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John Osborne

JOHN OSBORNE

  (1929 - 1994)
Nationality:    English
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Gordon Dickerson  

David Hare's speech at the memorial service for John Osborne in June 1995 >>>

Research:    http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00168.xml. Harry Ransom Center, the University of Texas at Austin.
the papers of this British playwright consist of manuscripts of many of his works, correspondence, newspaper and magazine articles, scrapbooks, posters, programs, and business documents.

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below is a list of John Osborne's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Almost A Vision         Better Class Of Person         Blood Of the Bambergs, The         Bond Honoured, A         Dejavu         Devil Inside Him, The         End Of Me Old Cigar, The         Entertainer, The         Epitaph For George Dillon         Father, The         Gift Of Friendship, The         God Rot Tunbridge Wells         Hedda Gabler         Hotel In Amsterdam, The         Inadmissible Evidence         Look Back In Anger         Luther         Ms, Or Jill And Jack         Patriot For Me, A         Personal Enemy         Picture Of Dorian Gray, The         Place Calling Itself Rome         Right Prospectus, The         Sense Of Detachment, A         Subject Of Scandal And Concern, A         Time Present         Try A Little Tenderness         Under Plain Cover         Very Like A Whale         Watch It Come Down         West Of Suez         World Of Paul Slickey, The         You're Not Watching Me, Mummy
Almost A Vision

Synopsis:
Champagne dialogue alleviates nervousness of sleeping together

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Itv Yorkshire     1976

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Better Class Of Person

Synopsis:
Autobiographical look at growing up in wartime suburbia

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Thames Tv     1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1985   

Music:
-

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Genre:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  17            Female:  11            Other:  1b extras

Further Reference:
-

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Blood Of the Bambergs, The

Synopsis:
Satire on a royal wedding

Notes:
part of Plays for England

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1963   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Fairy Story

Parts:
Male:  16            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bond Honoured, A

Synopsis:
Message follows message as the hero judges and honours his bond in sixteenth century Spain.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Lope de Vega

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre Company

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1966   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dejavu

Synopsis:
Look Back in Anger revisited; Alison does the ironing

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Comedy, London     1992

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1991   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Devil Inside Him, The

Devil Inside Him, The
Idiot Welsh youth in small village, problems when sex maniac kills girl.

Notes:
written by John Osborne And StElla Linden

1st Produced:
Huddersfield     1950

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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End Of Me Old Cigar, The

Synopsis:
Confederacy of women plot to end male dominance at a stroke

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1975   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Entertainer, The

Synopsis:
Despite his failure as a comedian Archie Rice cannot leave the decaying world of music hall.

Notes:
music by John Addison

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1957   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama 15 scenes

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Epitaph For George Dillon

Epitaph For George Dillon
A mediocre artist is planted into the weed patch of petite bourgeois suburbia

Notes:
written by John Osborne And Anthony Creighton. Produced Royal Court London, 11 Feb 1958

1st Produced:
Oxford University Experimental Club     01 Feb 1957

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1958   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
Wearing - the London Stage 58.22; 58.125
Theatre Record Vol XXV (2005) Page 1221 - [Theatre: Comedy]

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Father, The

Synopsis:
Battle of the sexes presents a moving incisive examination of marriage and parenthood.

Notes:
Original Playwright - August Strindberg

1st Produced:
London     1989

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1989   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Gift Of Friendship, The

Synopsis:
Elderly novelist asks disliked guest to be literary editor

Notes:
televised 1972

1st Produced:
Itv Yorkshire     1972

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1972   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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God Rot Tunbridge Wells

Synopsis:
Handel on his deathbed. For Tony Palmer's TV feature

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Tv     1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1985   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
Monologue Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler
Appallingly comic spectacle of a claustrophobic and fragile world coming apart at the seams.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen

1st Produced:
London     1972

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1972   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Hotel In Amsterdam, The

Hotel In Amsterdam, The
Three couples planing their secret weekend away are exposed.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1968   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Inadmissible Evidence

Inadmissible Evidence
A lawyer, Bill Maitland, whose private and public lives are disintegrating. There is his wife, mistress, receptionist and secretary and then four women clients are thrown into the mix. His one male client is Maples. He has been arrested for Indecency. He tells Maitland that he is married but that did not cure him He has a regular boyfriend - Dennis who he has given up for his marriage. He is caught in a park by a policeman. The policeman tells him to come back the next night and "about three times" after. He is forced by the police to confess to indecency with a man by threatening Dennis

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

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Genre:
Gay character drama full length

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Look Back In Anger

Look Back In Anger
Anger that "there aren't any good brave causes left".

