Stella Feehily – författare

'Nothing compares with being the first person in the history of the world to see something, but timing is everything. The world has to be ready for you.'Boston, 1956. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, one of the most eminent astronomers of the twentieth century, is about to be appointed Chair of Astronomy and the first woman to head a department at Harvard University. Only two things stand in her way: a covert investigation aimed at exposing her as a Communist sympathiser, and the entrenched conservatism of her male colleagues.When a student journalist asks to profile her, it feels like an opportunity to control her own narrative – assuming, of course, that the invitation is actually what it seems…Stella Feehily's play The Lightest Element is a taut drama exploring how a challenge to social norms can be almost as difficult as overturning scientific orthodoxy. It premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Alice Hamilton.

Stella Feehily brings her trademark wit and emotional insight to this revealing play that goes behind the public face of charities, journalists and NGOs, and is drawn directly from workshops and interviews with aid workers, doctors, human rights defenders, government advisers, journalists and photographers.A seasoned human rights defender and her idealistic young colleague embark on a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. For Mathilde, it's an induction into a life less ordinary. For Sadhbh it's back to madness and chaos away from her lover and London – exactly as she likes it.But while Mathilde lets off steam with a photographer and a spliff, Sadhbh has her own encounter: tea with a smart but brutal young warlord she's investigating.Stella Feehily's play Bang Bang Bang was first performed at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, in 2011, in a production by Out of Joint that subsequently toured the UK, including performances at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in October 2011.

A witty, tender, and occasionally surreal exploration of one family's experience of the NHS.A month after stating "we will stop the top-down reorganisation of the NHS that has got in the way of patient care", the government launched the biggest top-down reorganisation the service had seen in its 65-year history.Stella Feehily's play explores one family's journey through the digestive system of the NHS, and asks: what is the prognosis for this much-loved institution?This May Hurt A Bit premiered in March 2014, on a UK tour co-produced by Out of Joint and Octagon Theatre, Bolton.