A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A
Abuse
One of the characteristic in-yer-face themes of 1990s theatre. In keeping with the unideological character of the decade, most plays which examine this issue feature not only politically incorrect and often highly explicit scenes of abuse but also the complicity of the victims with the victimisers.

Adamson, Samuel
Author of Clocks and Whistles, one of the highlights of the Bush theatre's 1996 London Fragments season. His insightful and subtle approach to everyday emotions and character can also be seen in Grace Note (Old Vic, 1997). His recent work includes Tomorrow Week for BBC Radio 3, directed by Simon Callow, as well as adaptations of Chekhov's Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard for the Oxford Stage Company. His adaptation of Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi was part of The Last Waltz season at the Arcola Theatre. His Southwark Fair was at the National in 2006.

Almeida
Super trendy north London theatre that stages both new plays and revivals of classics. Memorable examples of new(ish) writing include Han Ong's The LA Plays (1993), Phyllis Nagy's Butterfly Kiss (1994), Louis Mellis and David Scinto's Gangster No 1 (1995), Ellen McLaughlin's Tongue of the Bird (1997) and Neil LaBute's Bash: Latterday Plays (2000), The Shape of Things (2001) and The Distance from Here (2002). The Almeida has pioneered the vogue for movie stars to appear on the London stage, attracting names such as Juliette Binoche, Claire Bloom, Jonny Lee Miller, and Gael Garcia Bernal. Current head: Michael Attenborough.

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B
Barry, Sebastian
One of the best Irish writers of the decade, whose plays - for example, White Woman Street (Bush, 1992), The Steward of Christendom (Royal Court, 1995) and Our Lady of Sligo (National Theatre/Out of Joint, 1998) - are award-winning classics. Barry has successfully mined his family history for material which he has dramatised to great effect. His more overtly political play, Hinterland (National Theatre/Out of Joint, 2002), was a lot less successful. In 2003 Barry produced a translation of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba for the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. His Whistling Psyche (Almeida, 2004), starring Claire Bloom and Kathryn Hunter, caused critics to debate the success of the play's translation from page to performance, evoking, perhaps, Barry's other work as a novelist.

Bean, Richard
A son of Hull, the prolific Bean's trademark at first was gritty work plays - Toast (Royal Court, 1999) and Under the Whaleback (Royal Court, 2003) - but he also excels in politically incorrect black comedy: The Mentalists (National, 2002), The God Botherers (Bush, 2003) and Honeymoon Suite (Royal Court, 2004). His Harvest (Royal Court, 2005) was an ambitious comic epic. A founder-member of the Monsterists, he was involved in the Monster Day Out (Hampstead Theatre, 2005) which provided the Monsterists with a platform on which to discuss their ideas.

Bent, Simon
Bent's succinct and economic style, coupled with his careful use of ambiguity, have led to him being labelled a Bondist, with his Accomplices (Crucible, Sheffield, 2000) being directly compared to Edward Bond's Saved. BentÕs other work - including Bad Company (Bush, 1994), A Prayer for Owen Meaney (National, 2002), The Associate (National, 2002) and The Country of the Blind (Gate, 2002) - all demonstrate these qualities, as well as a striking humanity.

Bhatti, Gurpreet Kaur
Bhatti worked as a journalist, refuge worker and actress before turning to writing. Her debut Behsharam (Shameless) broke box office records at the Birmingham Rep and Soho theatres in 2001. Her 2004 follow-up, Behzti (Dishonour) at Birmingham Rep was the biggest new writing cause celebre since Sarah Kane's Blasted. Militant action by local Sikhs, reportedly offended by its portrayal of sexual corruption inside a temple, forced its early closure. Bhatti also writes for Westway on radio and EastEnders on tv. Long may she thrive.

Blakeman, Helen
Family tensions and the power of the past run through much of Blakeman's work. Her early work includes Caravan (Bush, 1997) and Normal (Bush, 2000). More recently, The Morris (Liverpool Everyman, 2005) had the rather unusual subject of female Morris dancers.

Blasted
A key play of the 1990s, Sarah Kane's debut, Blasted, opened at the Royal Court in January 1995. Raw in style, horrific in content and experimental in form, it gave critics apoplexy and received some of the worst reviews of the decade. Blinded by its scenes of horror, most critics failed to see that what was really disturbing was the play's radical structure, in which a first half set in Leeds hotel suddenly explodes into a war zone in the second half. Defended by writers such as Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill and Edward Bond, Blasted soon found its rightful place in the canon of contemporary drama.

Block, Simon
Writer whose smart plays, with their ping-pong dialogues, never neglect the emotional undercurrents that bounce between their characters. Good examples are Not a Game for Boys (Royal Court, 1995), Chimps (Hampstead, 1997), A Place at the Table (Bush, 2000) and the less successful Hand in Hand (Hampstead, 2002). He also took part in The Chain Play (2001), where different authors contributed a scene to a one-off performance, part of the National Theatre's 25th anniversary celebrations.

Bradwell, Mike
Great guy. Founder of the alternative Hull Truck theatre company in 1971, and artistic director of the Bush theatre (see below) since 1996. Over the years, he has directed more than 30 shows at the Bush, his spiritual home. Passionate advocate of new writing and massive storyteller. The Naked Talent Season (Bush, 2004) demonstrated his commitment to provocative, but entertaining, new writing.

Brat pack
Although the young writers of the 1990s were often seen as a group, they were in no sense a movement. The best metaphor to describe their relationships to each other is that of a network or web.

Brown, Ian
Artistic director of the Traverse theatre, Edinburgh, between 1988 to 1996, who based his policy on two strands: developing Scottish work with Scottish actors, and finding the best international new writers. Staged fine plays by Scottish writers such as David Greig and David Harrower as well as memorable American imports. Since 2002, he has been artistic director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

Buffini, Moira
Actor turned writer, Buffini first attracted attention when she co-wrote (with Anna Reynolds) and acted in Jordan in 1992. Since then, her versatility can be seen in plays as diverse as Blavatsky's Tower (1997), Gabriel (Soho, 1997), Silence (Birmingham Rep, 1999, toured in 2002, revived by RSC in 2005), Loveplay (RSC, 2001) and Dinner (National 2002 and West End 2003). In April 2005 Buffini contributed to Greenwich Theatre's mini-season of political works, aimed at combating voter apathy before the general election. As a founder member of the Monsterists, she advocates big, imaginative plays rather than naturalistic soap opera dramas.

