HOWARD BRENTON (1942 - )
| Nationality: | British |
| Literary Agent: *: | |
| 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 Howard Brenton
Berlin Bertie |
| 1st Produced: | 1992 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Nick Hern Books, London | 1992 | ||
| 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 | 2 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: The downing of the Berlin Wall unites two sisters from East Berlin and their native London. | ||||
Bloody Poetry |
| 1st Produced: | Leicester | 1984 | ||
| Company: | Foco Novo Theatre Company | |||
| 1st Published: | 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: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | voice | |||
Notes: UK Tour and Hampstead Theatre, London | ||||
Synopsis: Staged to critical acclaim in both New York and London, first at the Hampstead Theatre in 1984 and subsequently in a revival at the Royal Court Theatre in 1988, this is a portrayal of the lives of Shelley, Mary Shelley and Claire Clairemont. Set between the summers of 1816 and 1822 the play opens with their flight from England to Switzerland and Italy where, for the first time, they encounter Lord Byron. | ||||
Brassneck |
| 1st Produced: | Playhouse, Nottingham | 1973 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Eyre Methuen, 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: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 15 | Female | 4 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with David Hare (TV 1975) | ||||
Synopsis: Property business in small town in Midlands expands world wide on death of founder, political corruption then bankruptcy leads to heroin importation | ||||
Christie In Love |
| 1st Produced: | 1969 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Christie in Love and Other Plays, Methuen, 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: | Play 11 scenes | - | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Police search for famous murder's, John Christie, victims in garden. Confronted by Christie arisen they goad and then re-hang him. | ||||
Churchill Play, The |
| 1st Produced: | 1974 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Eyre Methuen, London | 1974 | ||
| 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: | Historical drama | - | Parts: | Male | 17 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Churchill's hereditary syphilis used as a lampoon, "performed in the winter of 1984 by the internees of the Churchill Camp somewhere in England". | ||||
Collateral Damage |
| 1st Produced: | 1999 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Oberon, London | 1999 | ||
| 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 | 1 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written by Tariq Ali, Howard Brenton, Andy De La Tour | ||||
Synopsis: War rages in the Balkans. While NATO bombs Serbia, the Kosovan Albanians are driven out of their homes. Europe is divided. In homes everywhere, people debate the rights and wrongs of the war. This play reveals the results. | ||||
Consequences |
| 1st Produced: | Croydon | 1988 | ||
| 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: | Colaboration | - | Parts: | Male | 7 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with Dunn, Griffiths, Ikoli, Sobol, Williams, Wilson, Wymark | ||||
Synopsis: Eight playwrights play consequences in the 21stC as a last gasp for Foco Novo, killed by the government and the Arts Council | ||||
Conversations In Exile |
| 1st Produced: | UK Tour and Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court | 1982 | ||
| Company: | Foco Novo Theatre Company | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Theater XVII" No 2 Spring | 1986 | ||
| 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: | - | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Bertolt Brecht; Translation by David Dollenmayer | ||||
Synopsis: topics on : Passports, order, fascism, the Weimar Republic etc lead to the foundation of a cockroach extermination business | ||||
Danton's Death |
| 1st Produced: | 1982 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | 1982 | |||
| 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 | 24 | Female | 6 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Georg Buchner | ||||
Synopsis: a study of Danton showing not so much his humanity as his existential exhaustion | ||||
Deeds |
| 1st Produced: | Playhouse, Nottingham | 1978 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Plays & Players, May/June, 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: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with Griffiths, Cambell, Hare | ||||
Synopsis: Baby dies from chemicals in Nuzzles Milk Powder, wife disappears,, husband jailed, wickedness all round. | ||||
Education Of Skinny Spew, The |
| 1st Produced: | Bradford University, Bradford | 1969 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Christie in Love and Other Plays, Methuen, 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: | - | One Act | Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Still in the womb Skinny Spew has adult wisdom, once born he drowns his parents for treating him as a moron. reverts to babyhood under rigours of "proper" education. | ||||
England's Ireland |
| 1st Produced: | Amsterdam | 1972 | ||
| 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: | 20 scenes with songs | One Act | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with Bicat, Clark, Edgar, Fuchs, Hare, Wilson | ||||
Synopsis: Episodic historical look at the British in Northern Ireland. Loyalist view followed by bias towards IRA with torturing British Soldiers and Orange Lodge excrement | ||||
Epsom Downs |
| 1st Produced: | Round House, London | 1977 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Eyre Methuen, London | 1977 | ||
| 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 | 6 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||
Notes: Joint Stock Theatre | ||||
Synopsis: takes place on Derby day in Silver Jubilee Year encompasses punters of every degree | ||||
Fart For Europe, A |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1973 | ||
| 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: | Burlesque | - | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with David Edgar | ||||
Synopsis: Attacks the 1973 "Fanfare for Europe" celebrations. Labour MP with same views as Enoch Powell; European Trade Union Links; multi-nationals rule | ||||
Faust: Parts One And Two |
| 1st Produced: | Swan, Stratford | 1995 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Nick Hern Books, London | 1995 | ||
| 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 | 13 | Female | 8 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Goethe, translation by Christa Weisman | ||||
Synopsis: Soul to the devil, as always | ||||
Fruit |
| 1st Produced: | 1970 | |||
| Company: | Portable Theatre | |||
| 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: | Satire on the Future | Satire | Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: A man, for reasons of personal revenge and cynicism, tries to bring down government by blackmailing homosexual prime minister. | ||||
Gargantua |
| 1st Produced: | Brighton | 1969 | ||
| 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: | - | Adaptation | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: novel by Raalais | ||||
Synopsis: Distortions of scale with huge giants swallowing family having their Christmas dinner. | ||||
Genius, The |
| 1st Produced: | 1983 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | 1983 | |||
