An Experiment with an Air Pump
An Experiment with an Air Pump
Shelagh Stephenson
1799 – On the eve of a new century, the house buzzes with scientific experiments, furtive romances and farcical amateur dramatics.
1999 – In a world of scientific chaos, cloning and genetic engineering, the cellar of the same house reveals a dark secret buried for 200 years.
Available
1998
978-0-413-73310-6
Drama
Methuen Publishing Ltd. (Collection: Methuen Drama)
Shelagh Stephenson
British playwright Shelagh Stephenson was born in Northumberland and read drama at Manchester University.
She is the author of several original radio plays written for BBC Radio, including “Darling Peidi”, “The Anatomical Venus” and “Five Kinds of Silence” (1997), which won the Writer’s Guild Award (Best Original Radio Play). Recent plays include “Life is a Dream” and “Nemesis”, which were broadcast in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
Her first stage play, “The Memory of Water” (1997), which opened at the Hampstead Theatre, London in 1996, won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy. It was adapted for film and produced as “Before You Go” in 2002, starring Julie Walters. Her second stage play, “An Experiment With An Air Pump” (1998, available on DCPAS), was joint winner of the 1997 Peggy Ramsay Award, and premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 1998.
“Ancient Lights” (2000) was produced at Hampstead Theatre in 2000, and in 2002, “Mappa Mundi” (2002) opened at the Royal National Theatre. Her play “Enlightenment” opened at Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 2005.
A collection of her plays, “Plays One”, was published in 2002.