Burke, Gregory
Born in 1968, Burke is a Scottish writer who shot to fame with his first play, Gagarin Way (Traverse, 2001), whose sizzling, high-octane linguistic brilliance amazed all who saw it, and won a whole clutch of awards. His follow up, The Straits (Traverse, 2003) looked at four Gibraltar teenagers during the Falklands War of 1982, and provided a powerful metaphor for Britain's role in the War on Terror.

Bush Theatre
Pub theatre in west London that helped kick-start the explosion of new writing in the 1990s when Dominic Dromgoole, the new artistic director, started putting on an eclectic mix of young playwrights, from Billy Roche to Philip Ridley. Memorable productions in this claustrophobic 100-seat venue include Trainspotting, Tracy Letts's Killer Joe, David Eldridge's Serving It Up and Richard Zajdlic's Dogs Barking. Dromgoole's successor, Mike Bradwell (see above), has staged equally cutting-edge work, including Mark O'Rowe's Howie the Rookie. The Bush was refurbished in October 2000 and now stages new writing in all its splendid variety.

Butler, Leo
Butler's first play Made of Stone (2001) was part of the Royal Court's Young Writers fest and earned him an award for Most Promising Playwright. His subsequent plays, Redundant (2001) and Lucky Dog (2004), were also performed at the Court and have been praised for their gritty documentary realism and attention to detail. In 2002 his Devotion (Theatre Centre) depicted the realities and absurdities of war from the perspective of two children.

Butterworth, Jez
His exhilarating first play, Mojo (Royal Court, 1995), had a huge impact, and soon became a modern classic. Then Butterworth disappeared into filmland, making - among other projects - a disappointing version of his stage debut. In 2001, he co-wrote (with brother Tom Butterworth) and directed The Birthday Girl, which starred Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin. The film received mixed reviews, with praise for Kidman's performance and criticism of the plotting and direction. At the Royal Court, Butterworth made great theatrical comebacks with The Night Heron (2002) and The Winterling (2006): lovely writing. Really.

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C
Cameron, Richard
Doncaster bard. Poet of post-industrial South Yorks. Specialises in tender and hilarious accounts of northern working-class life. His lyrical vision embraces tough women and violent men. Six of his plays have been staged by the Bush: Pond Life (1992), Not Fade Away (1993), The Mortal Ash (1994), All of You Mine (1996), The Glee Club (2002) and Gong Donkeys (2004). Won the first Dennis Potter Award for Stone Sissors Paper (BBC, 1995).

Carr, Marina
Master of the poetic realist style, Marina Carr is not an easy writer but her work, characterised by emotional fierceness and allusions to classical tragedy, can be remarkably rewarding. Plays include Low in the Dark (Project Arts Centre, Dublin, 1989), The Mai (Peacock, Dublin, 1994), Portia Coughlan (Peacock, Dublin, 1996), By the Bog of Cats (Abbey, 1998) and On Raftery's Hill (Druid/Royal Court, 2000). Since 2000 Carr has worked mainly in her native Ireland, at the Abbey Theatre (Dublin). Her work here includes Ariel (2002) and Meat and Salt (2003), written for 8-12-year-olds. Carr's By the Bog of Cats was staged in the West End (Wyndhams, 2004), with Holly Hunter playing the lead.

Consumerism
It's clear from 1990s drama that all is not rosy in the capitalist garden. One of the key themes of the decade was a profound scepticism about consumer culture, as evidenced by plays such as Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking or David Greig's The Architect. The strength of this current of anti-consumerism gives the lie to the legend that political theatre is dead and that young playwrights are non-political.

Closer
Written by Patrick Marber, Closer is arguably the key 1990s play about personal relations. First put on at the National Theatre in May 1997, it was hugely successful, influencing dozens of writers by its frankness of tone, its rush for the explosive punchline and its excoriating honesty about emotions. As one critic put it, of the many four-letter words, 'love is undoubtedly the most brutal'. A film version came out in 2004.

Craig, Ryan
Born in 1972, Ryan Craig is a versatile writer whose trademark is the well-plotted issue play that, at its very end, leaves audiences hanging in the air. His early work includes Happy Savages (Lyric, Hammersmith, 1998) and he learn much of his craft by writing for television and radio. In 2005, his Broken Road won a Fringe First in Edinburgh and What We Did to Weinstein (Menier) got the Peggy Ramsay Award. His latest is The Glass Room (Hampstead, 2006). Founder member of the Monsterists.

Crimp, Martin
Although slightly older than most of the new writers of the 1990s, Crimp has been highly influential both as a playwright and as a translator. He made his mark on the decade with daring and innovative drama, especially The Treatment (Royal Court, 1993) and Attempts on Her Life (Royal Court, 1997), arguably the most exciting new play of the past 25 years. His The Country (Royal Court, 2000), Face to the Wall (Royal Court, 2002) and Fewer Emergencies (Royal Court, 2005) prove that his originality and power remain undiminished. And, as his exciting adaptations of Moliere, Marivaux and Koltes show, he's a cracking translator. His Cruel and Tender (Young Vic, 2004), adapted from Sophocles's The Women of Trachis, shows that you can talk about terrorism without resorting to verbatim theatre.

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D
Daldry, Stephen
Artistic director of the Royal Court theatre from 1992 to 1998. His conversion to the policy of staging as many new writers as possible led to the 1994-95 season, which saw the debuts of Joe Penhall, Judy Upton, Nick Grosso and Sarah Kane. Daldry's fundraising flair and showmanship helped make provocative subjects and an in-yer-face style the staples of the Court's studio theatre. He was succeeded by Ian Rickson in 1998. Daldry has gone on to direct the hit film Billy Elliott (1999) and the Oscar-nominated The Hours (2003). He has also directed plays by Caryl Churchill and Billy Elliott The Musical (Victoria Palace, 2005).

