Gregory Motton
is a widely published and performed playwright, with plays published Penguin, Methuen, Oberon
Books, Teatrales, and Norske Samlaget, and many more in translation. His plays are performed by
theatres around the world including the Royal Court and the Comedie Française. He received the
Swedish Writers Guild Award for his translations of Strindberg. He is generally considered to be one
of the most original playwrights of his generation.
is a widely published and performed playwright, with plays published Penguin, Methuen, Oberon
Books, Teatrales, and Norske Samlaget, and many more in translation. His plays are performed by
theatres around the world including the Royal Court and the Comedie Française. He received the
Swedish Writers Guild Award for his translations of Strindberg. He is generally considered to be one
of the most original playwrights of his generation.
What do other people say about him?
Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre
while declaring himself "not a fan", wrote this n The Directory
of British Playwrights:
"Gregory Motton
Much the most reviled figure amongst the establishment
Gregory has carved out a career in permanent opposition. He's
the Dennis Skinner or the Tony Benn of the playwriting
fraternity. Many of the most ambitious, if they suspect you might
have a different agenda from their careerist one, will ask if you
are a fan of Gregory Motton, as if they are from the House
Unamerican Activities Committee.
How has Gregory managed to get up most people's noses? First
because he believes art is serious and that art is distinct from
entertainment. This doesn't go down too well in this day and age.
If adrenaline isn't constantly high, if jokes , sentiment and ideas
aren't bombarding the audience like bullets at Omaha beach
then an audience bred on hit culture finds it hard to maintain
attention.
Gregory's work is obscure, surreal, pointilliste. It lives in the
absurd of the present day, gathering together the detritus of our
lives to form shapes and patterns that are simultaneously
recognisable and strange. He takes a story and a world, atomises
it, then reassembles it in a completely new way. The shock of
the old, radically reconfigured.
He also quotes from a wide range of texts, lyrics, and voices,
with a seriousness that acknowledges the importance of
tradition. It is partly this literariness, together with a dash of
absurdism and high style that makes him so popular in France.
In Paris , where they approach art with the same sombre
Acedemie seriouseness with which they approach everything
from biscuits to bombs, Gregory is a big noise. In London they
approach art as if it is a disease, he is a squeak.
Gregory hasn't helped his own cause by writing essays about
everything thats wrong. He writes about theatre with insight and
intelligence and passion. He has analysed with acuity the insane
over-staffing of most theatre companies and the criminal long
term neglect of most writers. A lot of the solutions he presents
are perfectly practial. But the theatre village is a small paranoid
and bullying culture that does not like to be criticised from
without, let alone from within.
Personally I am not Gregory's greatest fan. He wrote an
achingly beautiful romance called The Life of St.Fanny By
Herself , a wonderfully magical and theatrical meditation on
charm, The Terrible Voice of Satan, and a desolating image of
split identity - Looking At You (revived) Again, all of which I
enjoyed and appreciated, and have stuck fast in the mind. Others
I've had trouble with. But many of the people I admire most
worship Gregory.
But he flies in the face of the glibness and shallowness of
contemporary entertainment, without compromise. There aren't
enough people doing that."
