Song from Far Away

For more than twenty-five years Simon Stephens’ work has been widely translated and produced throughout the world. He has won many Awards including Olivier and Tony Awards for new plays. His 2026 play An Ark staged by Tim Drum Collective at the Shed in New York was one of the first plays ever written for Mixed Reality . His radical adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Vanya, starring Andrew Scott ran in London’s West End and at the Lucille Lortel , New York between Autumn 23 and Spring 25 and was screened to phenomenal success on NT Live and NT Home. His adaptation of Jose Saramago’s Blindness was made into a light and sound installation that was produced internationally during the Covid 19 pandemic. His most famous play is his adaptation of Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He has had thirty five original plays produced professionally.He has written new English language versions of masterpieces by Chekhov, Ibsen and Brecht, collaborated with the world’s leading theatre practitioners (Patrice Chereau, Ivo Van Hove, Marianne Elliott, Katie Mitchell) and produced original work throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. He has been Artistic Associate at the Lyric, Hammersmith and Associate Playwright at the Royal Court Theatre. He has taught playwriting workshops in five continents. He has presented four series of the celebrated Playwright’s Podcast from the Royal Court Theatre. He is a Professor at the Writing School of Manchester Metropolitan University. His book A Working Diary was published by Methuen Bloomsbury in 2016. He lives in East London with his wife, three children, their snake, two cats and two dogs.Mark Eitzel has released over 17 albums of original material with American Music Club and as a solo artist. The Guardian has called him “America’s greatest living lyricist,” and Rolling Stone once gave him their Songwriter of the Year award. Born in California his family travelled to Okinawa, Taiwan and eventually to the UK where he spent his formative years. He eventually moved back to San Francisco and in 1983 formed AMC who released seven albums before breaking up in 1995. The band reunited in 2004 for two full-lengths, Love Songs for Patriots and The Golden Age. In April of 2012 while working on his last solo record, Eitzel suffered a heart attack which forced him to slow down and delayed the album’s release. In 2015, he wrote music for Simon Stephens’ Song from Far Away, (Toneelgroep Amsterdam and Young Vic; dir. Ivo Van Hove) his second collaboration with the English playwright following the Brighton based Marine Parade (Brighton Festival; dir. Jo McInnes). In 2017 Mark released 'Hey Mr Ferryman' which UNCUT magazine called "Eitzel at his unflinching best" and Q said "Eitzel's best album in years" with Spain's El Pais gave it new album of the week as did Rolling Stone Germany. Mark is again collaborating with Simon Stephens on a new musical ‘Cornelia St’ (Atlantic Theatre; dir. Neil Pepe) debuting Feb 2023 and also a solo album tentatively titled “Fall Risk” The American Music Club early back catalogue will be reissued as a box set at the end of 2023.