ABOUT JOHN RETALLACK
John has written over twenty plays and adaptations for theatre and for radio. Amongst other nominations and awards, he has won an Olivier, two coveted TMA/SWET awards, two Herald Angels and one Fringe First.
DIRECTOR
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John Retallack has been a theatre director for over thirty years.
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He was the founding Artistic Director of Actors Touring Company/ATC London (1977 - 85) and Artistic Director of Oldham Coliseum (1985 - 88). He was Artistic Director of Oxford Stage Company at The Oxford Playhouse (1989 - 99) and founding Artistic Director of the new writing company, Company of Angels (2000 - 2010). From 2010 to 2013 he was Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic where he remains an Associate Artist.
He has been a guest director of productions in America, Japan, India, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Holland and Ireland. All of his companies have toured internationally and John’s work has been seen all over the world.
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John recently adapted Sandro Veronesi's Strega Prize-winning novel The Hummingbird (2021) for BBC Radio Three; it was broadcast in June 2022 and on New Year’s Day 2023. It was long listed for the BBC Best ADAPTATION Award for 2022.
In the same year, in collaboration with The Old Fire Station, Oxford, he founded OXFORD PLATFORMS, staged readings of the best new plays to emerge from the OXFORD PLAYWRITING COURSE.
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In November 2023, John directed Owen Sheers play about the poet Fernando Pessoa All I Was When I Wasn’t Anyone for BBC Radio Three. In 2024, John is writing a new play about Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin called Van Gogh & Me for the Arles-based production company Au Contraire, featuring Jack Ellis in the title role. The opening is anticipated for Spring 2025.
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John has recently completed writing his career memoir, THEATREMAKING.
Click on the cover images to enlarge
WRITER
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His twelve original theatre plays include Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland (2019) (Marlowe Canterbury and tour), Wild Girl (2014) (Bristol Old Vic), Truant (2013) (National Theatre of Scotland), Arlo (2010) (Southwark Playhouse), Risk (2007) (Tron Theatre, Glasgow), Virgins (2006) (Edinburgh Festival and National Tour), Sweetpeter (2004) (Polka Theatre and National Tour), Ballroom (2004) (Riverside Studios & National Tour) and Hannah and Hanna (2001) (National and British Council tours). He also adapted and directed Apples by Richard Milward (2006), The Plague by Camus (2000), and Junk by Melvyn Burgess (1998).
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His plays are published by Bloomsbury: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/author/john-retallack/
His adaptation of J.B. Priestley’s classic novel The Good Companions for Radio 4 was broadcast in March, 2018. He directed Unicorns, Almost, Owen Sheers' play about the poet Keith Douglas, for the Hay Festival in May 2018/November 2019, in Bayeux, Normandy, June 2019, and for the Edinburgh Fringe, August 2019; the production received outstanding local and national reviews. In 2023, he directed Owen Sheers’ play about the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa ALL I WAS WHEN I WASN'T ANYONE for BBC Radio 3.
“John Retallack’s canny two-hander couldn’t be more topical. This little scorcher gets right to the heart of the tensions that arise in depressed communities when refugees arrive. It’s funny and sad, and every time it comes within a whisker of sentimentality it veers off with head butting toughness."
Lyn Gardner on Hannah and Hanna, The Guardian
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His adaptations for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and The World Service include Camus’ The Outsider, Mankell’s A Bridge to the Stars and Selincourt’s The Cricket Match, as well as his own plays, Arlo and Hannah and Hanna.
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He has been a regular guest of the Odyssey Artist-in-Residence Programme in Lille and Calais. He has worked extensively in Holland and France.
“At no point is Sweetpeter anything other than engaging. The script elucidates complex issues with subtlety and tact, by turns heart-warming, harrowing and periodically hilarious. Best of all is the way the characters linger, utterly believably. It is the kind of play that can change a person’s perspective indefinitely.” Time Out
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His production of Pink Mist by Owen Sheers toured the UK in Spring 2017, after sustained runs at Bristol Old Vic and The Bush Theatre in London.
"John Retallack’s fluid, dream-like production physically matches the script’s verve – his tightly drilled company of six deploying synchronised moves and graceful slow-motion to bring home the way the shock-waves of war can travel deep beneath the skin." Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph
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EDUCATOR
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He led the Writing for Performance course at Ruskin College, Oxford from 2013 to 2017 and currently teaches on the Oxford University Creative Writing Mst and CONTED programmes. At Ruskin he initiated Ruskin Theatre Platforms, and, in collaboration with Oxford Playhouse, staged over thirty readings of contemporary plays to popular acclaim.
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John has led five new writing programmes for Performing Arts Labs and three courses for the Arvon Foundation. With With his wife, Renata Allen, he is now the co-director of Oxford Playmaker which specialises in introducing people of all ages to the craft and art of writing plays.