Plays, Books and Musicals by GREGORY MOTTON
Plays
CAINS AND ABEL 1983
THE WHORE OF LIVADIA 1981-83 (Levellers Press)
RAIN Loughborough Hotel, Kings Head Theatre Upper St.1984
MR JOHNSON GAINS WEIGHT Bear And Staff, Charring Cross Road 1984
THE LURE College Arms, Royal College Street 1985
THE MOVER Bear And Staff 1985
CHICKEN (Penguin, Oberon) Portland Arms, Finborough Arms,1986 Riverside
Studios 1987
AMBULANCE (Penguin, Oberon) Royal Court 1987
DOWNFALL (Methuen, Oberon) Royal Court 1988
LOOKING AT YOU (REVIVED) AGAIN (Flood Books, Oberon) Leicester 1989
GRAINS OF SAND 1990
THE LIFE OF SAINT FANNY BY HERSELF 1992
MESSAGE FOR THE BROKEN HEARTED (Flood Books, Oberon)L'pool 1993
THE TERRIBLE VOICE OF SATAN (Flood Books, Oberon) Royal Court 1993
CAT AND MOUSE (SHEEP) (Flood Books, Oberon) Théâtre de L'Odéon 1995
THE FOREST OF MIRRORS (Methuen)National Theatre Studio
IN PRAISE OF PROGRESS (Oberon) Théâtre de L'Odéon 1999/BBC Radio
A LITTLE SATIRE (Oberon) Gate Theatre 1997
GOD'S ISLAND (Oberon) Théâtre de La Tempête 2001
YOU NEED SOME OF THIS Théâtre de Gennevilliers commission 2000 (Levellers Press)
AUNT SALLY'S FUNERAL 2001
THIRST 2002
GENGIS AMONGST THE PYGMIES (Oberon) Comédie Française 2004
A HOLIDAY IN THE SUN (Oberon) Radio France Culture 2005
THE WORLD'S BIGGEST DIAMOND (Oberon) Royal Court 2005
THE RAT TRAP 2004 (Levellers Press)
CHAINS OF THE SKYWAY - SAME AS THE OLD BOSS National Theatre
commission 2006 (Levellers Press)
PETROL 2006 Th.Royal Plymth commission, Gulbenkian Th. 2013 (Levellers Press)
THE RAPE OF EUROPE (Levellers Press) 2008
JUNG - SEVEN SERMONS TO THE DEAD 2012
A WORTHLESS MAN 2017
Musicals
NEFERTITI AND AKHENATEN 2010
THE MYSTERY OF HILL STREET Royal Court commission 2010 (Levellers Press)
DRACULA 2011 (Levellers Press)
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE 2013
Films
DRACULA THE MESSIAH , a trilogy of full length feature films, Written and directed for
Two-Cities Films 2020
{Part one DRACULA THE DECEIVER
Part Two DRACULA THE SEDUCER
Part Three DRACULA THE DESTROYER}
Short plays
THE JUG 1990 (BBC Radio)
LAZY BRÍEN 1991 (BBC Radio)
A MONOLOGUE (Oberon) Musée Dauphinoise 2000
THE MOTHER 2006
PIRATES 2006
Adaptations
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY Belgrade Theatre, Coventry 1992
Books
HELPING THEMSELVES- THE LEFT WING MIDDLE CLASSES IN THEATRE AND THE ARTS
(Levellers Press) 2008,
A WORKING CLASS ALTERNATIVE TO LABOUR 2013 (Levellers Press)
LETTERS ABOUT NOTHING 2014
A PRISONER OF PASSION - MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 2014
THE ICE FLOE GIRL 2015/2020
Film Scripts
A POET ASSASSINATED after Apollinaire 1991
CASTLE RACKRENT 1992
Translations
from Swedish
THE GHOST SONATA
THE PELICAN
SWANWHITE
THE BURNED SITE
THE STORM
THE FATHER
MISS JULIE
COMRADES { plays by Strindberg
CREDITORS all published by Oberon}
THE GREAT HIGHWAY
THE BLACK GLOVE
THE DANCE OF DEATH
EASTER
from Norwegian
THE NAME by Jon Fosse (Oberon)
SOMEONE IS GOING TO COME by Jon Fosse(Oberon)
from German
WOYZECK by Buchner (Nick Hern Books)
Application for performance for all of the above can be made to the author via
levellerspress@yahoo.co.uk. CDs of the musicals are also available on application.
