazbek

Hilary Bell

Michael Lesslie

Paven Virk

This brilliant new collection of ten plays for young people will prove indispensable to schools, colleges and youth theatre groups. Specially commissioned by the National Theatre for the Connections Festival 2012 involving 200 schools and youth theatre groups across the UK and Ireland, each play is accompanied by production notes and exercises. For the 2012 Festival, the anthology has an international feel and offers a window on the world. It includes from Australia a play based on a nineteenth century court case in which a teenage girl was falsely convicted; from Brazil a drama about young lovers doomed to tragedy; set in Russia, a play exploring differing attitudes to National Service and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991; a drama about students' rights to an education and the Cultural Revolution of 1966 in China; and a comedy involving a group of Irish country girls travelling to London to audition for the X-Factor.

Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me; Journey to X; Little Foot; Prince of Denmark; Socialism is Great; The Grandfathers; Alice by Heart; Generation Next; So You Think You’re a Superhero?; The Ritual

National Theatre Connections 2012: Plays for Young People

We don't actually drink coffee at my coffee morning. – What do you do, then? – We discuss the violent overthrow of the government. Also, there's flower arranging. In this intensely imaginative and daringly brave-thinking play, award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey imagines a wild road trip across Middle England. Together, Lady Catherine and her young protégé Leo enlist every tearoom, hot yoga class and Women's Institute group on a mission to change the country forever. This play was the 2014 Pinter Commission and the winner of the George Devine Award. It received its world premiere production at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs on 10 September 2014, starring Anna Chancellor as Lady Catherine and directed by James Macdonald.

Rory Mullarkey

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