Dromgoole, Dominic
Artistic director of the Bush theatre between 1990 and 1996. Claims credit for kick-starting the boom in 1990s new writing by staging an eclectic mix of plays, which included Billy Roche's Wexford trilogy (1991) and Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing (1993). His version of events is published in The Bush Theatre Book, edited by his successor Mike Bradwell. After leaving the Bush, he was briefly New Plays Director at the Old Vic, before going on to run the Oxford Stage Company and then Shakespeare's Globe, London, from 2006. His book, The Full Room, is a smartly written but highly controversial round up of new writers.

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E
Experiential theatre
Describes the kind of drama, usually put on in studio spaces, that aims to give audiences the experience of actually having lived through the actions depicted on stage. Instead of allowing spectators to just sit back and contemplate the play, experiential theatre grabs its audiences and forces them to confront the reality of the feelings shown to them. Yes, it's in-yer-face, and it's here to stay (well, more or less).

Eldridge, David
Having made his debut at the age of 22 with a stonking drama called Serving It Up (Bush, 1996), Eldridge soon mellowed into a writer whose trademarks are empathy, social observation and truthful dialogue. Summer Begins (Donmar, 1997) and Falling (Hampstead, 1999) are perfect accounts of the hopes and anxieties of daily life, while his 2000 Royal Court play, Under the Blue Sky, demonstrates his wicked sense of humour. In 2004, he produced a cracking version of Festen (Almeida, and West End) and another moving account of family life, M.A.D. (Bush). In 2005, Eldridge continued to use the family as a focal point for his work, and experimented in writing from a subjective point of view, in Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness (Royal Court). Active member of the Monsterists: in 2006, his Market Boy was an outstanding Monster success on the National's huge Olivier stage. He's also a fine adapter of Ibsen.

Elton, Ben
Loveable cheeky chappie who caught the essence of the debate about screen violence, and dramatised it in Popcorn (Nottingham Playhouse, 1996). If at times Elton falls prey to the same soundbite values he criticises, his account remains one of the liveliest - and funniest - accounts of the way Hollywood exploits violence for profit. He has since moved on to musicals, writing the words for The Lion King (Lyceum, 1999) and We Will Rock You (Dominion, 2002).

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F
Farr, David
Onetime artistic director of London's tiny Gate Theatre (1995-98), and the man who commissioned Sarah Kane's second play, he is also a playwright who mixes great plotting, farcical comedy and emotional bleakness. His Elton John's Glasses (Watford Palace, 1997) was a joyful comedy about football fandom, failure and the trials of masculinity. It started life as Neville Southall's Washbag at the Finborough Theatre in 1992, and ended up briefly in the West End. His The Danny Crowe Show (Bush, 2001), is a ferociously funny and satisfyingly savage satire on celebrity culture. Other work includes Night of the Soul (RSC, 2002), Crime and Punishment in Dalston (Arcola, 2001) and The UN Inspector (National, 2005), an adaptation of Gogol's The Government Inspector. Farr was joint artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic in 2002-05 and is now head of the Lyric, Hammersmith.

Finborough theatre
Tiny pub theatre in London's Earl's Court, the Finborough has nevertheless played a vital part, especially under the direction of Phil Willmott, in the explosion of creativity in British theatre in the 1990s. It was here that Max Stafford-Clark first glimpsed the potential of Mark Ravenhill. The pub and theatre got a facelift in 2003, and the theatre is run by Neil McPherson, who loves plays about war, plague and famine, and who in 2005 celebrated the venue's 25th anniversary.

Form
While some of the characteristics of in-yer-face theatre are obvious - bad language, sexual explicitness and overt violence - it is worth noting that some of the best 1990s playwrights were most concerned with the form, or structure, of their work. Good examples of innovative form include Sarah Kane's Blasted, Phyllis Nagy's The Strip, Rebecca Prichard's Essex Girls and Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life.

Frantic Assembly
Who said that physical theatre can't be cutting edge? Frantic mix techno beat, bouncy dancing and, at their best, some ace writing. Hits include the cult Generation Trilogy (1995-98), Michael Wynne's Sell Out (1998), Chris O'Connell's Hymns (1999), Nicola McCartney's Underworld (2001), Abi Morgan's Tiny Dynamite (2001), Isabel Wright's Peepshow (2002) and Glyn Cannon's On Blindness (2004). Also contributed to the movement work in Gregory Burke's The Straits.

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G
Gilman, Rebecca
American writer who brings a fierce intelligence to big issues such as racism - Spinning into Butter (Goodman Theatre, Chicago, 1999) - sexism - Boy Gets Girl (Goodman Theatre, Chicago, 2000) - and cultural envy - The Sweetest Swing in Baseball (Royal Court, 2004), which starred Gillian Anderson. On the negative side, her writing tends to be a little too well mannered for its own good. In Britain, Gilman's work has been promoted by the Royal Court: all of the above, plus The Glory of Living (Royal Court, 1999). Her recent plays include Bill of (W)Rights (Mixed Blood Theatre, 2004).

Greig, David
Prolific Scottish playwright, who has constantly innovated and experimented in his choice of subject matter and form. His key tropes are guilty men abroad and the notion of borderlands where nothing is quite like it seems. Plays include Europe (Traverse, 1994), The Architect (Traverse, 1996), Caledonia Dreaming (7:84, 1997), The Speculator (Edinburgh Festival, 1999), The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union (Paines Plough, 1999, revived at the Donmar in 2005), Victoria (RSC, 1999) and Outlying Islands (Traverse, 2002). In 1990, he founded, with Graham Eatough, Suspect Culture, whose Mainstream (1999) is one of the most evocative plays of the past ten years. Their Casanova (2001) is a masterpiece, and 8000m (Tramway, Glasgow, 2004) was equally well received. Greig's prolific output has continued with Caligula (Donmar, 2003), When the Bulbul Stopped Singing (Traverse, Edinburgh, 2004), Pyrenees (Paines Plough/Menier Chocolate Factory, 2005) and The American Pilot (The Other Place, Stratford, 2005).

