| Tommy Murphy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1979 Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation | Playwright |
| Nationality | Australian |
Tommy Murphy (born 1979) is an Australian playwright.
He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Director's course). He was born in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia, the seventh of eight children in a Catholic family. His plays are known for their humour and buoyant theatricality.
He was a resident writer at Griffin Theatre Company 2004-06, for which he wrote Strangers in Between and Holding the Man. Both plays are published by Currency Press, in one volume. Strangers in Between won the national 2006 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Best Play, and Holding the Man won the same Award in 2007. Murphy is the youngest recipient of the award, and the only playwright to win in successive years.
Holding the Man opened in London’s West End for a limited season from 23 April to 3 July 2010. Guy Edmonds and Matt Zeremes were joined by new cast members Jane Turner, Kath from TV’s Kath and Kim, and Simon Burke. David Berthold directed and Brian Thomson designed. The Trafalgar Studios season was produced by Daniel Sparrow and Mike Walsh.
Saturn's Return was commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company co-artistic directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett for STC's Wharf 2 season 2008. In 2009 it transferred to the STC main stage. Saturn's Return is published by Currency Press.
Tommy Murphy is the recipient of a Centenary of Federation Medal and the British Council Realise Your Dream Award.
In 2007, Tommy Murphy had the title of Honorary Associate conferred by the Faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney. He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Australian Theatre for Young People.
Tommy Murphy's latest play, Gwen in Purgatory, was co-produced by Belvoir (Theatre Company) and La Boite Theatre and directed by Neil Armfield in 2010. The cast for this premiere production were Nathaniel Dean, Grant Dodwell, Sue Ingleton, Melissa Jaffer and Pacharo Mzembe. This play is also published by Currency Press.
Murphy is represented by Cameron Creswell Agency in Australia and Curtis Brown (literary agents) in the UK.
He is currently writer-in-residence at Belvoir (Theatre Company). He is also writing for the Royal & Derngate Theatres in Northampton UK.
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“Tommy Murphy's new play is as deft and pungent a comedy as you are likely to see this year or any other.” “Murphy seemed to arrive fully fledged as a playwright when Strangers in Between won a NSW Premier's literary award in 2006. Holding the Man confirmed that initial promise and then some. Gwen is a step up again, a technical tour de force as well as a generous and humane piece of comic writing”. “We'll see Gwen again in years to come - it already feels like a classic…”
“Tommy Murphy's new play is terrific - a funny and warm family comedy-drama full of recognition for anyone who has a multigeneration family”.
“I can’t think of another playwright who’s a keener, more insightful observer of Australian suburban life, let alone one who can document it so redolently. …Gwen In Purgatory is a play for and about all of us. It is warm, funny, sad, tragic, poignant, moving and unsettling. Just like our lives. Life on the page, or stage, doesn’t get any better than this. This is the (very) real deal. Murphy makes it possible by writing it.”
"Hilarious observations that ring dark and true... [Murphy] has a keen sense of comedy but can suddenly silence the laughter with a sharp twist of the heart."
“9/10 Hilarious … The tension and insidious passive aggression will leave you gasping… Highly recommended."
"Full of laughs but also extremely emotional, Gwen In Purgatory is the best play to hit a Sydney stage this year."
"Gwen’s new home, isolated in the desert of a new estate, is filled with incomprehensible modern devices. Here, a barrage of well-intentioned ‘organisation’ bears down upon her from family determined to look after the aging matriarch as well as claim her treasures. The simple mix of dialogue and action work a wonderful magic, pulling the reader (and ultimately, the audience) into a vortex that holds them long beyond the final fade of lights."
“…unflinching, devastating, moving and funny... I laughed, and I wept”. “...ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS OF THE YEAR”
“...funny and moving in roughly equal measure, bawdy, playful and inventively staged”. “10/10 …a classic”
“...wickedly funny scenes... are interspersed with charmingly tender scenes of young love... “
“A rollercoaster of emotions... [the play] transcends the stereotypes and idiosyncrasies of gay culture, exploring universal themes such as identity, love, sex and fidelity, making for gripping viewing...”
“one of the funniest plays I've seen this year... Holding The Man is something of an impossible miracle. It's a brilliant play that delights and entertains, teasing you from the distractions of life's cruelties only to slug a full-force hit to your heart as a reminder that life is, if anything, double-edged”.
“[The play] had to be extended even before opening night but please work to see this, and join an audience who gasp both in tears and in laughter”.
“In Holding the Man, the Australian play receiving its American premiere at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, the drama is personal, the personal is political and everything is eminently theatrical. …Murphy's "Man" holds the stage very well.”
“If you have the chance to see Holding the Man, you have to”.
“A portrait of a gay relationship in Australia from the 1970s to the 1990s is the brass-tacks description, but this fresh, frank and funny drama is much more, above all a wrenchingly moving love story I defy anyone with a pulse not to relate to”.
“Using touches of physical theatre, puppetry and what must be exhausting emotion night after night, Holding The Man creates a visually spectacular play which, other than simply telling a poignant love story, reaches a perfect equilibrium of laughter and inevitable tears to do justice to such a unique partnership.”
“If you think you’ve heard this one before - the one about the young gay lovers and the first wave of the HIV virus - this lively Australian drama has other ideas … Guy Edmonds as Tim and Matt Zeremes as John convey beautifully their respective self- involvement and self-containment. Jane Turner, from the sitcom Kath and Kim, switches from high comedy to high seriousness in a heartbeat, and the rest of the supporting cast - Simon Burke, Oliver Farnworth and Anna Skellern - also excel. [Holding the Man] takes a horribly familiar trajectory, and turns it into something persuasive and illuminating. No small achievement.”
The play is at its best and most moving when it becomes serious. At the end, as John struggles for life and Zeremes replicates his agonising attempts to inhale, something remarkable happens in the theatre: you suddenly realise that the whole audience is holding its breath for him.
“…it’s hard to think of another writer who portrays the world from the gen Y perspective as poignantly as [Murphy] does in Saturn’s Return. …beautifully written and festooned with looping connections…
“Growing up, or not, is the point celebrated, delayed, mythologised and avoided in this psychologically deft and satisfying work. It's a fantastical drama about a very real moment”.
“In refusing to deny the theatre’s potential for metaphor, [Murphy] renders it a site of infinite possibilities”.
"The best new Australian play since Michael Gow's Away. I loved it. Go see it."
"full of laughs... a charming and often exhilarating experience"
"bitter and sweet and replete with raw emotion... entertaining and forceful."
"one of the funniest sex scenes you're likely to see on a stage... an exceptional gift for dialogue which sets the writing apart. Not to be missed."
"…there’s an honesty and openness to Murphy's writing that is irresistibly heart-warming, an appeal which, I imagine, is pretty much universal”.
“Comic insight and flair… A brash new theatrical voice.”
“I loved it. …Required viewing for anyone under 25 or anyone, like me, who wishes they could do it all again.”
“What makes Troy's House enormously enjoyable is its irreverent satire, with a thread of subtextual seriousness in terms of class analysis…”