DAVID HARROW SWINGS BY FOR A CHAT

Find out what goes on inside the mind of a playwright, Sunday 8 Nov....

Catch David Harrower, writer of Knives In Hens, speaking after this Sunday's (8 November) performance, presented in partnership with Project Arts Centre at Smock Alley Theatre. Tickets on sale now.

David was born and brought up in Edinburgh; he now lives and writes in Glasgow.

KNIVES IN HENS (Traverse Theatre 1995) was his first professional production: a brilliant theatrical debut that proved a critical and popular success, the production transferring to the Bush Theatre later the same year. KNIVES IN HENS was revived at the Traverse in 1997 and received its German premiere at Berlin`s Deutsches Theater, where it won the Theater Heute Best Foreign Play (Critics Award) 1997. It has been translated for performance in more than twenty countries including France, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Colombia, Australia and America.

Other work includes an adaptation of John Wyndham’s THE CHRYSALIDS (RNT / BT Connections) and a play for BBC Radio 4, 54% ACRYLIC which aired in Spring 1998 and was nominated for a Sony Radio Award.

David’s second original stage play KILL THE OLD TORTURE THEIR YOUNG was performed in August 1998 at The Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, again receiving great critical acclaim. It was performed in Germany in translation in autumn 1999. For this play he was awarded the Meyer Whitworth Prize 1999.

In 2001, his adaptations of Pirandello’s SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR and Buchner’s WOYZECK were produced at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and the Young Vic respectively and his new original play PRESENCE was produced by the Royal Court Theatre, London. His English language version of Jon Fosse's THE GIRL ON THE SOFA was presented by the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2002. His translation of Chekhov's IVANOV opened at the National Theatre in London in September 2002. His play DARK EARTH was presented by the Traverse Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival 2003. David’s version of Horvath’s TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS opened at the National in October 2003.

His widely acclaimed play BLACKBIRD was commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival and premiered at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh in August 2005. The production then transferred to the Albery Theatre, London in February 2006. BLACKBIRD was on the final shortlist for the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award, it won Best Play in the Scottish Theatre Critics Awards and Best New Play at the 2007 Laurence Olivier Awards. It has since been performed worldwide, with productions as far afield as Japan, Mexico, Australia, France, Sweden and India. Landmark Productions presented the second major English-language production of the play, in February 2007, and it had its New York premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club later that year.

David’s adaptation of Schiller’s MARY STUART for the National Theatre of Scotland toured Scotland in October 2006 and his translation of Brecht’s GOOD SOUL OF SZECHUAN opened at the Young Vic Theatre in May 2008.

David currently has two films in development, one being a film version of BLACKBIRD. Early next year, his adaptation of Schnitzler`s play Leibelei, SWEET NOTHINGS will open at the Young Vic.