Grosso, Nick
Laddish playwright who emerged at the Royal Court theatre in 1994 with his cracking debut, Peaches. Follow-ups include Sweetheart (Royal Court, 1996), Real Classy Affair (Royal Court, 1998) and the seriously surreal Kosher Harry (Royal Court, 2002). Writes superb dialogue and is master of the subtext. His Killing Paul McCartney (Assembly Rooms, Edinbugh, 2004) was another comedy.

Gupta, Tanika
Bilingual British Bengali whose award-winning plays are written in a mix of realism and lyrical imagination. After working on Grange Hill and EastEnders, she explored her Asian-British heritage: Ananda Sananda, Voices on the Wind (1995), A River Sutra (1997) and The Waiting Room (2000). But her recent work - Sanctuary (2002), Inside Out (2002) and Fragile Land (2003) - is more concerned with contemporary issues. Gupta has also adapted Wycherley's The Country Wife (Watford Palace, 2004), The Good Woman of Setzuan (National, 2001) and Hobson's Choice. NB: It's an insult to pigeonhole Gupta as an Asian writer - she's a playwright full stop!

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H
Hall, Lee
Geordie writer, whose Billy Elliott and Spoonface Steinberg (1999) have made him world famous. His style is rude, funny, robust, popular but profound. Often seeing the world through the eyes of the victimised, his plays - which have often been put on by Max Roberts's Live theatre - include Wittgenstein on Tyne (1997), Cooking with Elvis (1998) and Bollocks (1998). He has also successfully adapted Brecht, Goldoni, Collodi's Pinocchio and Heijermans's The Good Hope (National, 2001). 2005 has seen Hall working at the Bristol Old Vic, where his Child Of the Snow and Two's Company were well recieved. His film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley, came out in 2005.

Hampstead Theatre
Known for its loyalty to its playwrights, the Hampstead theatre was run by artistic director Jenny Topper until 2003. Recent examples of its role in promoting new writing include plays by Philip Ridley, Jonathan Harvey (see below), David Eldridge, Shelagh Stephenson and Judith Thompson. It also hosted plays such as Brad Fraser's Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, which were first seen at the Traverse in Edinburgh. Topper favoured well-made plays whose ideas come garbed in humour, and supervised the move into a new building. Her successor is Tony Clark, who has staged the work of older playwrights such as Clare McIntyre, Hanif Kureishi and Stephen Lowe, as well as upcoming new talents such as Dennis Kelly and Ryan Craig.

Harris, Zinnie
A zoologist who trained as a theatre director, Harris's By Many Wounds (Hampstead, 1999) introduced audiences to her talent for language and emotional truth. Further Than the Furthest Thing (Tron, Glasgow and National, 2000) - her amazing play about Tristan da Cunha - was a wow and has been revived more than once. Her Nightingale and Chase (Royal Court, 2001) was an effective chamber piece. Harris's Midwinter (2004) was part of the RSC's new writing season, and has been revived at the Soho (2005). Her Solstice (The Other Place, 2005), a kind of prequel to Midwinter, was less well received.

Harrower, David
Scottish playwright, whose debut, Knives in Hens (Traverse, 1995), was in its confident use of language one of the most original plays of the past decade. Also wrote Kill the Old Torture Their Young (Traverse, 1998) and Presence (Royal Court, 2001), The Girl On The Sofa (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, 2002), Purple (Traverse, 2003) and Dark Earth (Traverse, 2003). He has also translated Pirandello's Six Characters Looking for an Author (Young Vic, 2001) and Woyzeck (Royal Lyceum, 2001). In 2005 Knives In Hens was revived at The Tron, Glasgow.

Harvey, Jonathan
Playwright. His Beautiful Thing (Bush, 1993) was a landmark play which looked at the lives of gay teenagers on a council estate with great humour and lack of preachiness. When the play transferred to the West End a year later, it was denounced by the London Evening Standard as part of 'a plague of pink plays'. Other work includes Babies (Royal Court, 1994), Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (Contact, Manchester, 1995), Hushabye Mountain (Hampstead, 1999) and Out in the Open (Hampstead/Birmingham Rep, 2001), Closer to Heaven (Arts, 2001) and Taking Charlie (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 2004). Harvey also writes for the TV series Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.

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I
I Licked a Slag's Deodorant
Perhaps the most evocative play title in a decade of evocative play titles. Jim Cartwright's short, sharp shock of a play - about the odd relationship between a repressed Man and a frantic Slag - opened at the Royal Court theatre in November 1996.

Ideology
One of the outstanding characteristics of the new theatre of the 1990s has been is lack of overt ideology. Unlike the state-of-the-nation writers of the 1970s or the feminist writers of the 1980s, the latest new wave has focused less on big political statements and more on the politics of everyday life. Shaking off ideology and political correctness liberated young writers in the 1990s.

In-yer-face
Commonly used description - by critics and practitioners alike - of the more extreme and cutting edge plays of the 1990s.

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J
Jacobeanism
Sex and violence on the contemporary stage is sometimes called 'neo-Jacobeanism', an allusion to the blood and guts approach of Jacobean writers such as John Webster (1570-1625), Cyril Tourneur (1570-1626) and Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): 'When the bad bleed, then is the tragedy good.'

Jones, Alex
Actor turned writer, whose Noise (Soho Theatre Company, 1997) woke people up to his particular brand of in-yer-face intensity. Other work includes Mickey and Me (New Birmingham Theatre) and News of the World (Watermill, Newbury 1997). His Mr And Mrs Schultz (Warehouse, Croydon, 2004) saw him apply his trademark intensity to the Holocaust.

Jones, Charlotte
Mixing witty jokes with emotional truth, Jones's style is one of gutsy realism laced with affectionate loopiness. Her first play, Airswimming, opened at the Battersea Arts Centre and was broadcast on Radio 4. In Flame (1999) transferred to the West End after starting at the Bush theatre, and Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis (1999) premiered at the Bolton Octagon. The award-winning Humble Boy (2001) was a hit for the National, and her latest is The Dark (Donmar, 2004). She also wrote, whisper it quietly, the words for Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White (2004).

