100
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100, winner of a Scotsman Fringe First Award 2002, received a clutch of five star reviews at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and enjoyed a sell out run. Demand for tickets was so high, the play was staged twice a day, transferring to the 180 seat Pleasance Dome 1, for the extra performances.
100 will be transferring to London before embarking on a world tour including Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
‘This breathtaking piece of theatre. I do believe I will remember it in my head and my heart all of my life. It is a tiny, huge, simple, complex play that touched me in places I didn’t even know I had… This play moved me more profoundly than anything I can remember seeing in theatre.’ - Kate Copstick – The Scotsman.
‘100’ was developed with international theatre company The Imaginary Body (link). Imagine that you must choose one single memory from your life and capture it with a magical camera… That choosing this memory is your only way of passing through to eternity and that all other memories will be erased forever. Choose now from your whole life, from all you’ve ever done, felt or thought. What is the one thing you treasure most?
Devised by Christopher Heimann (director), Diene Petterle (producer) and Neil Monaghan (writer), 100 is a minimalist piece of physical theatre. Using only four boxes, a few bamboo canes and the skill and energy of five actors, whole worlds are created.
‘Bamboo sticks become trains, swings, steering wheels and bar stools with extraordinary precision in this stunning piece’ – The List
Beautiful People
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Beautiful People is Monaghan’s first full-length commission for the Stephen Joseph Theatre. The play, a hard-hitting black comedy, received wide-spread press attention and rave reviews (…compulsive viewing… genuinely entertaining – The Guardian Guide. …stunningly original… brilliantly achieves his purpose – Channel 4 Teletext).
Commissioned by Sir Alan Ayckbourn, this state of the nation play, starred Stephen Beckett (Coronation Street, The Bill) and Gina Bellman (Coupling, Blackeyes). It is a darkly comic story of money, sex, duplicity and power. In an arguably post-ideological society, where how something is perceived is more important than how it really is, the play asks if there is still a place left for real, passionate belief.
Eye Contact.
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Monaghan’s play Eye Contact caused a storm when it opened at the Riverside Studios in November 2000. Set in the world of table dancing, the play explores ideas of sexual fantasy in a society where money can alter the whole relationship between men and women.
Regarded by some as the most controversial play of 2000, Eye Contact is a raw and honest exploration of the table-dancing phenomenon. This is a world where men can pay women to listen to them talk. And the more money a man pays the more interesting the woman will make him feel. But for some, fantasy is not enough, the real aim is to find out the reality behind a dancer’s smile.
Eye Contact starred Kelly Brook as the feisty Anya, a troubled dancer who plays an increasingly desperate game of persuasion and deception with rich, city banker Hugo (Keir Charles).
The show sold out its entire run at the Riverside Studios within hours of the box office opening.
‘The audience had come to see girls taking their kit off, but they stayed to hear what Neil Monaghan had to say in his intelligent, well written piece’ – Theatre Record.
Bolt From The Blue.
This hour long comedy drama was Neil Monaghan’s first commission from Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
The play starred Nick Haverson and Olivier award winning Janie Dee as Matt and Steph a couple on the verge of marriage. However a series of complications and revelations lead the two to realise they know practically nothing about each other.
Bolt from the Blue was a huge success in Scarborough, enjoying packed houses and rave reviews. This led to a second commission from the SJT.
Dot Com.
Monaghan’s second commission, Dot Com, was written specifically for actresses Charlie Hayes and Antonia Pemberton. It tells the story of Dot, a woman in her sixties, and Maddy, Dot’s home help. For different reasons these two woman struggle to learn the intricacies of the internet. In a story reminiscent of Pygmalian, Dot uses the net to influence, manipulate and ‘improve’ Maddy’s life. Only Maddy doesn’t necessarily agree with Dot’s plan.
Monaghan has recently adapted the play for BBC Radio. The play was broadcast on Radio 4 on October 18th 2002 starring the original cast.
The success of Dot Com in Scarborough led to Monaghan being commissioned to write Beautiful People, a full-length drama to be staged in the 400 seat, main stage at the Stephen Joseph Theatre this October.
The Good Fight.
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When rising star of local politics Alan Strickland takes a mistress, his wife gets religion. But Fran’s new faith fails to bring peace and goodwill – as she draws her family into a domestic holy war.
The Cenci.
‘a gripping and original slice of physical theatre.’ – Manchester Evening News.
‘Physical theatre at its stunning best’ – The Courier
The Cenci is a dark tale of murder, corruption, incest and the terrifying forces of nature. Count Cenci is a man obsessed by the purity of evil. He openly celebrates his own depravity, glorying in his freedom from a world of moral hypocrisy. He cannot lie, but his truth is pitiless and brutal; a truth that will destroy anyone who stands in his way.
Produced by Monaghan’s own theatre company; This Way Up, the work was inspired by the work of theatrical visionary Antonin Artaud. Artaud used the Cenci legend in an attempt to create ‘total theatre’ combining dialogue with dance and movement. The company modernised Artaud’s 1935 experiment by creating a powerful new text, together with dynamic choreography and aggressive physical action.
The Cenci was nominated for the Manchester Evening News Fringe Award.
‘… this is a compelling meditation on what it means to be truly honest in a world bound by hypocritical morality. The narrative is illustrated by fluid choreography and is acted with a dynamic intensity that snarls and sneers at love, death and the whole damn thing with a devotion verging on passion.’ – The List.
Other plays staged at Edinburgh include Burnout, Under Glass and The Bloody
Chamber.
Television commissions.
Peace and Love Story – A sitcom commissioned and developed by BBC television.
Bella Donna – A comedy drama series commissioned and developed by Granada.
Life’s Too Short – A comedy series in development with the BBC.