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John Byrne

JOHN BYRNE   (1940 - )

Nationality:   Scottish    Email:   n/a   Website:   n/a

Literary Agent:  Casarotto Ramsay and Associates Ltd  

John Byrne was born in Paisley in 1940. He worked as a slab boy' at A F Stoddard, the carpet manufacturers, before going to Glasgow School of Art. He became a full time painter in 1968 following his first London exhibition. John is also a distinguished theatre designer and playwright. Other plays include The Slab Boys, Cuttin' a Rug, Still Life, Writer's Cramp, Normal Service, Cara Coco and Colquhoun and Macbryde. On television he is best known for his BAFTA Award-winning seriesTutti Frutti (recently adapted for the stage by National Theatre of Scotland). He has also designed for the Traverse Theatre, 7:84, Hampstead Theatre, Bush Theatre and Scottish Opera.

Plays by John Byrne

JOHN BYRNE

Babes In The Wood

1st Produced:

Glasgow

1980

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page.

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5618

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Genre:

Musical

Parts:

Male

-

Female

-

Parts other:

-

Notes:

by John Byrne; music by John Gould, lyrics by David Dearlove

Synopsis:

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Candy Kisses

1st Produced:

Bush Theatre, London >>>

1984

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page.

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5619

To Buy This Play:

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Genre:

Play/Drama

Parts:

Male

4

Female

3

Parts other:

-

Notes:

-

Synopsis:

wonderful confusion is set in train by the accidental progress of an ancient handgun around the inhabitants of a pensione in Perugia in 1963.
- Susan Todd, New Statesman

Further Reference:

National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Acc.10577/11


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JOHN BYRNE

Cara Coco

1st Produced:

Irvine, Ayrshire

1981

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page.

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5620

To Buy This Play:

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Genre:

n/a

Parts:

Male

-

Female

-

Parts other:

-

Notes:

-

Synopsis:

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Cherry Orchard, The

1st Produced:

Edinburgh: Royal Lyceum Theatre Co., Scotland, EUR >>>

17 Apr 2010

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page.

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#102385

To Buy This Play:

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Genre:

Adaptation

Parts:

Male

7

Female

5

Parts other:

-

Notes:

Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

Synopsis:

Retains the main plot of the original but relocates the action to Scotland in the 1980s. In the far Northeast, time is almost up for the Ramsay-Mackays - their grand old house and the wonderful cherry orchard that goes with it are all that is left of their once-large fortune - and the vultures are circling. . .Malky McCracken is an up-and-coming young investor, eager to free himself from his working class roots and make his name as a serious businessman. His zealous pursuit of the estate is countered by his fondness for the family themselves, not least adopted daughter Verity. A comic and moving examination of a family, and those who surround it, revealing personal absurdities and tragedies in equal measure.

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Colquhoun and McBryde

1st Produced:

Royal CourtTheatre, London >>>

1992

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Faber and Faber, London, 1992

ISBN/ASIN:

9780571169597

Music:

-

doollee no

#5621

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Genre:

True Drama

Parts:

Male

6

Female

-

Parts other:

-

Notes:

-

Colquhoun and McBryde

Based on the lives of Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde the painters. Colquhoun bumps into MacBryde at the Glasgow School of Art and they become instant friends and lovers. After graduating they move to London and set up in a bed sit they become friends with many of the "Bohemian" set such as Dylan Thomas. But drink was their problem and they spend a lot of time drinking or drunk. They get their first big exhibition and are feted the artistic circles and the press. It is the Second World War, Colquhoun enlists as an ambulance driver despite the fact he cannot drive. MacBryde is exempt war service on medical grounds. War service proves to be too much for Colquhoun and he is discharged on medical grounds. They spend some time living with a friend in Essex. Returning to their bed-sit they are evicted for non payment of rent. They descend even further into alcoholism. The owner of the gallery that put on their exhibitions dies and the new owner no longer wants to display their work. They have a hand to mouth existence sponging money from friends and living in a succession of grotty bed-sits.

