David Greig – författare

The third volume in an anthology series of the most original and exciting new plays for the nineties Europe, set in an international rail station linking several countries examines the cultural shifts of the post Berlin wall years and is "a fierce, compassionate mightily ambitious drama...There is a sharp analytic intelligence...about this gripping play." (The Scotsman) Uganda is set in a front sitting room but explores children's love of their fathers, it won the Thames Television Best Play Award in 1994 and "confirms my feeling that Johnson is on the threshold of great things" (Guardian). Some Voices by Joe Penhall, looks at mental illness and the love between two brothers (it has since been made into a feature film), it is "haunting and jazzily contemporary. Penhall's post-Pinter is promising" (Observer). Ashes and Sand reflects on the world of school leavers in England's "Deep South" and won the George Devine Award in 1994: "Judy Upton's vicious little hand grenade of a play...takes us into the bleak world of a violent girl gang living in a seaside resort." (Independent)

"The most important playwright to have emerged north of the border in years." (Scotsman) The Architect charts the rise and fall of Leo Black, once an idealistic and idolised designer, whose magnificent visions are now crumbling, along with his family, in the light of grubby reality. "Provides convincing evidence of David Greig's confident transition from a dramatist of promise to one of stature." (Indpendent)

"The most important playwright to have emerged north of the border in years." (Scotsman) Europe is set in a railway station at an unnamed border town where old and new Europeans weave a tale of love, loss and longing. "Fierce, compassionate, mightily ambitious drama...There is the sharp, analytic intelligence, the crackling inventiveness of a real writer buzzing about this gripping play." (The Scotsman) The Architect charts the rise and fall of Leo Black, once an idealistic and idolised designer, whose magnificent visions are now crumbling, along with his family, in the light of grubby reality. "Provides convincing evidence of David Greig's confident transition from a dramatist of promise to one of stature." (Indpendent)

"The most important playwright to have emerged north of the border in years." (Scotsman) Two Soviet cosmonauts, losing contact with the world they left behind; a Scottish civil servant in the throes of a midlife crisis; a Norwegian peace negotiator; a Russian erotic dancer; a French UFO researcher and an Edinburgh speech therapist in search of her missing husband are brought together through an extraordinary thread of connections, which bring us into contact with both the intimate and the epic. Space odyssey meets unrequited love story as The Cosmonaut's last message...explores the incessant search for harmony and peace within all of us.

Two plays about cultural identity from Scotland and Catalonia, which received their English-language premieres in August 1999 at the Royal Lyceum Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival in Traverse Theatre Company productions The Speculator is set in Paris in 1720. The French playwright Pierre Marivaux is playing games with love and chance. Europe is in chaos. And John Law, a Scot from Edinburgh, is the richest and most powerful man in the world. He upsets order and alters the value of money. How long can his influence last? David Greig's new play is a rambunctious costume drama that toys with history and questions whether imagination can, or should, triumph over truth. Some events in the play are true. The rest is speculation. The Meeting, translated by John London, follows a string of chance encounters. A businessman on a journey crosses paths and shares his life with those of passing strangers. An old man is convinced there is buried treasure in the city park. A watchmaker talks to him about time. A young man and a traveller speak of their discontent.Shared pasts and common desires create a web of complexity in Luisa Cunille's challenging new play, turning random meetings into rendezvous with destiny."David Greig is the most consistently interesting, prolific and artistically ambitious writer of his generation" (Scotsman); "Frequently compared to Harold Pinter...Cunille has discovered a special style" (ABC, Madrid)

A new play for the Royal Shakespeare Company "World's moving. People moving. We've only to cross the sea. Same sea we're looking at. The world's waiting for us. We've only to take our place it." In 1936, 1974 and 1996, a woman shapes dramatic events in a rural community on the Scottish coast, reflecting the shifting political and social fabric of Britain in the 20th century. Victoria will received its World premiere in London at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2000."David Greig is the most consistently interesting, prolific and artistically ambitious writer of his generation" (Scotsman)

