Kevin Elyot
| Kevin Elyot | |
|---|---|
| Born |
18 July 1951 Birmingham, England, UK |
| Died |
7 June 2014 (aged 62) London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
Kevin Elyot (18 July 1951 – 7 June 2014)[1] was a British playwright and screenwriter. His most notable works include the play My Night with Reg and the film Clapham Junction.
Early life
Kevin Elyot was born in the Birmingham suburb of Handsworth, West Midlands, England on 18 July 1951. He grew up as a member of the Anglo-Catholic church of St Peter's choir, in which he sang in the third performance of Britten's War Requiem and studied the piano. He studied at King Edward's school in Birmingham where he acted and played Desdemona. When he graduated in 1973, he graduated with a theatre studies degree at Bristol University[2]
Career
He wrote a play in 1982 by the title Coming Clean, directed by David Hayman, for his association as an actor with the tiny Bush. The play tackled sexual relationships when Aids was still a rumor in Britain. After a deflating comment from his agent Peggy Ramsay about his second play, he came up with the radio play According to Plan in 1987 and an adaptation of Wilkie Collin's The Moonstone for the Worcester Swan in 1990.
In 1992, he created another adaptation, this time of Alexander Ostrovsky's Artists and Admirers for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Then came his breakthrough play, My Night With Reg, which was commissioned by Hampstead theatre and taken by artistic director at the Royal Court, Stephen Daldry. It was a smash hit in the Theatre Upstairs Criterion in the West End, and Playhouse, which got the play to reproduce in many other countries.
Elyot worked on two other plays in 2001 called The Day I Stood Still at the National Theatre and Mouth to Mouth in the West End, both directed by Ian Rickson. Forty Winks was then created in 2004 as an autopsy on love and growing up and his last play was a new perspective on Christie's And Then There Were None in 2005.[3]
Sources
- Interview, Independent.co.uk; accessed 19 August 2015.
Works
- Christopher and His Kind, TV Movie, 19 March 2011
- My Night with Reg,premiere at London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, 14 March 1996
- No Night Is Too Long, premiere in UK, 27 December 2002
- Coming Clean, premiere at Bush Theatrein UK, 3 November 1982
References
- ↑ Kevin Elyot obituary
- ↑ Kevin Elyot obituary theguardian.com (June 9, 2014). Retrieved on February 17, 2015.
- ↑ Kevin Elyot obituary theguardian.com, 9 June 2014; retrieved 17 February 2015.