Talk #16

Simon Stephens

Michael Pinchbeck, Reader in Theatre, interviews the internationally-acclaimed playwright, Simon Stephens. Simon joined Manchester Metropolitan University as Professor of Scriptwriting in 2017. He has staged over 40 plays over two decades, across the UK, mainland Europe and the USA, including the critically acclaimed Pornography (2007), Punk Rock (2009) and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2012), which premiered at the National Theatre and later toured on the West End and Broadway. It went onto win seven Olivier awards, then the equal record for a single play. Many recent works, including The Funfair (2015), Fatherland (2017) and Light Falls (2019) have premiered in Manchester theatres where Simon has a long history of collaboration with the Royal Exchange. Simon also currently works as Artistic Associate at the Lyric Theatre, Associate Playwright at the Royal Court and the inaugural Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre Company, Chicago.