Kevin Elyot
The playwright Kevin Elyot, who has died aged 62 after a long illness, is best remembered for his brilliantly written and imaginatively structured tragicomedy My Night With Reg (1994). It is often claimed as a “gay play”, but although Elyot wrote often about gay relationships, his real subject was the longing for love and remembrance of loves lost. Elyot was first an actor, appearing with the pioneering group Gay Sweatshop, and in London at the Bush theatre and the King’s Head; second a playwright; and third a television screenplay writer not above scripting the Agatha Christie stories of both Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot over the past 10 years.
The Beginning
Elyot, who was born in Birmingham suburb of Handsworth in 1951, where he was a prominent member of the choir in the Anglo-Catholic church of St Peter’s; he sang in the third performance of Britten’s War Requiem, in Birmingham town hall, and studied the piano. In 1961, his father, Kenneth Lee, took him and his sister to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Christopher Plummer and Eric Porter in Richard III, and he was hooked; he travelled back frequently on his own on the top deck of the number 150 bus and queued for standing places for as many shows as he could see. He was educated at King Edward’s School and at Bristol University was an actor before he made his debut at the Bush Theatre as a playwright in 1982, with ‘Coming Clean’.
The Plays
Coming Clean
Consent
1st Production Horseshoe Theatre, Blackpool, UK 1989
The Moonstone
1990 adapted from the novel by Wilkie Collins
Production at Swan Theatre Worcester UK
My Night With Reg 1994
Witty Drama about gay manners and morals in the age of AIDS.
or which he won the Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Comedy, plus Writers’ Guild and Critics’ Circle Awards.
The Day I Stood Still
In the 60s Horace Jerry and Judy were teenagers. Thirty years later, Jerry is dead, Judy is in love and the gay but hesitant Horace is unable to get on with his life – until he receives a surprise visitor.
1st Production at the Royal National Theatre in 15 January 1998 (Cottesloe Theatre)
Mouth To Mouth
a homecoming party thrown for Dennis and Laura’s teenage son sets the stage for this stylish but acerbic tragi-comedy. Family friend Frank’s appearance at the family reunion throws up secrets from the past best kept hidden, and paves the way for fresh disaster.
1st Production at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs London 01 Feb 2001
Forty Winks
As in his last play, Mouth to Mouth, elyot shows us the devastating impact of a rootless outsider on a bourgeois family. In this case the hero, Don, is a cosmopolitan drifter who has never got over his schoolboy love for the beautiful Diana. and in four ingeniously structured scenes we watch the quixotic Don invading the married Diana’s fractious Hampstead home. all one can safely reveal is that none of the key characters – including Diana’s boorish husband, gay brother-in-law and narcoleptic daughter – remain untouched by his presence. -Michael Billington, the Guardian
1st Production at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs London 28 Oct 2004
And Then There Were None
Kevin Elyot has drawn exclusively from the original 1939 novel rather than the Christie’s own 1943 stage version or subsequent screen versions. as part of a major initiative to re-popularise Christie for the 21st century, the piece is being updated with an eye to satisfying the expectations of younger audiences accustomed to more graphic horror on screen. Based on the book “and then there Were None” by Agatha Christie (original title “Ten Little Niggers”). Has original book ending which was changed by Christie when she Adapted it
1st Produced at Gielgud Theatre London 14 October 2005
Artists & Admirers by Alexander Ostrovsky Translated by Kevin Elyot
1st Produced RSC Pit 1992
The Chain Play
One off performance of chain writing to celebrate the National theatre’s 25th anniversary. a scene each from all the authors for a performance on one night
Written By Terry Johnson, Philip Ridley, Charlotte Jones, Lee Hall, Sebastian Barry, Zinnie Harris, Kevin elyot, Nick Dear, Tanika Gupta, Frank McGuinness, Nick Stafford, Stephen Sondheim, Colin Teevan, Patrick Marber, David Lan, Sarah Daniels, Martin She
Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London 2001
The Movies
Movies – Writer
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The Acting – Filmography
Wild West TV – 1992
The Bill TV – 1991
Murder East Murder West (TV Movie) – 1990
Bust TV – 1988
Scandalous TV – 1984
Now and Then TV – 1983
The Woman in White TV – 1982)
BBC2 Playhouse TV – 1981
Closing Ranks (TV Movie) – 1980
Play For Today TV – 1980
Grange Hill TV – 1978
Angels TV – 1975
Whodunnit TV – 1975
Rooms TV – 1975
Database
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