JOHN OSBORNE (1929 - 1994)
| Nationality: | English |
| 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 John Osborne
Almost A Vision |
| 1st Produced: | ITV Yorkshire | 1976 | ||||
| Company: | - | |||||
| 1st Published: | - | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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: | - | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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: | - | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1976 | ||||
| Company: | - | |||||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London, 1975 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | 4 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||||
| Notes: | - | |||||
| Synopsis: | Middle aged art community emigres expend creative energies | |||||
West Of Suez |
| 1st Produced: | London | 1971 | ||||
| Company: | - | |||||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London, 1971 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | 14 | Female | 5 |
| Parts Other: | - | |||||
| Notes: | - | |||||
| Synopsis: | Set on a Caribbean Island, colonial and emotional empires in decay | |||||
World Of Paul Slickey, The |
| 1st Produced: | Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth | 1959 | ||||
| Company: | - | |||||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London, 1959 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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: | Musical Comedy | Musical | Parts: | Male | 15 | Female | 11 |
| Parts Other: | 2g extras | |||||
| Notes: | music by Christopher Whelen | |||||
| Synopsis: | A comedy of manners with music. | |||||
You're Not Watching Me, Mummy |
| 1st Produced: | ITV Yorkshire | 1980 | ||||
| Company: | - | |||||
| 1st Published: | Faber & Faber, London, 1978 | ISBN | - | |||
| 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 | 3 |
| Parts Other: | extras | |||||
| Notes: | - | |||||
| Synopsis: | Actress attended by homosexual dresser | |||||