Acclaimed for his screenplays for TV dramas including Skins, Shameless, The Fades, This is England ’86/’88/’90 and Glue, Jack Thorne first emerged as a writer of unflinching, compassionate and often challenging plays for the stage. Described as a ‘powerful voice for Britain’s youth’ (Independent), he remains one of the most distinctive talents working in theatre today and was chosen by JK Rowling to write the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
This collection, with a revealing introduction by the author, covers a period of intense creativity – beginning with When You Cure Me (Bush Theatre, 2005), a painful – and painfully funny – play about being very young and in love, and coping with serious illness at the same time. ‘One of the year’s finest pieces of new writing’ Evening Standard
In the monologue play Stacy (Arcola Theatre, 2007), twenty-something Rob tells the story of a confusing couple of days in which everything in his life seems to have gone wrong. ‘A pin-sharp, brilliant piece of work’ Time Out
2nd May 1997 (Bush Theatre, 2009) distils all the euphoria and despair of New Labour’s landslide electoral victory into three stories told with ‘quiet profundity and verve’ (Telegraph), while Bunny (Edinburgh Fringe, 2010) is a white-knuckle ride through the streets of contemporary Britain, written for a solo female performer. ‘Terrific’ Scotsman
Red Car, Blue Car is a heartbreaking short play about guilt, grief and responsibility, written for and performed at the Bush in 2011. Finally, Mydidae (Soho Theatre, 2012), a two-hander set entirely in a bathroom, is an electrifyingly intimate account of the darker side of love which hits audiences ‘like a punch in the gut’ (Whatsonstage.com)
‘An absolutely top-class playwright’ JK Rowling
