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ALISTAIR BEATON |
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Nationality: British Email: Click here to contact Website: Click here to visit |
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Literary Agent: Alan Brodie Representation Ltd |
Alistair Beaton is Britain's leading writer of political satire, with credits across theatre, television, radio and publishing. He is currently under commission to the Old Vic Theatre, London to write a new political comedy. He is also completing a play for the National Theatre of Scotland called CALEDONIA which will be part of this year's Edinburgh International Festival and directed by Anthony Neilson. Theatre plays include KING OF HEARTS (Hampstead Theatre 2007), FOLLOW MY LEADER (Birmingham Rep / Hampstead 2004) and FEELGOOD (Hampstead / Garrick 2001, winner of Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy). Translations include THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR (Chichester Festival Theatre 2005), THE ARSONISTS (Royal Court 2007) and THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (Shared Experience 2009). He has also written new English versions of DIE FLEDERMAUS and LA VIE PARISIENNE. Recent television credits include THE TRIAL OF TONY BLAIR (Daybreak Pictures/Channel 4) and A VERY SOCIAL SECRETARY (Daybreak/Channel 4) which won Best Single Drama at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in 2006. With co-author Barry Pilton he wrote the ITV sitcom DOWNWARDLY MOBILE. He was one of the founders of NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and regularly wrote song lyrics for SPITTING IMAGE. He is author of the satirical novel A PLANET FOR THE PRESIDENT (Orion Books 2005) and a number of best-selling humour books, including THE LITTLE BOOK OF COMPLETE BOLLOCKS, THE LITTLE BOOK OF NEW LABOUR BOLLOCKS and THE LITTLE BOOK OF MANAGEMENT BOLLOCKS. He is co-author of DROP THE DEAD DONKEY (2000). Alistair Beaton lives in London. He was educated at the Universities of Edinburgh, Bochum and Moscow, graduating with MA Hons 1st Class. He has worked as consultant for Columbia Tristar, RTL, and WDR Cologne, developing new television comedies for the European market. He speaks fluent German, Russian and French.
Plays by Alistair Beaton
Arsonists, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2007 | |||||
Company: | Royal Court | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1408103937 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #69554 | |||
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: | Translation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 7 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Max Frisch. Max Frisch's parable about appeasement is given its first major UK revival since its Royal Court premiere in 1961, which was directed by Lindsay Anderson. | |||||
| Fires are becoming something of a problem. But Biedermann has it all under control. He's a respected member of the community with a loving wife and a flourishing business, so surely nothing can get to him. The great philanthropist is happy to meet his civic duty by giving shelter to two new guests but when they start filling his attic with petrol drums, will he help them light the fuse? | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Caledonia | ||
| 1st Produced: | Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, Highland | 13 Aug 2010 | ||||
Company: | National Theatre of Scotland | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1408136270 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #115496 | |||
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 | 8 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| Caledonia is a story of greed, euphoria and mass delusion. It is the story of a small, poor country mistaking itself for a big, rich country. William Paterson was a financial adventurer who in the late 1600's planned to found a Scottish colony in Darien on the isthmus of Panama in Central America and turn Scotland, one of the poorest nations in Europe, into a prosperous colonial power. He invited the public to invest and within weeks a vast proportion of the nation's wealth had been subscribed. Distance, disease and a naive optimism all played their part in this ruinous episode. Within a few years, the Scots - demoralised and impoverished - gave up their nation's independent status and signed the 1707 Treaty of Union with England. Inspired by documents, journals, letters, songs and poems of the period, playwright and satirist Alistair Beaton has created a work that is both a tribute to heroic ambition and a darkly witty take on the deceptions and self-deceptions of rich and poor alike. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Caucasian Chalk Circle | ||
| 1st Produced: | 30 Sep 2009 | |||||
Company: | co-produced with Yorkshire Playhouse and Shared Experience | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1408126707 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #102294 | |||
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 | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | large cast | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Bertolt Brecht | |||||
| Alistair Beaton's new translation has an earthy vibrancy and the production matches it. This corrupt little province is an impoverished place. Only in that intensely human scene where peasant maid Gruscha sees the soldier she has promised herself to across a river of patterned blue cloth do we get a suggestion of a countryside that could be beautiful. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Feelgood | ||
| 1st Produced: | 25 Jan 2001 | |||||
Company: | ||||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0413771445 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2513 | |||
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 | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| It's party conference time, and in the leader's hotel suite, the spin doctors are sweating over the Prime Minister's speech. With public opinion increasingly volatile, there's panic at the top. This time it's all got to be perfect. But in the same hotel a journalist is piecing together a scandal so far-reaching that it could keep the party out of power for a generation. Can the story be killed? Can the journalist be bought off? And exactly how far will a government go to save itself? | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Follow My Leader | ||
| 1st Produced: | 26 Mar 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 | #2514 | |||
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 Satire Musical | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | music by Richard Blackford | |||||
Synopsis: | As the real Bush and Blair and their cronies plot the next stage in their plans, The REP's very own Bush and Blair are joined on stage by Clare Short and Osama Bin Laden, with a guest appearance from God! | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Government Inspector, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Chichester Festival | 2005 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Oberon Books, London, 2005 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #53576 | |||
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 | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | large cast | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Nikolai Gogol. | |||||
Synopsis: | One of the most famous comedies in world theatre, Gogol's masterpiece has lost none of its bite. In a small town corruption is rife, and the Mayor and his cronies have got it made. So when they learn they are going to be subject to an undercover government inspection they panic. Mistaking a penniless nobody for the inspector they swiftly fall victims to their own stupidity and greed. A dazzling blend of preposterous characters and familiar situations, Nabokov called 'The Government Inspector' the greatest play in the Russian language. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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King of Hearts | ||
| 1st Produced: | Guildford: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Millbrook, Guildford, Surrey GU1 3UX >>> | 08 Feb 2007 | ||||
Company: | ||||||
| 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 | #59511 | |||
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 | 8 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | A handsome young heir to the throne falls for a Muslim girl - and finds himself at war with a panicked prime minister. SuddenIy, it's not just the future of the Royal Family that's at stake, but the very identity of Britain itself | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Nose, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1995 | |||||
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 | #67341 | |||
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: | directed by Martin Duncan. An original play, based on the short story of the same name by Nikola Gogol | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Ratepayers' Iolanthe | ||
| 1st Produced: | Queen Elizabeth Hall, 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 | #76185 | |||
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: | satirical operetta | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 6 | ||
Parts other: | fairies and chorus | |||||
Notes: | adapted from the light opera by W S Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan by Ned Sherrin and Alistair Beaton | |||||
Synopsis: | An extravagent concotion of parody of Gilbert and Sullivan, Mrs Thatcher and Ken Livingston. Launched as a political self-defensive squib by the Greater London Council, to try and stop its closure. Mrs Thatcher is presented as a usurping and predatory Fairy Queen trying to get Red Ken off the GLC and into parliment to be useless among Labour Backbenchers. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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