Graham Reid (born 1945) is a playwright from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Born into a working class family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Reid left school at age 15, served in the British army,[1] married young,[2] but returned to education and graduated from Queen's University in 1976. He became a teacher at Gransha Boys' High School in Bangor, County Down but left in 1980 to concentrate on his writing career.
His first play, The Death of Humpty Dumpty is a story about an innocent man who gets caught in the cross fire of the troubles in Belfast[3]
Characters in his work The Hidden Curriculum were based on pupils and teachers from the school he taught at. He went on to write a trio of plays for the BBC's Play for Today series. These were Too Late to Talk to Billy (1982), A Matter of Choice for Billy (1983) and A Coming to Terms for Billy (1984). They are colloquially known as The Billy Plays. The plays starred a young Kenneth Branagh, who had previously worked in his futuristic play Easter 2016, which was screened as part of the BBC's Play for Tomorrow series. In 1992 he wrote a screen play for the movie You, Me & Marley.
| Name | Year first produced | Theater first produced |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Remembrance, perhaps his most popular play, is a story about a Protestant widower and a Catholic widow who meet at their murdered sons' graves and fall in love over the objections of their surviving children. The play has been performed all over the world: 18 months in Tel Aviv (in Hebrew), over eight months at Irish Arts Center in Manhattan, and at the Old Globe, San Diego,.[3] The play was performed by the Tara Players of Winnipeg at the first Acting Irish International Theatre Festival in 1994.