Further Reference:

National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Acc.10365/39


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JOHN BYRNE

Cuckolds London, The

1st Produced:

Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, UK >>>

1985

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Samuel French, London, 1986

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5622

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Genre:

Adaptation

Parts:

Male

9

Female

5

Parts other:

-

Notes:

Original Playwright - Edward Ravenscroft

Synopsis:

three beautiful wives, three ludicrous husbands and one overly ambitious, rapacious rake

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Cuttin' a Rug

1st Produced:

Royal Court Theatre, London, EUR >>>

1982

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Salamander Press

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5623

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:

n/a

Parts:

Male

-

Female

-

Parts other:

-

Notes:

see Loveliest Night Of The Year

Synopsis:

n/a

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Government Inspector, The

1st Produced:

Almeida Theatre, London >>>

1997

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Oberon Books

ISBN/ASIN:

978-1840020298

Music:

-

doollee no

#5624

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:

Adaptation

Parts:

Male

12

Female

2

Parts other:

-

Notes:

Original Playwright - Nikolai Gogol

Synopsis:

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Hooray For Hollywood

1st Produced:

Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY, USA >>>

- - -

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Contact Actors Theatre of Louisville,

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5625

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 Play One Act

Parts:

Male

5

Female

2

Parts other:

-

Notes:

part of The American Project: a compendium of short plays

Synopsis:

A writer's first collision with tinsel-town machinery

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

London Cuckolds

1st Produced:

Leicester

1985

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Samuel French, London, 1986

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5626

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:

Adaptation

Parts:

Male

9

Female

4

Parts other:

-

Notes:

Original Playwright - Edward Ravenscroft

Synopsis:

Period 1600 two aldermen with young wives argue about the qualities in a woman that make for a secure marriage before finding themselves cuckolded

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Loveliest Night Of The Year, The

1st Produced:

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, UK >>>

1979

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Threads in "A Decade's Drama: Six Scottish Plays, Woodhouse, Todmorden, Lancashire. Cuttin' A Rug, Edinburgh, Salamander Press, 1982, 1980

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5627

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

6

Female

4

Parts other:

-

Notes:

part of "The Slab Boys Trilogy" aka Cuttin' a Rug (London, 1982), Threads (London, 1980), broadcast as The Staffie

Synopsis:

famous study of the lives of a group of Paisley boys working in the 'slab room' of a local carpet factory. Looks more closely at the theme of class tension on one hand and masculinity defined by violence on the other; but he also opens up a sense of beauty and romance, of pure sexual magic, as a redemptive force in the lives he describes. - McMillan, Scotsman.

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Normal Service

1st Produced:

Hampstead Theatre, London, EUR >>>

1979

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

in "Plays and Players", May, London, 1979

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5628

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

-

Female

-

Parts other:

-

Notes:

-

Synopsis:

The everyday non-events of Caledonian Television circa 1963

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Nova Scotia

1st Produced:

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, UK >>>

2008

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page.

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#79169

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

3

Parts other:

-

Notes:

part four of "The Slab Boys Story"

Synopsis:

30 years on from when we last met him and Lucille in The Garden of Remembrance, Phil McCann faces the New Millennium with fortitude and good humour. The leading arts correspondent of the day is on her way to the far north to record a radio profile which Phil's confident will relaunch his career as a painter and establish him once and for all as a colossus of contemporary Caledonian culture. . .The only fly in the ointment is his new and much younger partner, Didi, a video-artist of some renown, who has just been added to the shortlist of nominees for the Turner Prize. Unfortunately, there are other flies buzzing about this particular ointment. . .

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Slab Boys

1st Produced:

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, UK >>>

1978

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

in 'on the argot', Scottish Society of Playwrights, Glasgow, 1982
Penguin Books

ISBN/ASIN:

9780140482119

Music:

-

doollee no

#5629

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

6

Female

2

Parts other:

-

Notes:

part one of "The Slab Boys Trilogy". Originally called Paisley Patterns.

