Shows That Shaped Me: Simon Stephens

Shows That Shaped Me is a new theatre podcast from WhatsOnStage in which we ask leading theatre actors and makers about their most memorable productions, the production they wished they'd seen and the person, dead or alive, that they'd most like to work with.

This week's guest is the Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens.

A mainstay of London's new writing theatre, the Royal Court where he is now associate playwright, Stephens' work with the Sloane Square venue includes Bluebird, Herons, Nuclear War and Birdland.

Elsewhere his critically acclaimed plays include Sea Wall, which premiered at the Bush in 2008, Heisenberg, which was seen in the West End last year, and a new adaptation of Brecht's The Threepenny Opera which premiered at the National Theatre in 2016 starring Rory Kinnear and Rosalie Craig.

He's perhaps most well-known for penning the stage adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time which ran in the West End for over 1,600 performances and on Broadway for almost two years – earning Stephens major accolades on both sides of the Atlantic.

Last year his new piece with Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham and Underworld's Karl Hyde, Fatherland, premiered at the Manchester International Festival and it now transfers to the Lyric Hammersmith, running from 25 May to 23 June.

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