The first collection of plays of one of Scotland's best-known contemporary dramatists EUROPE is set in a railway station at an unnamed border town where old and new Europeans weave a tale of love, loss and longing. "Fierce, compassionate, mightily ambitious drama...there is the sharp, analytic intelligence, the crackling inventiveness of a real writer buzzing about this gripping play" Scotsman THE ARCHITECT charts the rise and fall of Leo Black, once an idealistic and idolised designer, whose magnificent visions are now crumbling, along with his family, in the light of grubby reality. "Provides convincing evidence of David Greig's confident transition from a dramatist of promise to one of stature" Independent. Lyrical, soulful and darkly funny, THE COSMONAUT'S LAST MESSAGE weaves together the stories of a fraught Scottish couple whose TV is on the blink, a Norwegian UN peace negotiator, a young prostitute, a French UFO researcher, a pregnant police woman and two forgotten Cosmonauts who sadly orbit the planet."The most important playwright to have emerged north of the border in years" Scotsman

Suspect Culture's Casanova follows the travels of an internationally renowned artist who is curating the final exhibition of his illustrious career: an account of his life as the world's greatest lover. As the exhibition nears completion and the opening in his home town approaches, a cuckolded husband's plan to avenge the loss of his wife also draws to a close.Raising questions about love, honesty and life lived in the pursuit of pleasure, Casanova is an uncompromising examination of contemporary sex and morality.Casanova premiered at Tron Theatre, Glasgow, in February 2001.

I have noticed that something draws us towards outlying islands. Some force pulls. In 1939, on the eve of war, two young ornithologists arrive on a remote Scottish island, sent by the government to survey the bird life. With them are Kirk, the island's authoritarian leaseholder, and his niece Ellen. Left alone on a scrap of land surrounded by the vast Atlantic, they find themselves overtaken by hidden desires.Outlying Islands premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in July 2002 and transferred to the Royal Court, London in Autumn 2002. It was revived at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in February 2025.

A man is found lying in the snow at the foot of the Pyrenees. He remembers nothing. He believes he is British. A young woman from the British Consulate is dispatched to confirm his nationality and to try to piece together his identity. When Vivienne, a middle aged woman from Edinburgh arrives, she presents him with a history he doesn't recognise. Is he really who she says he is? As the snow melts on the mountains the man must decide which reality he will enter - Anna's or Vivienne's? Who is he really?Pyrenees premiered at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow in March 2005 in a co-production between Paines Plough and the Tron Theatre Company, Glasgow, in association with Palace Theatre, Watford.

David Greig: Plays 1 brings together four key plays by the playwright described by the Daily Telegraph as 'one of the most interesting and adventurous British dramatists of his generation'. In Outlying Island two young Cambridge ornithologists are sent to a remote island. Together with its authoritarian leaseholder and his niece they observe an innocence that is about to be destroyed forever. San Diego offers a strange and occasionally nightmarish journey into the heart of the contemporary American dream, weaving together stories of illegal immigrants, of film stars and whores, and even of the playwright himself. Pyrenees follows a man found lying in the snow in the foothills as he tries to piece together his identity. In The American Pilot a crash-landing in a remote valley in a distant country raises questions about how the world sees America and how America sees the world. The collection also includes a trilogy of short plays, Being Norwegian, Kyoto and Brewers Fayre, published here for the first time.Outlying Island 'I can't recommend it highly enough . . . A rich, charged play, veering between the comic and the poetic as innocence gives way to experience.' TelegraphSan Diego 'A surreal and intriguing piece of theatre . . . dazzling . . . Home and awake from the mythical dream that is San Diego, the name David Greig remains imprinted on our minds.' Independent Pyrenees 'All the wit and intelligence of previous works, probing away at concerns that are both contemporary and timeless...A classy, rewarding, engaging drama, Greig's best to date.' The TimesThe American Pilot 'One of the most intellectually stimulating dramatists around. A richly provocative new play.' Guardian

Yellow Moon is a modern Bonnie and Clyde tale that follows the fortunes of two teenagers on the run. Silent Leila is an introverted girl who has a passion for celebrity magazines. Stag Lee Macalinden is the deadest of dead-end kids in a dead-end town. They never meant to get mixed up in a murder... but now they need a place to hide.Yellow Moon explores what it means to live in a celebrity-obsessed world and what it is that defines who you are when you're 17 years old. The play premiered at the Circle Studio of Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, in September 2006, and won the 2008 Brain Way Award for Best Play for Young People.

