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Peter Whelan

PETER WHELAN  (1931 - )

 Nationality:    English
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    The Agency (London) Ltd  


Peter Whelan is an award-winning playwright who has been producing modern classic plays since 1970s. He began his career in advertising and short film scripting before starting to write for the stage. In 1996 he was appointed an Honorary Artistic Associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His numerous plays include A Revolutionary Marriage, The Earthly Paradise, A Russian in the Woods, Overture, Divine Right, The Herbal Bed, Shakespeare Country and The School of Night.

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

 Accrington Pals, The         Bright and Bold Design, The         Captain Swing         Clay         Cold Wind Blowing Up, A         Divine Right         Double Edge         Earthly Paradise, The         Herbal Bed The         Lakota         Nativity         Night Before The Morning After Show, The         Overture         Russian In The Woods, A         School Of The Night, The         Shakespeare Country         Tinder Box, The         World's Apart

Accrington Pals, The

Peter Whelan
The Accrington Pals is a poignant and harrowing play set in the early years of the First World War, as the country's jingoistic optimism starts to wane and the true terror of warfare gradually becomes clear. The play looks at both the terrifying experiences of the men at the front and the women who were left behind to face social changes, deprivation and the lies of propaganda. While often comic vignettes portray the everyday life of a town denuded of men, the men face the terror that is the Battle of the Somme. This compassionate play portrays the devastating effects of war on a typical Lancashire mill town and the suffering of everyday people.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Warehouse, Covent Garden, London    10 Apr 1981

Company:

1st Published:
in Whelan Plays: 1, Methuen, London, 2003
Methuen Drama, London (2011) >>>    978-1408137109

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bright and Bold Design, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Pit, London    1991

Company:
-

1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London, 1991   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Captain Swing

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Stratford-on-Avon    1978

Company:
RSC

1st Published:
Collings, London, 1979   -

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Clay

Synopsis:
three generations share a converted hill farm turned pottery studio and are confronted by distant terrors which threaten to blight their most basic and private freedoms

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:

1st Published:

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cold Wind Blowing Up, A

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written with Les Darbon

1st Produced:
Cologne, Germany    1983

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Divine Right

Synopsis:
Year 2000

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:
-

1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London, 1996   -

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:
Topical Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Double Edge

Synopsis:
failed assassination of Prime Minister and death of Home Secretaries wife investigated by Oxford Professor of History

Notes:
written with Leslie Darbon

1st Produced:
Richmond Theatre, Richmond, Surrey    1975

Company:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1976   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Earthly Paradise, The

Synopsis:
Like William Morris, one of his key characters, Whelan is a great "unearther"; and what he has here unearthed is the strange drama played out at Kelmscott Manor in the early 1870s between Morris, his wife Janey and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Morris took himself off to Iceland each summer to allow Janey to fulfil her role as Rossetti's model, muse and idealised lover. But, according to Whelan, the relationship stopped short of physical consummation, which only served to fuel Rossetti's incipient madness. - Billington, Guardian

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:
-

1st Published:

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Herbal Bed The

Synopsis:
Based on actual events in which Shakespeare's daughter sues for slander.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Other Place Theatre, Stratford, UK    1996

Company:

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1998   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lakota

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written with Don Kincaid

1st Produced:
London    1970

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Nativity

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written with Bill Alexander

1st Produced:

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

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:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Night Before The Morning After Show, The

Synopsis:
with the programme you get a party pack of paper hats and streamers and the skits continue

Notes:
written by Alan Ayckbourn, Oliver Beamish, Ken Campbell, Bob Eaton, Sayan Kent, John Kirkpatrick, Byrony Lavery, Jenny Lecoat, Chris Martin, Greg Palmer, Carole Ruggier, Peter Whelan And Johnson Willis

1st Produced:
New Victoria, North Staffs    1992

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

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:
Musical Review

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Overture

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Victoria, N Staffs    1997

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Russian In The Woods, A

Peter Whelan
Amongst the ruins of post-war Berlin, a young soldier is sent for a weekend to guard a deserted British army office. In the corrosive atmosphere of Cold War power struggles, he innocently finds himself caught up in a situation where his conscience is on trial.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Other Place Theatre, Stratford, UK    2001

Company:

1st Published:

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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School Of The Night, The

Synopsis:
Charged with treason and heresy Christopher Marlowe is on the run from the law. As he sits in the Rose Theatre, hiding, and composing his greatest lyric, Marlowe reflects upon the intrigues that have brought him to the brink of ruin, and contemplates his escape from England before the inevitable and mysterious bar-room brawl that will end his life on 30 May 1593

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Other Place Theatre, Stratford, UK    1992

Company:
-

1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London, 1992   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  2            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Shakespeare Country

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Nationwide    1993

Company:
-

1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London, 1993   -

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:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tinder Box, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Story by Hans Christian Andersen

1st Produced:
-    1995

Company:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1995   -

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:
Play with Music

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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World's Apart

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Stratford-on-Avon    1986

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

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:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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