MAIN PUBLISHED WORKS
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Junk adapted from Melvyn Burgess’ novel Methuen 1999
Hannah and Hanna English and Media 2002
Hannah and Hanna French’s acting edition 2004
Hannah et Hanna Editions Fontaine 2004
Sweetpeter New Plays for Young People Methuen 2006
Four Plays for Company of Angels by John Retallack Oberon 2008
(Hannah and Hanna, Risk, Club Asylum, Virgins)
Risque Editions Bleu 2009
Apples Oberon 2012
Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland Oberon 2019
Plays written and directed for Company of Angels
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2001
Hannah and Hanna
Company of Angels tour in UK and Edinburgh 2001 - 2003
Edinburgh Festival
Winner of Herald Angel Award
TMA Award/Best New Show for Young People nominee
2004 - 2005 British Council tours to India, Malaysia and the Philippines
2002 World Service radio broadcast
Produced and translated into French, Swedish, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Hebrew and Japanese
Over 200 performances in Sweden and 100 in Belgium
“Hannah and Hanna is an important play which faces head on the most controversial issue of the moment, the plight of asylum seekers in Britain. But it is also a moving, gripping and very well-acted piece of theatre. Intended by its prize-winning writer and director, John Retallack, for teenage audiences, it is playing successfully to all ages at Edinburgh-a tribute to the quality of both writing and presentation.” Heather Neill, The Times Educational Supplement
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2002
Wild Girl
2002 Company of Angels/ Quicksilver tour
2004 Wederzijds tour of Holland & Belgium
2004 Runner-up, Hans Snoek Award, Amsterdam
2013 Bristol Old Vic tour in co-production with Theatre Royal, Bath, Dukes
Playhouse, Lancaster and Theatre Iolo, Cardiff
Translated and produced in French and Dutch
2002
Club Asylum
Company of Angels tour of Scotland
Tron Theatre Glasgow
Published by Oberon
Translated in French
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"Club Asylum is one of the most important theatrical shows created in Scotland in the past year...its strength lies in Retallack’s thoughtful, well-muscled script." Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
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2004
Sweetpeter (with Usifu Jalloh)
Company of Angels National Tour
Polka Theatre London
Translated & performed in French
Published by Methuen
2005
Virgins
Company of Angels National Tour
Edinburgh Festival
Translated and performed in French, Swedish, German
Published by Oberon
Over 150 performances in Sweden
2006
Risk
Company of Angels Scottish and English tour
Tron Theatre Glasgow
Translated and performed in French and German
Published by Oberon and Les Solitaires Intempestifs
2008 Theater an der Parkaue Berlin
2012 Compagnie L’Interlude Tour of France
2013 Avignon Festival
2014 - 15 Further French touring including Paris
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"Although it is performed by five young professional actor-dancers, the raw voices of those involved in the workshop process can be heard in every detail of Retallack's text...Risk is an energetic, thoughtful and likeable show, with one or two shuddering moments of truth."
The Scotsman
2009
Apples (Adapted from Richard Milward’s novel)
Company of Angels & Northern Stage Newcastle
National Tour
Edinburgh Festival
Winner of Herald Angel Award
2010
Arlo
Public Reading for Company of Angels Theatre Café
Southwark Playhouse
Afternoon Play on BBC Radio 4
2011
Truant
National Theatre of Scotland & Company of Angels
Glasgow tour
Plays written and directed for Bristol Old Vic
2012
Pictures at an Exhibition
Bristol Old Vic Young Company
2013
Wild Girl
Bristol Old Vic and regional tour
A co-production between Bristol Old Vic and Theatr Iolo
2013
The Last Days of Mankind
(with Toby Hulse, adapted from original text by Karl Kraus)
Bristol Old Vic/Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Freelance Writing
2000
The Plague (adapted from Albert Camus' novel)
Dundee Rep
2003
The Foundling
Brighton Theatre Company tour of South-East
2003
Common Ground
Cardboard Citizens tour for homeless people in London
2004
Ballroom
National Tour
Riverside Studios London
Translated into French
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"A play with dancing by John Retallack, Ballroom takes you in its firm-but-gentle embrace and spins you off into the strange sunset world of the seaside tea dance...It's funny. It's sad. It's an elating symbol of how differences of age and temperament can be fleetingly dissolved in dance." Jeremy Kingston The Times
2007
A Bridge to the Stars (adapted from Henning Mankell’s novel)
Cottesloe Theatre
National Theatre Connections Festival
Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4
2013
The Outsider (adapted from Albert Camus’ novel)
BBC Radio 3
90 minute broadcast on centenary of Camus’ birth 3.11.13
2013
Arlo
Afternoon Play on BBC Radio 4
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2016/17
Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland
UK Arts International/HOUSE
Turner Gallery, Margate 2016
Edinburgh Fringe 2017
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2017
Adapted JB Priestley's The Good Companions for BBC Radio 4. To be broadcast 2018.
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2018
Adaptation of J.B. Priestley's The Good Companions broadcast 3 February 2018
Directed Owen Sheers' Unicorns, Almost for the Hay Festival
Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland opens at Marlow Theatre in Canterbury
Oberon Books publish Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland
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2019
Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland plays at The Turner Prize festival Making Waves in Margate.
Unicorns, Almost plays at Hay-on-Wye Winter Festival, Edinburgh Fringe (for one month) and Bayeux in France to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
John reads the opening act of his new play, The Splash, at Worcester College, Oxford to mark his appointment there as RLF Visiting Fellow for 2019-21
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2020 - 2021
John wrote THEATREMAKING, a memoir of his career over the last 40 years.
2022
John recently adapted Sandro Veronesi's Strega Prize-winning novel The Hummingbird (2021) for BBC Radio Three; it was broadcast in June 2022 and on New Year’s Day 2023. It was long listed for the BBC Best ADAPTATION Award for 2022.
2022
In collaboration with The Old Fire Station, Oxford, he founded OXFORD PLATFORMS, staged readings of the best new plays to emerge from the OXFORD PLAYWRITING COURSE.
2023
John directed Owen Sheers play about the poet Fernando Pessoa All I Was When I Wasn’t Anyone for BBC Radio Three in November.
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2024
John is writing a new play about Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin called Van Gogh & Me for the Arles-based production company Au Contraire, featuring Jack Ellis in the title role. The opening is anticipated for Spring 2025.
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The cast of CLUB ASYLUM, Glasgow, 2002