Midsummer's weekend in Edinburgh. It's raining. Bob's a failing car salesman on the fringes of the city's underworld. Helena's a high-powered divorce lawyer with a taste for other people's husbands. She's totally out of his league; he's not her type at all. They absolutely should not sleep together. Which is, of course, why they do. Midsummer is the story of a great lost weekend of bridge-burning, car chases, wedding bust-ups, bondage miscalculations, midnight trysts and self-loathing hangovers.

Late at night in a foreign land, an English army sweeps through the landscape under cover of darkness and takes the seat of power. Struggling to contain his men and the ambitions of his superiors, the commanding officer attempts to negotiate the unspoken rules of this alien country. He seeks to restore peace to a country ravaged by war. This is Scotland in the eleventh century at the height of the fight for succession of the Scottish throne. David Greig's Dunsinane premiered in February 2010 at Hampstead Theatre, London, in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Late at night in a foreign land, an English army sweeps through the landscape under cover of darkness and takes the seat of power. Struggling to contain his men and the ambitions of his superiors, the commanding officer attempts to negotiate the unspoken rules of this alien country. He seeks to restore peace to a country ravaged by war. This is Scotland in the eleventh century at the height of the fight for succession of the Scottish throne. David Greig's Dunsinane premiered in February 2010 at Hampstead Theatre, London, in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

David Greig: Plays 1 brings together four key plays by the playwright described by the Daily Telegraph as 'one of the most interesting and adventurous British dramatists of his generation'. In Outlying Island two young Cambridge ornithologists are sent to a remote island. Together with its authoritarian leaseholder and his niece they observe an innocence that is about to be destroyed forever. San Diego offers a strange and occasionally nightmarish journey into the heart of the contemporary American dream, weaving together stories of illegal immigrants, of film stars and whores, and even of the playwright himself. Pyrenees follows a man found lying in the snow in the foothills as he tries to piece together his identity. In The American Pilot a crash-landing in a remote valley in a distant country raises questions about how the world sees America and how America sees the world. The collection also includes a trilogy of short plays, Being Norwegian, Kyoto and Brewers Fayre, published here for the first time. Outlying Island 'I can't recommend it highly enough . . . A rich, charged play, veering between the comic and the poetic as innocence gives way to experience.' Telegraph San Diego 'A surreal and intriguing piece of theatre . . . dazzling . . . Home and awake from the mythical dream that is San Diego, the name David Greig remains imprinted on our minds.' Independent Pyrenees 'All the wit and intelligence of previous works, probing away at concerns that are both contemporary and timeless...A classy, rewarding, engaging drama, Greig's best to date.' The TimesThe American Pilot 'One of the most intellectually stimulating dramatists around. A richly provocative new play.' Guardian

One wintry morning academic Prudencia Hart sets off to a conference in the Scottish Borders. Stranded there by snow, she is swept off on a dream-like journey of self discovery, complete with magical moments, devilish encounters and wittily wild music.'You shouldn't miss this for the world . . . Rambunctiously life-affirming and touchingly beautiful.' Herald'More vibrantly alive than any piece of theatre I've seen in Scotland for years.' ScotsmanInspired by the Border ballads, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart toured throughout Scotland in 2011 in a production by the National Theatre of Scotland.

