Polly Stenham | |
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| Born | 16 July 1986 London, England |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
Polly Stenham MBE FRSL (born 16 July 1986) is an English playwright known for her play That Face , which she wrote when she was 19 years old.
Polly Stenham | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | 16 July 1986 London, England |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
Polly Stenham MBE FRSL (born 16 July 1986) is an English playwright known for her play That Face , which she wrote when she was 19 years old.
Stenham was born and raised in London. She attributes her love of theatre to her father as he took her to various shows from a young age, including many at the Royal Court Theatre which would later stage her first play.
Before university she worked for the Ambassador Theatre Group and the Arcola Theatre, and during this time she enrolled in the Royal Court Young Writers Programme and wrote her first play.
Stenham's debut play That Face premiered at the Royal Court Theatre [1] in London in April 2007. It was directed by Jeremy Herrin and starred Lindsay Duncan as the alcoholic mother Martha and Matt Smith as her son Henry. Stenham won the Evening Standard 's 2007 Charles Wintour Award, [2] the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright [3] and the 2007 Theatrical Management Association Award for Best New Play. [4]
The play received praise from some reviewers, with Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph commenting:
This is one of the most astonishing debuts I have seen in more than 30 years of theatre reviewing. Its author, Polly Stenham, a graduate of the Royal Court's Young Writers Programme, is 20 now, just 19 when she wrote a play that sent me reeling into the night... In every respect this is a remarkable and unforgettable piece of theatre. [5]
Stenham represented the Royal Court at the 2007 Latitude Festival before That Face transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End [6] in 2008 with largely the same cast and again under Jeremy Herrin's direction.
Her second play, Tusk Tusk premiered in the downstairs theatre at the Royal Court in March 2009 directed by Jeremy Herrin. [7]
In 2011 Stenham, along with friend Victoria Williams, opened an art gallery, [8] the Cob Studios and Gallery (named after her art collector father) in Camden, London. [9]
In 2013 her third play No Quarter was staged at the Royal Court, directed by Jeremy Herrin and starring Tom Sturridge. The company also included Taron Egerton in his first year after studying at RADA. [10] [11]
In 2013 film director Nicolas Winding Refn confirmed I Walk With the Dead as his next project [12] and that Polly Stenham was confirmed to write the screenplay with Refn. They stated that the film will have an all female cast. Refn admitted that he asked Stenham to write the screenplay to tackle his own perceived inability to write female characters. [13] The project was later renamed The Neon Demon and was released in June 2016 to mixed reviews.
In 2014 her fourth play Hotel was staged at the Temporary Theatre, The National Theatre, directed by Maria Aberg.
In 2018, Julie, her adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie, was staged at Lyttleton Theatre, directed by Carrie Cracknell and starring Vanessa Kirby and Eric Kofi AbrefaIn.
In 2017 Walter & Zoniel's portrait of Polly was hung at the National Portrait Gallery and in 2018 Polly was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative. [14]
In October 2019 her first collection, Plays I, comprising her first four plays, That Face, Tusk Tusk, No Quarter and Hotel was published by Faber & Faber. Stenham's work is studied at GCSE, A-level and University level.
She is currently developing a TV series [15] with Bad Wolf Productions.
Stenham was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to theatre and literature. [16]
Stenham lives in London.
She is a fan of Radiohead's album In Rainbows , which she says she listened to constantly while writing Tusk Tusk. [17]
Rachael Atlanta Stirling is an English stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Laurence Olivier Award for her stage work. She played Nancy Astley in the BBC drama Tipping the Velvet, and Millie in the ITV series The Bletchley Circle. She has also guest starred in Lewis and one episode of Doctor Who, co-starring with her mother Diana Rigg.
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Simon Stephens is a British-Irish playwright and Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University. Having taught on the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for many years, he is now an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith. He is the inaugural Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre Company, Chicago, where four of his plays, Harper Regan,Motortown, Wastwater, and Birdland had their U.S. premieres. His writing is widely performed throughout Europe and, along with Dennis Kelly and Martin Crimp, he is one of the most performed English-language writers in Germany.
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That Face is a two-act play written by Polly Stenham. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 26 April 2007, directed by Jeremy Herrin. The play was revived at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in 2008, opening on 1 May. It made its American premiere in May 2010, at the Manhattan Theatre Club, running through until 27 June.
Dominic Cooke is an English director and writer.
Toby Finn Regbo is an English actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. He is known for his role as young Nemo Nobody in the science fiction drama Mr. Nobody (2009), as Francis II of France in Reign (2013-2017), Æthelred in The Last Kingdom (2017–2020), Tommaso Peruzzi in Medici: Masters of Florence (2019) and Jack Blackfriars on A Discovery of Witches (2022) and he starred in Platform 7 (2023).
The Priory is a play by Michael Wynne that opened at the downstairs theatre of the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2009. The production starred Jessica Hynes, Rupert Penry-Jones, Charlotte Riley, Alastair Mackenzie, Joseph Millson and Rachael Stirling. After receiving good reviews, its run was extended. Michael Wynne won the Olivier Award for 'Best New Comedy' for The Priory. Stirling was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for her role as Rebecca.
Jeremy Herrin is an English theatre director. He is one of the founding directors of Second Half Productions.
Carrie Cracknell is a British theatre director. She was artistic director of the Gate Theatre, London from 2007 to 2012. She was associate director at both the Young Vic (2012–2013) and the Royal Court (2013–2014).
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Spur of the Moment is the debut play from Anya Reiss, who wrote it at age 17. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre London in 2010, directed by Jeremy Herrin.
Natalie Abrahami is a British theatre, film and opera director. She was Associate Director and Genesis Fellow at the Young Vic in London 2013-16 and Associate Artist at Hull Truck Theatre. From 2007–12 she was joint Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre with Carrie Cracknell.
The 2009 Evening Standard Theatre Awards were announced on 2009. The shortlist was revealed on 2009 and the longlist on 2 November 2009.
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