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K
Kane, Sarah
Quintessential 1990s writer whose debut, Blasted, set off a massive controversy which put the new theatrical sensibility on the map. Not only did Kane produce a body of work which constantly challenged the restraints of form, but she also worked hard at teaching other writers. Her plays, Blasted (1995), Phaedra's Love (1996), Cleansed (1998), Crave (1998) and 4.48 Psychosis (2000) are among the best written in decade crammed with great writing. Kane committed suicide in February 1999.

Kelly, Dennis
Cockney dreamer and agent provocateur. Kelly burst onto the new writing scene with the vividly imaginative Debris (Latchmere, 2003) and his follow-up, Osama the Hero (Hampstead, 2005) was a storming in-yer-face shocker, and so was After the End at the Traverse. In 2007, his Love and Money (Young Vic) demonstrated his talent for experimenting with form and Taking Care of Baby confirmed his ability to mix theatrical intelligence with artistic daring.

Khan-Din, Ayub
Actor turned writer, whose debut East Is East (Tamasha, Birmingham Rep, Royal Court, 1996) was a huge theatrical success and was later made into a successful film. However, his follow up, Last Dance at Dum Dum (New Ambassadors, 1999), was markedly less convincing. Recent work includes the affecting Notes On Falling Leaves (Royal Court, 2004).

Kwei-Armah, Kwame
Actor, singer and king-size media personality, Kwame branched out into writing and became one of the most powerful chroniclers of the Black British experience with his trilogy: Elmina's Kitchen (National, 2003), Fix Up (National, 2004) and Statement of Regret (National, 2007). Long live the play of ideas!

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L
Letts, Tracy
Former actor with the Steppenwolf Company in Chicago, Tracy Letts developed a form of 'kick ass theatre' which excited audiences with its powerful violence and explicit sexuality. His Killer Joe (Traverse, 1994) is a classic account of the brutalising effects of the culture of violence on a family of 'trailer trash' Americans. Also wrote Bug (Gate Theatre, 1996), which is currently being adapted for the screen and in which Ashley Judd is set to star.

London New Play Festival
Set up by Phil Setren, the London New Play Festival started in 1989 and, despite having to be run on a shoestring, has staged the early work of writers such as Biyi Bandele, Joe Penhall, Mark Ravenhill, Judy Upton, and Naomi Wallace. Great stuff.

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M
Masculinity in crisis
One of the key themes of today's theatre has been the crisis of blokedom: as well as fad for boys plays - from Mojo to Not a Game for Boys, and from Peaches to Our Boys - masculinity and its discontents has featured in many plays about abusive males, impotent father figures and confused youngsters. This idea could run and run.

Marber, Patrick
After a career in stand up comedy and television - the BBC's The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You (with Alan Partridge) - Marber wrote and directed two of the finest plays of the decade: Dealer's Choice (National Theatre, 1995) and Closer (National Theatre, 1997), with the latter becoming an almost legendary event, discussed in countless newspaper columns. In 2004 Closer was adapted into a film, directed by Mike Nichols - although well received much of the dark humour failed to translate from stage to screen. His original play Howard Katz (2001) was less successful than his adaptations of Strindberg, After Miss Julie (2003), and Moliere, Don Juan in Soho (2006). Marber also wrote The Musicians (National, 2004) and the screenplay for Notes on a Scandal (2006).

McDonagh, Martin
The writer as meteor: now you see him, now you don't. Shot to instant success in 1996 with The Beauty Queen of Leenane, quickly followed up by the rest of the Leenane trilogy (A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West). Next sighted at the National with The Cripple of Inishmaan. He then disappeared into the world of film, only to reappear with the equally triumphant The Lieutenant of Inishmore (RSC, 2001) and the gobsmacking The Pillowman (National, 2003). Writes with a stunning mix of wild hilarity and incisive intelligence.

McPherson, Conor
One of the most original, and successful, playwrights of recent years, McPherson developed a recognisable style consisting mainly of monologue narratives: see This Lime Tree Bower (Crypt Arts Centre, Dublin, 1995) and St Nicholas (Bush, 1997). His gentle, yet deep, play The Weir (Royal Court, 1997) transferred to the West End and its highly successful run helped bail out the Royal Court when money was short. When the theatre reopened its refurbished Sloane Square building in 2000, McPherson's Dublin Carol was its first mainstage offering. In 2001, his Port Authority wowed his fans. Recent work includes Come On Over (Gate Theatre, Dublin, 2004) and the haunting Shining City (Royal Court, 2004).

Mitchell, Gary
Belfast-born writer who specialises in thrilling plots and revealing anatomies of the Loyalist mindset. In 1995, he became the first Protestant to win the prestigious Stewart Parker award for his play Independent Voice. His cracking dramas include In a Little World of Our Own (1998), As the Beast Sleeps (1998), Trust (1999), The Force of Change (2000) and Loyal Women (2003). In December 2005, he was attacked by rogue Loyalist paramilitaries.

Mojo
Powerfully written play about a gang of motormouthing crims by Jez Butterworth, its Royal Court debut in July 1995 was hyped as the first time since John Osborne's Look Back in Anger that a first play had leapt straight onto the main stage. A classic 'lads play', it put its stamp on a whole genre. Sadly, the film version only exposed its faulty plot.

Monsterists, The
A group of writers who originally met during Trevor Nunn's valedictory Transformations season at the National in 2002. Practitioners such as Richard Bean, Ryan Craig, Sarah Woods, Colin Teevan, Simon Bowen, Moira Buffini, David Eldridge, Tanika Gupta, Jonathan Lewis and Roy Williams issued the Monsterist manifesto 'to promote new writing of large-scale work in the British theatre'. They want to see new work that is large in theme and large in ambition on the largest stages in Britain - good luck guys.

Morgan, Abi
Genius of quirk, whose tv work has brought fame at the cost of some loss of personality in her writing. She worked closely with Paines Plough, producing for them Splendour (Traverse, 2000) and the brilliantly observed Tiny Dynamite (Traverse, 2001). Morgan's work is structurally clever, with lovely formal and linguistic creativity. Her other work includes Sleeping Around (Donmar, 1998) - co-written with Mark Ravenhill, Hilary Fanning and Stephen Greenhorn - Fast Food (Manchester Royal Exchange, 1999) and Tender (Birmingham Rep/Hampstead Theatre, 2001). Her Sex Traffic (C4) was a two-part television drama starring John Simm.