Duck Macatarsney cares for her biker dad, Duke, whose MS is getting worse. Duke is a spliff-smoking (for medicinal reasons you understand), bike-riding, heavy-metal- and horror-movie-loving, pizza-eating widower who has brought up Duck since the death of her mum in a crash. The two of them are just about surviving when one morning the Duke wakes up blind and the Duck hears Social Services are coming to take her away.The Monster in the Hall follows Duck as she tries to protect her world from the terrifying prospect of change.David Greig's The Monster in the Hall premiered at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in autumn 2010, and was staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 2011 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Duck Macatarsney cares for her biker dad, Duke, whose MS is getting worse. Duke is a spliff-smoking (for medicinal reasons you understand), bike-riding, heavy-metal- and horror-movie-loving, pizza-eating widower who has brought up Duck since the death of her mum in a crash. The two of them are just about surviving when one morning the Duke wakes up blind and the Duck hears Social Services are coming to take her away.The Monster in the Hall follows Duck as she tries to protect her world from the terrifying prospect of change.David Greig's The Monster in the Hall premiered at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in autumn 2010, and was staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 2011 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

One wintry morning academic Prudencia Hart sets off to a conference in the Scottish Borders. Stranded there by snow, she is swept off on a dream-like journey of self discovery, complete with magical moments, devilish encounters and wittily wild music.Inspired by the Border ballads, The National Theatre of Scotland's production of The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig has toured throughout Scotland and the world since 2011. In 2013 the Royal Court Theatre presented the London premiere of this production as part of their Theatre Local strand of site specific productions. 'You shouldn't miss this for the world . . . Rambunctiously life-affirming and touchingly beautiful.' Herald'More vibrantly alive than any piece of theatre I've seen in Scotland for years.' Scotsman

'I have been thinking I might go berserk.'When Claire, a priest, survives an atrocity she sets out on a quest to answer the most difficult question of all: 'Why?' It's a journey that takes her to the edge of reason, science, politics and faith.David Greig's daring new play explores our destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable and asks how far forgiveness can stretch in the face of brutality.The Events was commissioned and first produced by Actors Touring Company in co-production with the Young Vic Theatre, Schauspielhaus Wein and Brageteatret. It premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2013.

'I have been thinking I might go berserk.'When Claire, a priest, survives an atrocity she sets out on a quest to answer the most difficult question of all: 'Why?' It's a journey that takes her to the edge of reason, science, politics and faith.David Greig's daring new play explores our destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable and asks how far forgiveness can stretch in the face of brutality.The Events was commissioned and first produced by Actors Touring Company in co-production with the Young Vic Theatre, Schauspielhaus Wein and Brageteatret. It premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2013.

A man is found lying in the snow at the foot of the Pyrenees. He remembers nothing. He believes he is British. A young woman from the British Consulate is dispatched to confirm his nationality and to try to piece together his identity. When Vivienne, a middle aged woman from Edinburgh arrives, she presents him with a history he doesn't recognise. Is he really who she says he is? As the snow melts on the mountains the man must decide which reality he will enter - Anna's or Vivienne's? Who is he really?Pyrenees premiered at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow in March 2005 in a co-production between Paines Plough and the Tron Theatre Company, Glasgow, in association with Palace Theatre, Watford.

A spy plane crash-lands in a remote valley in a distant country. The local villagers take in the wounded pilot and argue his fate. The American Pilot explores the way the world sees America and the way America sees the world.The American Pilot premiered with the RSC at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon in April 2005.'Greig at his best.' Evening Standard.'One of the most intellectually stimulating dramatists around... A richly provocative new play.' Guardian'The sheer brilliance of Greig, storyteller and seer.' Herald.The American Pilot premiered with the RSC at The Other Place, Stratford Upon Avon, in April 2005.

Yellow Moon is a modern Bonnie and Clyde tale that follows the fortunes of two teenagers on the run. Silent Leila is an introverted girl who has a passion for celebrity magazines. Stag Lee Macalinden is the deadest of dead-end kids in a dead-end town. They never meant to get mixed up in a murder... but now they need a place to hide.Yellow Moon explores what it means to live in a celebrity-obsessed world and what it is that defines who you are when you're 17 years old. The play premiered at the Circle Studio of Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, in September 2006, and won the 2008 Brain Way Award for Best Play for Young People.

