JOHN OSBORNE
| Nationality: | English |
| Literary Agent: *: | n/a |
| Email: | n/a |
| Website: | n/a |
* If shown, click on the literary agent's name for full contact details and links to all the Playwrights they represent.
Plays by John Osborne
Almost A Vision |
| 1st Produced: | ITV Yorkshire | 1976 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | - | - | ||
| To Buy This Play: | I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page | |||
| Genre: | TV Play | - | Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Champagne dialogue alleviates nervousness of sleeping together | ||||
Better Class Of Person |
| 1st Produced: | Thames TV | 1985 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1985 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | TV Play | - | Parts: | Male | 17 | Female | 11 |
| Parts Other: | 1b extras | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Autobiographical look at growing up in wartime suburbia | ||||
Blood Of The Bambergs, The |
| 1st Produced: | 1962 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1963 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | Fairy Story | - | Parts: | Male | 16 | Female | 5 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: part of Plays for England | ||||
Synopsis: Satire on a royal wedding | ||||
Bond Honoured, A |
| 1st Produced: | National Theatre, London | 1966 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1966 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | Play | One Act | Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Lope de Vega | ||||
Synopsis: Message follows message as the hero judges and honours his bond in sixteenth century Spain. | ||||
Dejavu |
| 1st Produced: | Comedy, London | 1992 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1991 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Look Back in Anger revisited; Alison does the ironing | ||||
Devil Inside Him, The |
| 1st Produced: | Huddersfield | 1950 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | - | - | ||
| To Buy This Play: | I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with Stella Linden | ||||
Synopsis: Idiot Welsh youth in small village, problems when sex maniac kills girl. | ||||
End Of Me Old Cigar, The |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1975 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1975 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Comedy | Parts: | Male | 9 | Female | 7 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Confederacy of women plot to end male dominance at a stroke | ||||
Entertainer, The |
| 1st Produced: | 1957 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1957 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: music by John Addison | ||||
Synopsis: Despite his failure as a comedian Archie Rice cannot leave the decaying world of music hall. | ||||
Epitaph For George Dillon |
| 1st Produced: | Oxford | 1957 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1958 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 4 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with Anthony Creighton | ||||
Synopsis: A mediocre artist is planted into the weed patch of petite bourgeois suburbia | ||||
Father, The |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1989 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1989 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Adaptation | Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - August Strindberg | ||||
Synopsis: Battle of the sexes presents a moving incisive examination of marriage and parenthood. | ||||
Gift Of Friendship, The |
| 1st Produced: | ITV Yorkshire | 1972 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1972 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | TV Play | - | Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: televised 1972 | ||||
Synopsis: Elderly novelist asks disliked guest to be literary editor | ||||
God Rot Tunbridge Wells |
| 1st Produced: | TV | 1985 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1985 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | Monologue | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Handel on his deathbed. For Tony Palmer's TV feature | ||||
Hedda Gabler |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1972 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1972 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Adaptation | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 4 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen | ||||
Synopsis: Appallingly comic spectacle of a claustrophobic and fragile world coming apart at the seams. | ||||
Hotel In Amsterdam, The |
| 1st Produced: | 1968 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1968 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 4 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Three couples planing their secret weekend away are exposed. | ||||
Inadmissible Evidence |
| 1st Produced: | 1964 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1965 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 5 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Lawyer whose public and private lives are disintegrating | ||||
Look Back In Anger |
| 1st Produced: | 1956 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1957 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Anger that "there aren't any good brave causes left". | ||||
Luther |
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Royal, Nottingham | 1961 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1961 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 12 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Religious experience; Luther at the Diet of Worms; Luther talking; Luther preaching. | ||||
Ms, Or Jill And Jack |
| 1st Produced: | ITV Yorkshire | 1974 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1975 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | TV Play | - | Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: televised 1974 | ||||
Synopsis: Sophisticated executive out with pouty bit of goods from the suburbs | ||||
Patriot For Me, A |
| 1st Produced: | 1965 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1966 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 22 | Female | 8 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Homosexual Austro Hungarian Empire Officer blackmailed to spy for Tsarist Russia. | ||||
Personal Enemy |
| 1st Produced: | Harrogate | 1955 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | - | - | ||
| To Buy This Play: | I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with Anthony Creighton | ||||
Synopsis: Specious librarian sentimentalised; Un-American activities committee | ||||
Picture Of Dorian Gray, The |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1975 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1973 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Adaptation | Parts: | Male | 11 | Female | 4 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||
Notes: adaptation of novel by Oscar Wilde | ||||
Synopsis: Allegory of beautiful young man whose face and body remain untouched by time as his portrait reflects his ageing in the attic. | ||||
Place Calling Itself Rome |
| 1st Produced: | 2008 | |||
| Company: | Primavera | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1973 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Adaptation | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | Large Cast | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Shakespeare (Coriolanus) | ||||
Synopsis: Osborne's play, which was written in 1972, rewrites Shakespeare's Coriolanus in a modern political and military setting. The Roman intrigues and bloodshed of the original are transposed to a contemporary world in which the old guard patricians continue to manoeuvre against the new force of the 'people's politicians' and the ever-present mob. Osborne also makes more explicit the homoerotic subtext of the Coriolanus - Aufidius relationship. The 50 roles in Osborne's script are played by twelve actors in the Primavera rehearsed reading. | ||||
Right Prospectus, The |
| 1st Produced: | BBC 1 | 1970 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1970 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | TV Play | - | Parts: | Male | 15 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | boys | |||
Notes: televised 1970 | ||||
Synopsis: A school story - with a noticeable difference | ||||
Sense Of Detachment, A |
| 1st Produced: | 1972 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1973 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Satire | Parts: | Male | 7 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: . . .a vivid portrait of people reduced to husks, wishes, fantasising, degraded, almost hopeless but still with capacities for love and the beautiful.. The Guardian | ||||
Subject Of Scandal And Concern, A |
| 1st Produced: | Nottingham | 1962 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1961 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 18 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: televised 1960 | ||||
Synopsis: A young teacher who was the last person to be imprisoned in this country for blasphemy | ||||
Time Present |
| 1st Produced: | Brighton | 1968 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1968 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 5 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Sisters, an actress and a Labour MP, confront their father's death | ||||
Try A Little Tenderness |
| 1st Produced: | Unproduced | - | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1978 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | TV Play | - | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | Large Cast | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Vicious climax to fun at the big pop festival | ||||
Under Plain Cover |
| 1st Produced: | 1962 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1963 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | - | One Act | Parts: | Male | 12 | Female | 5 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: part of Plays for England | ||||
Synopsis: A sado-masochistic menage remains uncondemned | ||||
Very Like A Whale |
| 1st Produced: | BBC 1 | 1980 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London | 1971 | ||
| To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||
| Genre: | TV Play | - | Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 4 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||
Notes: written 1971 | ||||
Synopsis: Theme of a powerful and respected man tearing his life to bits | ||||
Watch It Come Down |