Moss, Chloe
Discovered by the 2002 Royal Court Young Writers fest, Liverpudlian Moss's work is characterised by an eloquence that imbues beautifully observed everyday situations with both touching and tragic qualities. Plays include A Day in Dull Armour (Royal Court, 2002), How Love Is Spelt (Bush, 2004) and Christmas Is Miles Away (Manchester Royal Exchange, 2005).

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N
Nagy, Phyllis
American writer who made London her home and produced a succession of highly imaginative, innovative and ironic dramas. If you don't know her work, check out Weldon Rising (1992), Butterfly Kiss (1994), Trip's Cinch (1994), The Strip (1995) and Never Land (1998). Read also her provocative essay in State of Play.

Neilson, Anthony
Scottish playwright whose narrowly focused but extremely powerful plays - Normal (Pleasance, Edinburgh, 1991), Penetrator (Traverse, 1993) and The Censor (Finborough, 1997) - are great examples of experiential drama. In Penetrator, Neilson wrote some of the most brutally explicit sexual fantasy as well as staging one of the tensest fight scenes ever. His immense theatrical verve is exemplified in Stitching (Traverse, 2002) and he finally arrived on the main stage of the Royal Court in 2002 with The Lying Kind, his black comedy about truth-telling. Neilson's recent work includes Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Drum Theatre, Plymouth, 2002), Twisted (Theatre Workshop, 2003) and, most remarkably, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, 2004).

New Writing
Although all playwrights (yes, even Shakespeare) start off as unknown new writers, the term New Writing usually refers to all those young British writers who emerged in successive new waves in the wake of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court in 1956. Each new wave reinvented theatrical language, and New Writing can be defined as first plays by young writers put on by subsidised theatres. The term implies that the writer is at the centre of the theatrical process, but leaves unresolved the question of exactly when new writers become old hands.

Nudity
Once onstage nudity was a symbol of sexual liberation; more recently, it has been as troubling sign of abuse and domination.

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O
Out of Joint
Set up by former Royal Court artistic director Max Stafford-Clark and Sonia Friedman in 1993, Out of Joint is a touring company which has specialised in producing cutting edge-drama, as well as occasionally pairing a classic with a new play. Successes include Sue Townsend's The Queen and I (1994), Sebastian Barry's The Steward of Christendom (1995), Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking (1996), Simon Bennett's Drummers (1999) and Rita, Sue and Bob Too/A State Affair (2000). Recently, Stafford-Clark has pioneered the revival of verbatim theatre, especially with Talking to Terrorists (2005).

O’Rowe, Mark
Award-winning Dublin-based writer best known for his third play, Howie the Rookie (Bush, 1999), 'a white-knuckle ride through a nightmare Dublin'. A huge hit. His Crestfall (Gate Theatre, 2003; Theatre 503, 2007) was criticised for its lack of humour, but who cares? It's a simply dazzling piece of multiple narration, glowing with imagination and linguistic brilliance.

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P
Paines Plough
Formed in 1974, this new writing company has been in the forefront of the recent explosion of talent. Led by director Vicki Featherstone, it played a vital role as an advocate of new writing in the mid-1990s, when Mark Ravenhill was literary manager and Sarah Kane ran the Wild Lunch workshops. Helped develop the work of writers such as Parv Bancil, David Greig, Linda McLean and Abi Morgan. John Tiffany, former literary manager of the Traverse, joined in 2001. And, yes, everyone hates the company's name, which comes from the pub in which the company's founders were drinking when they first hit on the idea. New artistic director Roxanna Silbert took over in 2005, following the controversial and inspiring This Other England season.

Penhall, Joe
Writer who has made the theme of mental illness his own with two excellent plays, Some Voices (1994) and Blue/Orange (2000). A keen observer of everyday life, two of his other plays - Love and Understanding (Bush, 1997) and The Bullet (Donmar, 1998) - were implicit criticisms of the idea that new writing has to be about sex and violence. Penhall's Dumb Show (Royal Court, 2004) was a critical look at the relationship between celebrity and the tabloid press. Look out for his typical motif: two brothers in struggle.

Politics
The death of political theatre has been prematurely announced on several occasions during recent years. What really happened is that when many young writers abandoned the heavily ideological and cumbersome state-of-the-nation plays, they focused their political feelings on more private scenarios, without any dilution of their anger or their radicalism. Since 9/11, politics have made a massive comeback with a spate of vivid satires and verbatim pieces. Massive.

Postmodernism
Whether their authors know it or not, many plays of the 1990s have been touched by a distinct postmodern sensibility, which involves contemporary ideas that privilege discourses, surfaces, irony, denial of closure and such like over the more traditional theories about aesthetics and value. At its worst, postmodernism implies that 'anything goes'; at its best, it encourages productive mixes of high and low culture, experiments in theatrical form and a sense of playful irony that is as intelligent as it is amusing. Still, a new ethical theatre practice needs something that pomo can't provide. What could that be?

Prichard, Rebecca
Writer who tackles gritty subjects, but always pays attention to the emotional relationships between her characters. Her first play, Essex Girls (Royal Court, 1994), was as much an experiment in form as an account of teenage pregnancy. In Fair Game (Royal Court, 1997), she adapted Edna Mazya's Games in the Backyard, and in Yard Gal, her 1998 play for Clean Break theatre company, she produced one of the best plays about girl gangs.

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Q
Queer
A more cutting edge label than 'gay', 'queer' stands for the idea of the homosexual as sexual outlaw and is often preferred to gay, which suggests assimilation into mainstream society. In recent years, queer has itself become a style label - and some gays prefer the more ironic 'postgay'. A distinct queer sensibility can be glimpsed in plays by writers such as Brad Fraser and Mark Ravenhill, but their work should not be reduced to the sexuality of their authors.

