Graham Reid
Theatre
Graham Reid was born in the Donegall Road area of Belfast in 1945 and left school at 15.
As a mature student, he graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1977 and taught for three years at Gransha Boys High School, Bangor before receiving bursaries from both Arts Councils North and South allowing him to begin a full- time writing career.
His first stage plays were produced by the Abbey Theatre Dublin. ‘The Billy Trilogy’ on stage and television won the Jacobs Award 1984 and ‘Ties of Blood’ won the Royal Television Award for Best Writer in 1986. Other awards include the Harvey Award for ‘The Hidden Curriculum’ and the Michael Powell Award among others for television play, ‘You, Me and Marley’.
‘Reid presents a sub-textual theoretical analysis of the Troubles within a naturalistic framework, which disguises his belief that the Troubles have created a culture within which there is more animal-like than human violence. Physical and psychological damage pile up in plays, which represent Reid’s thesis that sectarianism may be ‘an umbrella for other social deviances’ (Four Irish Dramatists RTE April 1992).
Plays:
The Death of Humpty Dumpty 1979 Abbey Theatre, Dublin
The Closed Door 1980 Abbey Theatre
Dorothy 1980 Oscar Theatre, Dublin
The Hidden Curriculum 1982 Abbey Theatre
Callers 1985 Abbey Theatre
Too Late to Talk to Billy 1982 Television
A Matter of Choice for Billy 1983 Television
A Coming to Terms for Billy 1984 Television
Lengthening Shadows 1995 Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Love 1995 West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, UK
Remembrance 1984 Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Ties Of Blood 1985 Television
Bibliography:
Tom Maguire, Making Theatre in Northern Ireland: Through and Beyond the Troubles Pub; University of Exeter Press 2006
Anthony Roche, Contemporary Irish Drama from Beckett to McGuinness Pub; Gill & Macmillan Dublin 1995
Christopher Murray, Twentieth Century Irish Theatre: Mirror Up to a Nation Pub; Manchester University Press 1997
Christopher Murray, Recent Irish Drama Ed., Heinz Kosok Studies in Anglo Irish Literature, Bonn 1982
D.E.S. Maxwell, Northern Ireland’s Political Drama in Modern Drama Vol. XXX111, No.1 March 1990 and A Critical History of Modern Irish Drama 1891-1980 Cambridge University press, 1984
Christopher Murray, The Hidden Curriculum, Theatre Ireland, No.1 1982
Fintan O’Toole, Paddy Woodworth in same.
Lionel Pilkington, Violence and Identity in Northern Ireland; Graham Reid’s The Death of Humpty Dumpty Modern Drama Vol. XXX!!! No.1 March 1990
Lynda Henderson The Green Shoot in Eds. Gerald Dawe and Edna Longley, Across a Roaring Hill, The Protestant Imagination in Modern Ireland, Blackstaff Press Belfast 1985
Jane Coyle Striking a Head Above the Theatrical Parapet Irish Times August 27 1995
All reviews held by producing venues