Navigation menu

Award-winning playwrights talk theatre at the University

Two award-winning playwrights will be discussing their work in separate public events at the University during March.

On Tuesday 6 March, Simon Stephens, the acclaimed English playwright, will discuss his work. His plays include Motortown (2006), Harper Regan (2007), Pornography (2007, commissioned by Schauspielhaus Hamburg). His most recent work includes The Trial of Ubu (at Hampstead Theatre until 25 February 2012, directed by Katie Mitchell, originally commissioned for Toneelgroep Amsterdam 2010), and Three Kingdoms (an international co-production of Theatre NO99 Tallinn/Estonia, Kammerspiele Munich/Germany, and Lyric Hammersmith, showing at London in May 2012).

Then on Tuesday 13 March, Phil Willmott, the award-winning director, artistic director, playwright, composer, librettist, and dramaturg, will visit the University. He has most recently directed Shakespeare’s rarely performed King John at the Union Theatre (London, until 11 February 2012). He is also the founding director of the theatre company The Steam Industry. Previously, he was associate artist at the Battersea Arts Centre as well as associate director of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre (Guildford) and the King’s Head Theatre (London).

Dr Peter M Boenisch, Co-Director of Kent’s European Theatre Research Network, said: ‘Simon Stephens is internationally the most performed living English playwright and we are particularly honoured to have him address our students, staff and the Canterbury public, so this is a real coup for the University.

‘The lectures with him and Phil Willmott are a further highlight in our ongoing engagement, in both teaching and research, with leading artists and makers of UK theatre.’

Both theatre talks take place at 5pm at the University’s Grimond Lecture Theatre 2 at its Canterbury campus and are free events.

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 4:56pm 8 February 2012