You are here: Home » Playwrights » Kieran Hurley

Kieran is a writer, performer, and theatre maker based in Glasgow. This basically means that sometimes he writes stuff that he's in, sometimes he writes stuff that other people are in too; sometimes he does this on his own, sometimes he does it in a way that involves other people.

Past work includes Rantin, a ceilidh-play with music created for the National Theatre of Scotland and the Arches; Beats, a monologue performed with a DJ created with Arches Platform 18 Award; Hitch, an autobiographical story with a live band; Chalk Farm, co-written with AJ Taudevin originally for Òran  Mór and subsequently touring internationally in a production by ThickSkin; and a number of short plays including Belcoo and Bruises (Royal Court); and Close, Amanda, and London 2012: Glasgow (Theatre Uncut). Beats won Best New Play at the Critics' Awards For Theatre in Scotland, which Hitch had been nominated for previously.

Kieran's work is published by Oberon and can be found here.

Theatre

Mouthpiece
SoHo Theatre - 2019
Traverse Theatre - 2018
Directed by Orla O'Loughlin

Square Go 
Reading - 2019
Edinburgh - 2018
Paines Plough Roundabout Theatre, Edinburgh Festival
Co-written with Gary McNair
FRINGE FIRST AWARD WINNER 2018
"funniest show of the festival… Hilarious and human high-school two-hander that's just brilliant fun" The Stage *****

Looping: Scotland Overdub  August 2018
Scottish Dance Theatre
Scottish Tour

A Sex-Inch Layer of Topsoil and the Fact it Rains May 2018
Verbatim theatre
Perth Theatre tour
"Fascinating verbatim play" The Stage
"Kieran Hurley's new touring show for Perth Theatre has that special quality of listening to the voices of a community, and reflecting it back to itself" **** Scotsman

Heads Up
Show And Tell
UK tour February - March 2018
UK tour February - June 2017
Edinburgh Fringe Festival - 2016
Written and performed by Kieran Hurley
FRINGE FIRST AWARD WINNER 2016
CATS BEST NEW PLAY AWARD WINNER 2017
**** The Guardian, The Independent, The Scotsman, The Sunday Times

An Injury July 2017
Ovalhouse Theatre
Directed by Alex Swift

Rantin  2014
National Theatre of Scotland
Scottish Tour
**** The Guardian

Grit: The Martyn Bennett Story
Pachamama Productions / Tramway /Mull - June 2014
Written by Kieran Hurley
Directed by Cora Bissett

Rantin
National Theatre of Scotland / The Arches, Scottish tour - January - March 2014
Written and directed by Kieran Hurley

CHALK FARM 
Co-written by AJ Taudevin
International tour 2014 - produced by ThickSkin
Òran Mór 2012
"Brilliant, sharp, poetic, passionate, full of searing insight into the politics of blame"**** The Scotsman

Beats
Show And Tell
Soho Theatre 2013
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012
Written and performed by Kieran Hurley
CATS BEST NEW PLAY AWARD WINNER 2012
"A tremendous piece of storytelling that takes us back to 1994… One of the best shows of the Edinburgh Festival last year" The Guardian ****
'An impressive piece of storytelling' The Times ****

Hitch
The Arches, September 2009
Forest Fringe, August 2010, and UK and international tour dates 2010 to 2012
Written by Kieran Hurley
Co-directed by Kieran Hurley, Julia Taudevin, Dick Bonham, Jamie Fletcher

Short Plays

Belcoo
Royal Court Open Court Season (PIIGS), June 2013
Written by Kieran Hurley
Directed by Richard Twyman

London 2012: Glasgow
Theatre Uncut, Traverse, August 2012
Written by Kieran Hurley
Directed by Emma Callander

Amanda
Theatre Uncut, Traverse, August 2013
Written by Kieran Hurley
Directed by Hannah Price

Close
Theatre Uncut, Traverse, August 2014
Written by Kieran Hurley
Directed by Hannah Price

Film

Beats 2019
Based on Kieran's play of the same name
Co-written and directed by Brian Welsh
Sixteen Films/Wild Bunch/Altitude/BFI/ Creative Scotland.
Exec Producer Steven Soderbergh

Collaborations

The Deficit Show
Òran Mór, November 2013
Written by multiple writers, including Kieran Hurley
Directed by Gary McNair

Demons
Òran Mór, October 2012
Written by multiple writers, including Kieran Hurley
Directed by Catrin Evans

Whatever Gets You Through The Night
The Arches, June 2012
Written by multiple writers, including Kieran Hurley
Directed by Cora Bissett

The Jean Jacques Rousseau Show
Òran  Mór, February 2012
Written by multiple writers, including Kieran Hurley
Directed by David MacLennan and Catrin Evans

Awards

Winner: Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland, Best New Play for Beats

Winner: Arches Platform 18 New Work Award for Beats

Nominated: Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland, Best New Play for Hitch

Nominated: Stage Awards, Best Solo Performance for Beats

• Home
• Playwrights
• Support for Playwrights
• Services
• Projects
• News
• Events
• About
• Blog
• Privacy