Shelagh Stephenson is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

Background and education

Stephenson was born in

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, North East England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, hence its name. It is 8 mi (13 km) east-northeast of Newcastle upon T ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

in 1955. She read drama at

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

Career

Acting

Stephenson worked as an actress with the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

and in bit parts in television. She appeared in ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' in 1981 as the minor character Sandra Webb. She has subsequently had parts in ''

Rumpole's Return ''Rumpole's Return'' is a 1980 novel by John Mortimer about the defence barrister Horace Rumpole. It was based on a script for a two-hour Rumpole telemovie of the same name.

'', ''

Sapphire & Steel ''Sapphire & Steel'' is a British television supernatural sci-fi/fantasy series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. ...

'', ''

The Gentle Touch ''The Gentle Touch'' is a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which began on 11 April 1980 and ran until 1984. The series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police off ...

'', ''

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, w ...

'', ''

Boon Boon may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Boon (game), a trick-taking card game * ''Boon'' (novel), a 1915 satirical work by H. G. Wells * ''Boon'' (TV series), a British television series starring Michael Elphick * The Ultimate Boo ...

'', ''

Paradise Postponed ''Paradise Postponed'' (1986) is a British 11-episode TV serial based on the 1985 novel by writer John Mortimer. The series covered a span of 30 years of postwar British history, set in a small village. Plot The series explores the mystery of ...

'' and '' Big Deal''.

Plays

Stephenson's stage plays include ''

The Memory of Water ''The Memory of Water'' is a comedy written by English playwright Shelagh Stephenson, first staged at Hampstead Theatre in 1996. It won the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Characters Vi Vi is the mother of the three sisters ...

'' (1997), ''

An Experiment with an Air Pump ''An Experiment with an Air Pump'' is a play by British playwright Shelagh Stephenson inspired by the painting ''An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump'' by Joseph Wright. It shared the Peggy Ramsay Award for 1997, was first performed at the Royal ...

'', ''Ancient Lights'', ''

Five Kinds of Silence ''Five Kinds of Silence'' is an in-yer-face theatre play by the playwright Shelagh Stephenson, first published in 1997. It tells the story of a family living under the power of the vicious Billy, who physically, emotionally, and sexually abuses hi ...

'' (radio play 1996; stage play 2000), ''Mappa Mundi'' (2002), ''Harriet Martineau'' and ''The Long Road'' (2008) which was written in collaboration with the UK-based charity,

The Forgiveness Project The Forgiveness Project is a UK-based charity that uses real stories of victims and perpetrators of crime and violence to help people explore ideas around forgiveness and alternatives to revenge. With no political or religious affiliations, The F ...

, to critical acclaim. Her plays frequently deal with new advances in science, such as the concept in the title of her first stage play, and include commentary on

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

fads A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short- ...

such as

urine therapy Urine therapy or urotherapy, (also urinotherapy, Shivambu, uropathy, or auto-urine therapy) in alternative medicine is the application of human urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes, including drinking of one's own urine and massaging one' ...

phrenology Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...

as in her play on

Harriet Martineau Harriet Martineau (; 12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist often seen as the first female sociologist, focusing on racism, race relations within much of her published material.Michael R. Hill (2002''Harriet Martineau: Th ...

Methuen Publishing Ltd Methuen Publishing Ltd is an English publishing house. It was founded in 1889 by Sir Algernon Methuen (1856–1924) and began publishing in London in 1892. Initially Methuen mainly published non-fiction academic works, eventually diversifying to ...

published a collected edition of all four of these Stephenson plays in 2003. ''

'' was revived in 2009 at

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

, where the original production appeared in 1998 after premiering at the

Royal Exchange, Manchester The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal ...

; the play has been since been revived at the universities of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, the English Theatre,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...

and the Giant Olive Theatre Company, in London. ''Harriet Martineau'' was performed by Live Theatre in November 2016.

Radio

In the late 1980s, Stephenson was a scriptwriter on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's drama series ''

Citizens Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

''. Her original plays for

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

include ''Lethal Cocktails'', 1989; ''Darling Peidi'', 1993; ''The Anatomical Venus'', 1994; ''

'', 1996, which received the

Writers Guild Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility The ...

for Best Original Drama; ''Baby Blue'', 1998; ''Through a Glass, Darkly'', 2004; ''Life is a Dream'', 2004;'' Nemesis'', 2005; and '' The People’s Princess'', 2008. She is also the writer of an occasional therapy comedy series on

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by A ...

called ''How Does That Make You Feel?'', which began in 2010 and reached its 10th season in 2018. A radio version of her stage play ''An Experiment with an Air Pump'' was broadcast on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

in 2001. In 2002, she adapted Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse for Radio 4.

Film

'' was made into a film called '' Before You Go'' in 2002 starring

Julie Walters Dame Julia Mary Walters (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Julie Walters, is an English actress. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a ...

and

Tom Wilkinson Thomas Geoffrey Wilkinson (born 5 February 1948)Born January–March 1948, according to the ''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com is an English actor of film, television, and stage. He has rece ...

and directed by

Lewis Gilbert Lewis Gilbert (6 March 1920 – 23 February 2018) was an English film director, producer and screenwriter who directed more than 40 films during six decades; among them such varied titles as '' Reach for the Sky'' (1956), ''Sink the Bismarck!' ...

TV

Stephenson has writing credits for Downton Abbey, Season 1, Episode 4.

References

External links

amazon.com: Stephenson Plays 1Before You Go (film)
Living people English women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights 21st-century English writers 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers People from Tynemouth Actresses from Tyne and Wear Alumni of the University of Manchester English television actresses 20th-century English actresses Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-writer-stub