| 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: | 1 skeleton | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: the theme of an innovator's responsibility in the nuclear age through the related realms of education, the Cold War, student radicalism and political theory | ||||
Gothic Triple Bill |
| 1st Produced: | 1986 | |||
| 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: | - | - | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Revival | ||||
Government Property |
| 1st Produced: | Aarhus, Denmark | 1975 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | script from Rosica Colin Ltd, 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: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | 9 actors | |||
Notes: reworking of themes in The Churchill Play | ||||
Synopsis: an 'environmental' show | ||||
Greenland |
| 1st Produced: | 1988 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | 1988 | |||
| 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: | Utopian Play | - | Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 4 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Over half the play is set 700 years in the future where the gap between expectations and reality is dramatic for a drunk Peer and a middle aged woman. | ||||
Gum And Goo |
| 1st Produced: | Brighton Combination, Brighton | 1969 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Plays for Public Places", Eyre Methuen, 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: | - | One Act | Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Two boys transformed into fantasy gremlins by autistic girl. Girl pushed into a hole and found "not dead - worse, she's silent" | ||||
H.I.D. (Hess Is Dead) |
| 1st Produced: | 1989 | |||
| Company: | ||||
| 1st Published: | Nick Hern Books, 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: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: Investigates the contradictions surrounding the apparent suicide of Hitler' one time deputy. | ||||
Heads |
| 1st Produced: | Bradford University, Bradford | 1969 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Christie in Love and Other Plays, Methuen, 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: | Farce | One Act | Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: A girl torn between love for two men, one for his mind the other for his physique, forces them to switch heads. | ||||
Hitler Dances |
| 1st Produced: | 1972 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | 1982 | |||
| 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 in 24 scenes | - | Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 3 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: In collaboration with the Traverse Workshop | ||||
Synopsis: Responses to the 2nd World War debunking the way it has been mythologised in fiction, films and television. | ||||
How Beautiful With Badges |
| 1st Produced: | Open Space Theatre, London | 1972 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Three Plays" Sheffield Academic Press | 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: | Short play | One Act | Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: A tortured young working class Maoist disguised as a boy scout accompanied by his childish sidekick confront two hells angels on acid trip. | ||||
In Extremis |
| 1st Produced: | Shakespeare's Globe, London | 2006 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | 2006 | |||
| 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 | 7 | Female | 6 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||
Notes: An early version of In Extremis was written in 1997 at the University of California, Davis. It was performed by MFA students of the Drama Department. | ||||
Synopsis: The true-life love story of Héloïse and Abelard. A new spirit of philosophical and religious enquiry is growing in 12th-century France. In its vanguard is the brilliant Peter Abelard, a man of great learning, independence of mind, and sensuality. He starts a war of ideas with the powerful Abbot and Pope-maker, Bernard of Clairvaux, the arch-priest of medieval mysticism and austerity. But when Abelard begins a wild affair with his equally brilliant but disastrously connected student Héloïse, his enemies find just the pretext they need to destroy him. Through the joy and suffering of one of the greatest love stories of the middle ages, Howard Brenton explores the relationships between logic and religion, humanism and fundamentalism, faith and power. | ||||
Iranian Nights |
| 1st Produced: | 1989 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Nick Hern Books, 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: | - | One Act | Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 1 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written with Tariq Ali | ||||
Synopsis: A response to the Iranian Fatwa placed on the writer Salman Rushdie | ||||
It's My Criminal |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1966 | ||
| 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: | - | One Act | Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: An apprentice work" | ||||
Synopsis: A thief who has been living rough attempts to steal from home of retired master criminal and gets punished by his retainer | ||||
Jedefrau |
| 1st Produced: | Salzburg | 1974 | ||
| 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: | - | Adaptation | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Hugo von Hofmannsthal | ||||
Synopsis: a group of women make a journey across modern Europe eating male tourists along the way and finally meeting with death on an autobahn | ||||
Kit |
| 1st Produced: | Edinburgh Festival | 2003 | ||
| 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: | - | - | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: about Christopher Marlowe | ||||
Ladder Of Fools |
| 1st Produced: | Cambridge | 1965 | ||
| 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: | Science Fiction Dream Play | - | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: An apprentice work" | ||||
Synopsis: An attempt to escape from an underground science fiction world causes holy fool to dire; the play is then repeated backwards. | ||||
Lay By |
| 1st Produced: | Edinburgh | 1971 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Plays & Players" Nov | 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: | - | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: written by Brenton, Clark, Griffiths, Hare, Poliakoff, Stoddart, Wilson | ||||
Synopsis: Fellatio as rape gets perpetrator ten years and pregnant heroin addict victim committed to Holloway. Denouement as main characters are washed in blood and made into jam. | ||||
Life Of Galileo, The |
| 1st Produced: | 1980 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Eyre Methuen, London | 1980 | ||
| 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 | 35 | Female | 11 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||
Notes: Original Playwright - Bertolt Brecht | ||||
Synopsis: charts the progress of Galileo's life from his first demonstration to his imprisonment by the Spanish Inquisition | ||||
Magnificence |
| 1st Produced: | 1973 | |||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | Eyre Methuen, 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: | Agit Prop | Play/Drama | Parts: | Male | 9 | Female | 2 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: - | ||||
Synopsis: A squat is raided by police causing one squatter to lose baby another to be imprisoned. Violent finale as Conservative Minister and released squatter are blown up. | ||||
Measure For Measure |
| 1st Produced: | Northcott, Exeter | 1972 | ||
| Company: | - | |||
| 1st Published: | in "Three Plays", Academic, Sheffield | 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 | |||