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1957   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Luther

Luther
Religious experience; Luther at the Diet of Worms; Luther talking; Luther preaching.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Theatre Royal, Nottingham     1961

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1961   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  12            Female:  1            Other:  extras

Further Reference:

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Ms, Or Jill And Jack

Synopsis:
Sophisticated executive out with pouty bit of goods from the suburbs

Notes:
televised 1974

1st Produced:
Itv Yorkshire     1974

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1975   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Patriot For Me, A

Patriot For Me, A
Homosexual Austro Hungarian Empire Officer blackmailed to spy for Tsarist Russia.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1966   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  22            Female:  8            Other:  extras

Further Reference:

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Personal Enemy

Personal Enemy
a vivid depiction of the political and sexual paranoia that gripped America in the 1950s at the height of McCarthyism, when the public enemy suddenly became a lot more personal.

Notes:
written by John Osborne And Anthony Creighton

1st Produced:
Harrogate     1955

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Picture Of Dorian Gray, The

Synopsis:
Allegory of beautiful young man whose face and body remain untouched by time as his portrait reflects his ageing in the attic.

Notes:
adaptation of novel by Oscar Wilde

1st Produced:
London     1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1973   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
Adaptation. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  4            Other:  extras

Further Reference:

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Place Calling Itself Rome

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.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Shakespeare (Coriolanus)

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Primavera

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1973   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  Large Cast

Further Reference:
-

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Right Prospectus, The

Synopsis:
A school story - with a noticeable difference

Notes:
televised 1970

1st Produced:
Bbc 1     1970

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1970   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  15            Female:  2            Other:  boys

Further Reference:
-

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Sense Of Detachment, A

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

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1973   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Satire

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Subject Of Scandal And Concern, A

Subject Of Scandal And Concern, A
Based on the true story of the last man to stand trial for blasphemy in England, Cheltenham, 1842. George Jacob Holyoake is a poor young teacher, making his way from Birmingham to Bristol to visit a friend who has been imprisoned for publishing a journal that criticises the establishment. When he makes a stop in Cheltenham to address a lecture, his words and his overwhelming commitment to speaking the truth will change his life forever. Arrested and tried for blasphemy, and separated from his starving wife and child, Holyoake is faced with the choice of conforming or staying true to his beliefs in a time of injustice and intolerance.

Notes:
originally written for television in 1960 starring Richard Burton and Rachel Roberts, and directed by Tony Richardson

1st Produced:
Nottingham     1962

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1961
Oberon Books (2016) >>>    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  18            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Time Present

Synopsis:
Sisters, an actress and a Labour MP, confront their father's death

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Brighton     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1968   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Try A Little Tenderness

Synopsis:
Vicious climax to fun at the big pop festival

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Unproduced    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1978   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  Large Cast

Further Reference:
-

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Under Plain Cover

Synopsis:
A sado-masochistic menage remains uncondemned

Notes:
part of Plays for England

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1963   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  12            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Very Like A Whale

Synopsis:
theme of a powerful and respected man tearing his life to bits

Notes:
written 1971

1st Produced:
Bbc 1     1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1971   

Music:
-

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:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  4            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Watch It Come Down

Watch It Come Down
Middle aged art community emigres expend creative energies

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre Production

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1975   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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West Of Suez

Synopsis:
Set on a Caribbean Island, colonial and emotional empires in decay

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1971   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  14            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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World Of Paul Slickey, The

World Of Paul Slickey, The
Journalist Jack Oakham writes a gossip column under the name of "Paul Slickey" among the people he has an interest in are Michael and Lesley who are having martial difficulties and decide to remedy them by them both having sex changes

Notes:
music by Christopher Whelen. Produced At Palace, London, 05 May 1959. On its opening in London it was not well received by first night audiences. They booed - the boo-ers included Noel Coward and John Gielgud. Adrienne Corri one of the actors gesticulated and told the audience "to fuck itself". An angry mob chased John Osborne down Charing Cross Road

1st Produced:
Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth     14 Apr 1959

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1959   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical Comedy Musical. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  15            Female:  11            Other:  2g extras

Further Reference:
Wearing - the London Stage 59.88

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You're Not Watching Me, Mummy

Synopsis:
Actress attended by homosexual dresser

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Itv Yorkshire     1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1978   

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
TV Play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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