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R
Ravenhill, Mark
Author of Shopping and Fucking (Royal Court, 1996) and one of the quintessential writers of the 1990s. Ironic in tone, controversial in stage imagery and constantly questioning of social mores, Ravenhill's plays include Faust Is Dead (1997), Handbag (1998) and Some Explicit Polaroids (1999). Don't you just love those titles? His latest, Mother Clap's Molly House (National, 2001) restates his characteristic obsessions: sexual sensationalism, cultural politics and gobby irony. Ravenhill has recently written two plays for teenagers - Totally Over You (National, 2003) and Citizenship (National, 2005) - and Sir Ian McKellen starred in his The Cut, at the Donmar in 2006. Product (Traverse, 2005) was his acting debut and his most recent play is Pool (No Water) (Plymouth Drum, 2006).

Ridley, Philip
One of the most imaginative, innovative and visionary writers in British theatre, Philip Ridley's three plays - The Pitchfork Disney (Bush, 1991), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (Hampstead, 1992) and Ghost from a Perfect Place (Hampstead, 1994) - showed what could be done by mixing fantasy with real emotional undercurrents. Prolific output includes films, novels and young people's plays. Vincent River opened at the Hampstead theatre in September 2000, and recent work includes his latest shocker Mercury Fur (Paines Plough/Menier Chocolate Factory, 2005) and the superb Leaves of Glass (Soho, 2007). This guy really rocks.

Royal Court theatre
Leader of the powerhouse theatres that specialise in new writing. Reinvented itself in the early 1990s under its artistic director Stephen Daldry, who championed new writers such as Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Jez Butterworth and dozens of others. Next headed by director Ian Rickson, who led the company back to its refurbished Sloane Square building in February 2000. Specialises in high-definition, cutting-edge productions. Champion. New artistic director Dominic Cooke took over in 2007.

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S
Shopping and Fucking
A key play of the 1990s, Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking attracted attention partly because of its provocative title and partly because of the desperation of its stage images. A controversial critique of consumer society, its cool ironic tone contrasted sharply with the horror of its vision of urban alienation.

Soho Theatre Company
Originally set up in 1972 as the Soho Poly, which pioneered new writing in the following two decades, the Soho Theatre Company began the 1990s at the Cockpit Theatre, then in March 2000 moved into a new building in Dean Street, in London's Soho. Led by Abigail Morris, who pioneered the short, no-interval drama, its memorable plays include the much-revived Diane Samuels's Kindertransport (1993), Jonathan Lewis's Our Boys (1993), Daniel Magee's Paddywack (1994) and Alex Jones's Noise (1997). Recent hits include Shan Khan's Office and Gurpreet Bhatti's Shameless. New artistic director Lisa Goldman began in 2007.

Stafford-Clark, Max
Stafford-Clark pioneered the workshop method in the 1970s with Joint Stock theatre company and writers such as Caryl Churchill and, later, Timberlake Wertenbaker. Artistic director of the Royal Court theatre (1979-93), he then set up Out of Joint theatre company and directed the work of new writers such as Mark Ravenhill and Simon Bennett as well as older hands such as April de Angelis and Sebastian Barry. He also developed verbatim theatre shows such as David Hare's The Permanent Way (2003) and Robin Soans's Talking to Terrorists (2005).

Stephens, Simon
Stockport-born Stephens writes precisely and lyrically about hope, honesty and humour, as well as brutality and despair. Although his work seems to be part of the great British tradition of naturalism, actually it's more in the style of poetic realism. In Stephens's work, a cool British noir sensibility meets a warmly redemptive humanism. Check out Herons (Royal Court, 2001), Port (Manchester Royal Exchange, 2002), One Minute (Actors Touring Company, 2003) and Christmas (Bush, 2004). Or his more recent work Country Music (Royal Court, 2004) and On the Shore of the Wide World (Manchester Royal Exchange, 2005). In 2006, his Motortown (Royal Court) was a storming success. Stephens was tutor on the Royal Court Young Writers Programme for five years before becoming the National's first ever Writer in Residence in 2005.

Stephenson, Shelagh
Northumberland-born writer who mixes dark themes - usually about death - with comic dialogue. Her award-winning debut, A Memory of Water (Hampstead, 1996), was followed by An Experiment with an Air Pump (Royal Exchange Manchester, 1997), Five Kinds of Silence (Lyric Hammersmith, 2000), Ancient Lights (Hampstead, 2000) and Mappa Mundi (National Theatre, 2002).

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T
Theatre Royal Stratford East
Home of the legendary Joan Littlewood in the 1950s and 1960s, this community theatre was run for 25 years by Philip Hedley. Hosts black and Asian groups, and has an especially lively audience. Good for modern musical theatre; ditto for radical populism; less good at cutting edge new writing. In 2004, the new artistic director, Kerry Michael, took over.

Trainspotting
Seminal book about the splendours and miseries of drug addiction by Irvine Welsh, first published in 1993, Trainspotting gave its name to a whole generation. (The title comes from a scene in which the book's young heroes are hanging around the disused Leith station, where a tramp asks them ironically if they're trainspotting.) It was adapted for the stage by Harry Gibson, and first put on at the Glasgow Mayfest in 1994. It was then revived time after time, becoming one of the most successful plays of the 1990s.

Traverse theatre
Powerhouse of new drama in Edinburgh. After twenty-five years in Grassmarket, the Traverse moved to a new building in Cambridge Street in July 1992. Under artistic director Ian Brown, it imported and staged some of the most daring and excoriating plays of the 1990s, including Tracy Letts's Killer Joe (1993), Simon Donald’s The Life of Stuff (1992), and Brad Fraser’s Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love (1992). Many confrontational plays that arrived in London were first seen in Scotland.

Tricycle theatre
Community theatre run by Nicolas Kent. Hosts black, Asian and Irish groups. Before the recent vogue for verbatim drama, Kent pioneered documentary theatre based on reconstructions of public enquiries, such as that into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence (The Colour of Justice, 1999). Occasionally also stages cutting-edge new writing.

Tucker Green, Debbie
Hailed - with pardonable exaggeration - as the new Sarah Kane, Debbie Tucker Green arrived with a bang in 2003 with dirty butterfly (Soho), which she quickly followed up with born bad (Hampstead, 2003). Her style is a mix of in-yer-face directness with a freefloating poetry and an experimental attitude to form. Her Stoning Mary (Royal Court, 2005) is a masterpiece.