The first thing I remember is... falling.A young man arrives in a dying city with seashells in his pockets. He doesn't know who he is, or how he got here. He goes by the only name he can think of: Lanark. Lanark is a portrait of the outsider artist as a young man, an exploded life story like no other. This theatrical re-imagining of Alasdair Gray's classic novel takes us from the Dragon Chambers to the Cathedral of Unthank, from the post-war Glasgow School of Art to the sinister underground Institute, from the heavenly city of Provan to the hellish Elite Café, combining science-fiction, realism, fantasy, and playful storytelling.'Insanely ambitious... a heady, unsettling, unpredictable dream... this is a darkly playful and intriguingly dislocated evening in which chronological time, theatre's fourth wall, character conventions and all expectations get smashed.' GuardianLanark: A Life in Three Acts was conceived in collaboration by David Greig and Graham Eatough and adapted for the stage in collaboration with the creative team. It was presented as a co-production between the Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival at the Edinburgh International Festival 2015.

The first thing I remember is... falling.A young man arrives in a dying city with seashells in his pockets. He doesn't know who he is, or how he got here. He goes by the only name he can think of: Lanark. Lanark is a portrait of the outsider artist as a young man, an exploded life story like no other. This theatrical re-imagining of Alasdair Gray's classic novel takes us from the Dragon Chambers to the Cathedral of Unthank, from the post-war Glasgow School of Art to the sinister underground Institute, from the heavenly city of Provan to the hellish Elite Café, combining science-fiction, realism, fantasy, and playful storytelling.'Insanely ambitious... a heady, unsettling, unpredictable dream... this is a darkly playful and intriguingly dislocated evening in which chronological time, theatre's fourth wall, character conventions and all expectations get smashed.' GuardianLanark: A Life in Three Acts was conceived in collaboration by David Greig and Graham Eatough and adapted for the stage in collaboration with the creative team. It was presented as a co-production between the Citizens Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival at the Edinburgh International Festival 2015.

In 1928 a journalist asked George Mallory why he wanted to climb Everest. Mallory said, 'Because it's there.'Joe Simpson's memoir Touching the Void, international bestseller and BAFTA-winning film, charts his struggle for survival on the perilous Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes aged twenty-five.Adapted for the stage by David Greig, Joe's story explodes into a bold theatrical fantasia. We discover the counter-cultural world of Alpine climbing and the sensual joy of the mountains; we bear witness to the appalling moment when Joe's climbing partner Simon Yates, battered by freezing winds and tethered to the injured Simpson, makes the critical decision to cut the rope.Tense, funny and inquisitive, Touching the Void explores the mind's extraordinarily rich reservoirs of strength and imagination when teetering on the edge of death.David Greig's Touching the Void premiered at Bristol Old Vic, Bristol in September 2018.

Two plays about cultural identity from Scotland and Catalonia, which received their English-language premières in August 1999 at the Royal Lyceum Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival in Traverse Theatre Company productionsThe Speculator by David Greig is set in Paris in 1720. The French playwright Pierre Marivaux is playing games with love and chance. Europe is in chaos. And John Law, a Scot from Edinburgh, is the richest and most powerful man in the world. He upsets order and alters the value of money. How long can his influence last? David Greig''s new play is a rambunctious costume drama that toys with history and questions whether imagination can, or should, triumph over truth. Some events in the play are true. The rest is speculation. The Meeting by Lluïsa Cunillé and translated by John London, follows a string of chance encounters. A businessman on a journey crosses paths and shares his life with those of passing strangers. An old man is convinced there is buried treasure in the city park. A watchmaker talks to him about time. A young man and a traveller speak of their discontent. Shared pasts and common desires create a web of complexity in Luisa Cunillé''s challenging play, turning random meetings into rendezvous with destiny."David Greig is the most consistently interesting, prolific and artistically ambitious writer of his generation" (Scotsman)"Frequently compared to Harold Pinter...Cunillé has discovered a special style" (ABC, Madrid)