Plays
CAINS AND ABEL 1983
THE WHORE OF LIVADIA 1981-83 (Levellers Press)
RAIN Loughborough Hotel, Kings Head Theatre Upper St.1984
MR JOHNSON GAINS WEIGHT Bear And Staff, Charring Cross Road 1984
THE LURE College Arms, Royal College Street 1985
THE MOVER Bear And Staff 1985
CHICKEN (Penguin, Oberon) Portland Arms, Finborough Arms,1986 Riverside
Studios 1987
AMBULANCE (Penguin, Oberon) Royal Court 1987
DOWNFALL (Methuen, Oberon) Royal Court 1988
LOOKING AT YOU (REVIVED) AGAIN (Flood Books, Oberon) Leicester 1989
GRAINS OF SAND 1990
THE LIFE OF SAINT FANNY BY HERSELF 1992
MESSAGE FOR THE BROKEN HEARTED (Flood Books, Oberon)L'pool 1993
THE TERRIBLE VOICE OF SATAN (Flood Books, Oberon) Royal Court 1993
CAT AND MOUSE (SHEEP) (Flood Books, Oberon) Théâtre de L'Odéon 1995
THE FOREST OF MIRRORS (Methuen)National Theatre Studio
IN PRAISE OF PROGRESS (Oberon) Théâtre de L'Odéon 1999/BBC Radio
A LITTLE SATIRE (Oberon) Gate Theatre 1997
GOD'S ISLAND (Oberon) Théâtre de La Tempête 2001
YOU NEED SOME OF THIS Théâtre de Gennevilliers commission 2000 (Levellers Press)
AUNT SALLY'S FUNERAL 2001
THIRST 2002
GENGIS AMONGST THE PYGMIES (Oberon) Comédie Française 2004
A HOLIDAY IN THE SUN (Oberon) Radio France Culture 2005
THE WORLD'S BIGGEST DIAMOND (Oberon) Royal Court 2005
THE RAT TRAP 2004 (Levellers Press)
CHAINS OF THE SKYWAY - SAME AS THE OLD BOSS National Theatre
commission 2006 (Levellers Press)
PETROL 2006 Th.Royal Plymth commission, Gulbenkian Th. 2013 (Levellers Press)
THE RAPE OF EUROPE (Levellers Press) 2008
JUNG - SEVEN SERMONS TO THE DEAD 2012
A WORTHLESS MAN 2017
Musicals
NEFERTITI AND AKHENATEN 2010
THE MYSTERY OF HILL STREET Royal Court commission 2010 (Levellers Press)
DRACULA 2011 (Levellers Press)
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE 2013
Films
DRACULA THE MESSIAH , a trilogy of full length feature films, Written and directed for
Two-Cities Films 2020
{Part one DRACULA THE DECEIVER
Part Two DRACULA THE SEDUCER
Part Three DRACULA THE DESTROYER}
Short plays
THE JUG 1990 (BBC Radio)
LAZY BRÍEN 1991 (BBC Radio)
A MONOLOGUE (Oberon) Musée Dauphinoise 2000
THE MOTHER 2006
PIRATES 2006
Adaptations
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY Belgrade Theatre, Coventry 1992
Books
HELPING THEMSELVES- THE LEFT WING MIDDLE CLASSES IN THEATRE AND THE ARTS
(Levellers Press) 2008,
A WORKING CLASS ALTERNATIVE TO LABOUR 2013 (Levellers Press)
LETTERS ABOUT NOTHING 2014
A PRISONER OF PASSION - MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 2014
THE ICE FLOE GIRL 2015/2020
Film Scripts
A POET ASSASSINATED after Apollinaire 1991
CASTLE RACKRENT 1992
Translations
from Swedish
THE GHOST SONATA
THE PELICAN
SWANWHITE
THE BURNED SITE
THE STORM
THE FATHER
MISS JULIE
COMRADES { plays by Strindberg
CREDITORS all published by Oberon}
THE GREAT HIGHWAY
THE BLACK GLOVE
THE DANCE OF DEATH
EASTER
from Norwegian
THE NAME by Jon Fosse (Oberon)
SOMEONE IS GOING TO COME by Jon Fosse(Oberon)
from German
WOYZECK by Buchner (Nick Hern Books)
Application for performance for all of the above can be made to the author via
levellerspress@yahoo.co.uk. CDs of the musicals are also available on application.
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