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U
Upton, Judy
One of the brat pack of new writers introduced by Stephen Daldry's 1994-95 season. A prolific writer, her Ashes and Sand (1994), Bruises (1995), The Girlz (Orange Tree, 1998) and Confidence (Birmingham Rep, 1998) established her as a gutsy and vivid new voice. Her writing has great clarity and documentary power. Despite its unlikely premiss, Sliding with Suzanne (Royal Court, 2001) is her best yet.

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V
Victimhood
While many plays in the 1970s and 1980s tended to show victims of political or personal persecution as innocent but powerless victims, recent drama has discovered a more complex way of representing those at the receiving end of violence. Often the victims are in some way complicit with their victimisers, who in turn are usually seen as themselves victims.

Violence
One of the distinguishing characteristics of in-yer-face theatre is its preoccupation with and ability to stage acts of violence, whether they are random acts of urban crime or more personal assaults and abuse. In the hot confines of experiential theatre, the effect can been deeply disturbing.

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W
Wade, Laura
Wade was brought up in Sheffield, and specialises in showing the problems of communication, the effect of emotional stress on the body and the bafflement caused by technology. In 2005, she had two plays running simultaneously in London - Colder Than Here (Soho) and Breathing Corpses (Royal Court). Both plays took death as a central theme, but were more about the difficulties of talking. Her writing is very precise and she has a clear understanding of structure. Other Hands (Soho, 2006) shows her at her best.

Walker, Che
Gentle giant, actor and writer, Che Walker's debut, Been So Long (Royal Court, 1998), was characterised by a brilliant use of language and a confident command of the confusions of desire and love. His wildly hilarious follow up, Flesh Wound, came in 2003 at the Royal Court. In 2003 Walker was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. His most recent work includes his translation of Akos Nemeth's Car Thieves (Birmingham Rep Door, 2004) and he has also directed Achidi J's Final Hours (Finborough, 2004).

Wallace, Naomi
Kentucky-born Wallace come to Britain and soon established herself as a poetic playwright who is both committed politically and fascinated by experiments with form. Plays include The War Boys (Finborough, 1993), In the Heart of America (Bush, 1995), One Flea Spare (Bush, 1995), Slaughter City (RSC, 1996), The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (Traverse, 2001) and The Inland Sea (2002). Much of Wallace's recent work has been been for Theatre 503, including The Retreating World (2003), Two Into War (2003) and the critically acclaimed A State of Innocence (2005).

Walsh, Enda
One of the most original and imaginative writers to have been spat out of Ireland in the 1990s. His plays, especially Disco Pigs (1997) and Bedbound (2000), are frantic and furious, written with an astonishing energy that makes them exciting examples of experiential theatre. Walsh's recent work includes Chatroom (2005) - for Shell Connections at the National - and The Small Things (Paines Plough/Menier Chocolate Factory, 2005).

Welsh, Irvine
Novelist whose Trainspotting was adapted by Harry Gibson into a classic text of in-yer-face theatre. Despite his evident relish for staging sex and violence, his other plays, Headstate (Boilerhouse, 1994) and You'll Have Had Your Hole (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 1998) were markedly less successful.

Williams, Roy
Top writer for exploring the tensions between black and white youth. His trademark is sizzling dialogue and a streetwise ear for cultural conflict. Sometimes his work is a tad didactic, but it's always worth seeing: The No-Boys Cricket Club (Stratford East, 1996), The Gift (Birmingham Rep Door, 2000), Lift Off (Royal Court, 1999), Clubland (Royal Court, 2001), Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (National, 2002) and Fallout (Royal Court, 2003). Williams's recent Little Sweet Thing (New Wolsey, Ipswich/Nottingham Playhouse/Birmingham Rep, 2005) was praised for its sensitive and sympathetic characterisation. Believe. And he's so prolific!

Willmott, Phil
Artistic director of the tiny Finborough theatre in London's Earl's Court. Helped the new writing boom by telling writers they were free to use their imaginations and by mounting large-scale plays in a tiny space.

Woods, Sarah
Because her work is not staged in London, Woods has been unfairly ignored by metropolitan critics. Check out her plays for Birmingham Rep: Nervous Women, Bidding and Binding, and Trips (1999). She has also written extensively for radio. Supporter of the Monsterists. Woods's new work includes Soap (Stephen Joseph, Scarborough, 2004) and Through the Woods (Minerva, Chichester, 2004).

Wynne, Michael
Spirited and humorous writer, whose The Knocky (1994) was part of the explosion of creativity at the Royal Court. Also worth checking out is his The Boy Who Left Home, an adult fairy tale for the Actors Touring Company (2000) and his hilarious comedy The People Are Friendly (Royal Court, 2002). Wynne's recent Dirty Wonderland (Grand Ocean Hotel, Brighton, 2005) was a critically lauded site-specific piece energetically staged by Frantic Assembly.

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X
Generation X
A bit naff as a label, but still routinely used to describe Thatcher's Children - or any other generation that happened to be born after about 1980. Suggests a post-ideological attitude, in which ideas about leftwing and rightwing, east and west, are superseded by a 'post' mentality: postmodernism, post-feminism, post-political, even post-gay. On the negative side, it suggests the casual attitude to drugs, death and decay typical of recent American blank fiction. On the positive side, describes a generation that is both 'can do' and 'do it yourself'.

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Y
Youth culture
One of the main significances of in-yer-face theatre is that it brought stage drama into synch with youth culture, thus attracting new audiences and new interest in the theatre. Often written as 'yoof'.

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Z
Zeitgeist
Trendy word for spirit of the times, which just means 'all the stuff that's going on today'. Use sparingly.

Richard Zajdlic
The great thing about having a surname beginning with Z is that you always get a place in an A-Z. Not that anyone needs an excuse to include the writer who created the second series of This Life, the cult BBC soap, and sizzling plays such as Infidelities (Tabard, 1990), Dogs Barking (Bush, 1999) and Cannibal (Union, 2001).

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