Joe Penhall

Last updated

Joe Penhall
Born1967 (age 56–57)
London, England
OccupationPlaywright, screenwriter
NationalityBritish, Australian
Notable works Blue/Orange
SpouseEmily McLaughlin
Children2

Joe Scott Penhall (born 1967) is an English-Australian playwright and screenwriter, best known for his award-winning stage play Blue/Orange , the award-winning West End musical Sunny Afternoon and creating the Netflix original series Mindhunter.

Contents

Early life

Penhall was born in London, and raised in Adelaide, Australia. [1]

Career

Penhall's first major play, Some Voices, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre's upstairs playing space in London in 1994. It was very well-received, winning the John Whiting Award, and has since been played off-Broadway twice. In 2000 Penhall adapted the play for a film with the same name directed by Simon Cellan Jones, starring Daniel Craig and Kelly Macdonald, which premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Penhall returned to the Royal Court Theatre with his second full-length play Pale Horse, which also played in the Theatre Upstairs and featured Ray Winstone, who had starred in Some Voices. A dark play, Pale Horse tells the story of a bar keeper coming to terms with the sudden death of his wife. [2]

Penhall adapted Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love in 2004 to film starring Rhys Ifans and Daniel Craig. That same year he also wrote the screenplay for BBC2's BAFTA-nominated dramatisation of Jake Arnott's novel The Long Firm (1999), [3] starring Mark Strong.

In 2000 Penhall's play Blue/Orange began its run at the National Theatre, directed by Roger Michell and starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The play centres on two NHS doctors trying to deal with a sectioned young black schizophrenic patient; it was a huge success, winning Best New Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Laurence Olivier Awards, and at the Critics' Circle. It transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year. Penhall adapted this play in 2005 for TV with a new cast. That same year he wrote and directed The Undertaker, his first short film, starring Rhys Ifans and premiering at the London Film Festival.

Penhall's follow-up play Dumb Show was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 2004, focusing on tabloid journalism. It was directed by Terry Johnson. Penhall has called this a "small light play" as opposed to the "huge dark play" Blue/Orange.

Landscape With Weapon, about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction, was first performed at the National Theatre in 2007, directed again by Roger Michell and starring Tom Hollander and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Penhall spent six years working on The Last King of Scotland , even flying to Uganda and meeting Idi Amin's henchmen; however, he requested his name be removed from the film after other writers were brought on board. [4] Penhall adapted Cormac McCarthy's book The Road in 2009 for a film starring Viggo Mortensen; for this he received wide praise, scoring a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, [5] and was named by Variety Magazine as one of their Top Ten Screenwriters to watch. [6]

In 2009 Penhall's detective drama Moses Jones , where he also served as executive producer, was shown on the BBC, winning a BAFTA for make-up design and Best Screenplay at the Roma Film Festival in 2009. [7]

In 2011 Penhall returned to the theatre with two plays: Haunted Child, staged at the Royal Court Theatre with Sophie Okonedo, and Birthday, starring Stephen Mangan and directed by long-term collaborator Roger Michell.

Penhall's first stage musical, Sunny Afternoon, with music and lyrics by Ray Davies, premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in May 2014, before transferring to London's West End. The musical won four Laurence Olivier Awards in 2015, including for Best New Musical.

In 2017, Penhall created the Netflix series Mindhunter, directed by David Fincher.

In 2018, Penhall's new play Mood Music premiered at The Old Vic, directed by Roger Michell and starring Ben Chaplin.

In 2023, Penhall was revealed to have been attached to write the third Sherlock Holmes film with star Robert Downey Jr. and director Dexter Fletcher before its development hell due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [8]

Personal life

Penhall is married and lives in London. [9]

Plays

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1995 Go Back Out —Writer
2000 Some Voices —Writer
2004 The Long Firm GangsterUncredited; also writer, 4 episodes
Enduring Love —Writer
2005 Blue/Orange —Writer
The Undertaker —Director and writer; short film
2009 Moses Jones —Writer and executive producer, 3 episodes
The Road —Writer
2015 Birthday —Writer
2017–2019 Mindhunter —Creator, 19 episodes; writer, 2 episodes; executive producer, 10 episodes
2018 King of Thieves —Writer

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal National Theatre</span> Theatre in London, England

The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT) within the UK and as the National Theatre of Great Britain internationally, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England. The theatre was founded by the actor Laurence Olivier in 1963, and many well-known actors have performed with it since.

Georgina McKee is an English actress. She won the 1997 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Our Friends in the North (1996), and earned subsequent nominations for The Lost Prince (2003) and The Street (2007). She also starred on television in The Forsyte Saga (2002) and as Caterina Sforza in The Borgias (2011). Her film appearances include Notting Hill (1999), Phantom Thread (2017), and My Policeman (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hare (playwright)</span> British playwright, screenwriter and director (born 1947)

Sir David Rippon Hare is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. Best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing The Hoursin 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and The Readerin 2008, based on the novel of the same name written by Bernhard Schlink.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristin Scott Thomas</span> British actress (born 1960)

Dame Kristin Ann Scott Thomas is a British actress. A five-time BAFTA Award and Olivier Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and the Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2008 for the Royal Court revival of The Seagull. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in The English Patient (1996).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Old Vic</span> Theatre in Waterloo, London

The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal Victoria Palace. It was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 and formally named the Royal Victoria Hall, although by that time it was already known as the "Old Vic". In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian Baylis, assumed management and began a series of Shakespeare productions in 1914. The building was damaged in 1940 during air raids and it became a Grade II* listed building in 1951 after it reopened.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Court Theatre</span> Theatre in London, England

The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, London, England. In 1956 it was acquired by and remains the home of the English Stage Company, which is known for its contributions to contemporary theatre and won the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiwetel Ejiofor</span> British actor (born 1977)

Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor is a British actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award, with nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.