Slab Boys

from the fifties to the seventies, through Brylcream and Elvis to fluorescent underpants and hash cookies, catches the vibrant idiom of a whole generation. Powerful high farce out of the tension between Phil and Spanky's youthful wit and exuberance, and the dark undercurrent of sheer cruelty in their treatment of the Slab Romm wimp, Hector, and other victims.

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Still Life

1st Produced:

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, UK >>>

1982

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

Salamander Press, Edinburgh, 1982

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5630

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

1

Parts other:

-

Notes:

part three of "The Slab Boys Trilogy"

Synopsis:

famous study of the lives of a group of Paisley boys working in the 'slab room' of a local carpet factory. The hero, Phil Cann, confronts the premature deaths of the trilogy's two great victims, poor Hector and his own mad mother, and evokes a fairly bleak image of youthful hopes aborted, or diverted into an absurd circus of hip 1970's culture, before proposing Phil's redemption through fatherhood and his true marriage to Lucille, always every Slab Boy's dream. - McMillan, Scotsman.

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Tutti Frutti

1st Produced:

His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen

2006

Company:

National Theatre of Scotland

1st Published:

Faber and Faber, London, 2006

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#56003

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:

Musical Play Musical

Parts:

Male

8

Female

5

Parts other:

-

Notes:

-

Synopsis:

Twenty-three years on from their slightly dodgy, single foray into the charts, Scottish pop sensations The Majestics are mourning the loss of Big Jazza - their charismatic frontman - whose Ford Sierra just collided with a bus shelter via an unwelcome late-night kebab. With a Silver Jubilee tour booked, an album to cut and a TV documentary in the offing, can Jazza's brother, Danny, just washed up from New York with only four dollars to his name, save the day? It was 1987 when John Byrne's award-winning comedy-drama burst onto the nation's TV screens, searing itself into a generation's consciousness in the process. Now he has adapted his own original script, as the National Theatre of Scotland and His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, bring Vinnie, Eddie Clockerty, Miss Toner, Suzi Kettles, Bomba et al to the stage for the very first time.

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Uncle Varick

1st Produced:

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, UK >>>

2004

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page.

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#43620

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

5

Female

4

Parts other:

-

Notes:

Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov (Uncle Vanya)

Synopsis:

How funny is Chekhov? In John Byrne's witty transposition of Uncle Vanya to north-east Scotland in 1964, the laughs come thick and fast. But, although Brian Cox lends his massive presence to the ineffectual, hops-producing Varick, the sheer ingenuity of Byrne's adaptation somewhat diminishes the pain of the original play. Byrne, as we know from Writer's Cramp, has a sharp eye for cultural pseudery. And he has most fun here with the character of Sandy Sheridan - the equivalent of Chekhov's Professor - a metropolitan art pundit who pens patronising pieces claiming "the landscape of Landseer is wasted on the Scots" and who, according to the envious Varick, has all the visual sophistication of Blind Pew. Byrne keeps up an endless supply of 1960s satirical jokes, with Varick's muddled mother poring over a slim volume entitled "The Rise and Fall of the Penis in 20th-Century Art." - Billington, Guardian

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Writer's Cramp

1st Produced:

Calton Studios, Edinburgh

1977

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

in "Plays and Players", December, London, 1977

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#5631

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

-

Parts other:

-

Notes:

-

Synopsis:

takes satirical swipes at Anglo-Scottish cultural pretensions.

Further Reference:

-


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JOHN BYRNE

Wrong Side of 8th

1st Produced:

- - -

- - -

Company:

n/a

1st Published:

I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page.

ISBN/ASIN:

-

Music:

-

doollee no

#103294

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

 

abebooks.com
abebooks.co.uk

stageplays.com

amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

Genre:

n/a

Parts:

Male

-

Female

-

Parts other:

-

Notes:

-

Synopsis:

n/a

Further Reference:

National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Acc.10365/57


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