Benedict John Greenwood, better known as Ben Chaplin, is a British actor. He is best known for his roles in films, including The Truth About Cats & Dogs, Washington Square, The Thin Red Line, Birthday Girl, Murder by Numbers, Stage Beauty, The New World, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Dorian Gray, Cinderella, Snowden, The Legend of Tarzan, and The Dig. His TV roles include Game On, Mad Dogs and The Nevers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jez Butterworth</span> English playwright, screenwriter and film director

Jeremy "Jez" Butterworth is an English playwright, screenwriter, and film director. He has written screenplays in collaboration with his brothers, John-Henry and Tom.

<i>Blue/Orange</i> Play written by English dramatist, Joe Penhall

Blue/Orange is a play written by English dramatist, Joe Penhall. The play is a sardonically comic piece which touches on race, mental illness and 21st-century British life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Mangan</span> English film and stage actor (born 1968)

Stephen James Mangan is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge, Seán Lincoln in Episodes, Bigwig in Watership Down, Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie, Richard Pitt in Hang Ups, Andrew in Bliss (2018), and Nathan Stern in The Split (2018–2022).

Douglas William Hodge is an English actor, director, and musician who has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as television and film where he has appeared in Robin Hood (2010), Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return and Diana (2013), Penny Dreadful (2016), Catastrophe (2018), Joker and Lost in Space (2019), and The Great (2020–2023).

Michael Bartlett is an English playwright and screenwriter for film and TV series. His 2015 psychological thriller TV series, Doctor Foster, starring Suranne Jones, won the New Drama award from National Television Awards. Bartlett also won Best Writer from the Broadcast Press Guild Awards. A BBC TV Film of Bartlett's play King Charles III was broadcast in May 2017 and while critically acclaimed, generated some controversy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Michell</span> South African-born British film director (1956–2021)

Roger Michell was a South African-born British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as Notting Hill and Venus, as well as the 1995 made-for-television film Persuasion.

Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. Educated at Birmingham University, he worked as an actor from 1971 to 1975, and has been active as a playwright since the early 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarell Alvin McCraney</span> American actor and playwright

Tarell Alvin McCraney is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He is the chair of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.

William Dudley is a British theatre designer.

<i>Privates on Parade</i> Play written by Peter Nichols

Privates on Parade: A Play with Songs in Two Acts is a 1977 farce by English playwright Peter Nichols, with music by Denis King. The drama draws upon Nichols' own experiences in the real-life Combined Services Entertainment, the postwar successor to ENSA, Entertainments National Service Association. The play is noteworthy for, inter alia, a series of musical numbers, performed by the male lead, parodying the style of such performers as Noël Coward, Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda.

Alexi Kaye Campbell is a Greek-British playwright and actor. In 2009, his play The Pride was given the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.

Kevin Elyot was a British playwright, screenwriter and actor. His most notable works include the play My Night with Reg (1994) and the film Clapham Junction (2007). His stage work has been performed by leading theatre companies including the Royal Court, National Theatre, Bush Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Donmar Warehouse and in the West End. He finished his final play, Twilight Song, not long before he died in 2014, which received a posthumous premiere at London's Park Theatre in 2017.

References

  1. ↑ Jones, Alice (28 June 2012), "Guess who's having a baby: Joe Penhall's new play, Birthday, tackles childbirth – with a twist", The Independent, London
  2. ↑ Boles, William (2011), The Argumentative Theatre of Joe Penhall, McFarland Press
  3. ↑ "The Long Firm", BBC, 2004
  4. ↑ Dawtrey, Adam (18 June 2008), "Screenwriters To Watch", Variety
  5. ↑ "The Road", Rotten Tomates, United States, 2009
  6. ↑ "Joe Penhall", Variety, United States, 2008
  7. ↑ "Penhall on Moses Jones", The Times, London, 2011
  8. ↑ O'Connell, Sean (20 April 2023). "Sherlock Holmes 3 Director Explains Why The Robert Downey Jr. Sequel Hasn't Happened Yet Despite A 'Brilliant' Script". CinemaBlend. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  9. ↑ Jones, Alice (28 June 2012). "Guess who's having a baby: Joe Penhall's new play, Birthday, tackles childbirth – with a twist". The Independent. London.
  10. ↑ Klein, Hildegard (2007), "Joe Penhall", Springer: British Theatre of the 1990s, pp. 77–90, doi:10.1057/9780230210738_7, ISBN   978-1-349-28189-3
  11. ↑ "Some Voices", Royal Court, 1995
  12. ↑ "Pale Horse", Royal Court, 1995
  13. ↑ "Love and Understanding", Bush Theatre, 1997, archived from the original on 5 April 2012
  14. ↑ "The Bullet", Donmar Warehouse, 1998
  15. ↑ "Blue/Orange", National Theatre, 2000, archived from the original on 25 August 2011
  16. ↑ "Dumb Show", Royal Court Theatre, 2004
  17. ↑ "Landscape With Weapon", National Theatre, 2007, archived from the original on 17 September 2009
  18. ↑ "Haunted Child", Royal Court Theatre, 2011
  19. ↑ "Birthday", Royal Court Theatre, 2012
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.