Zinnie Harris FRSE is a British playwright, screenwriter and director currently living in Edinburgh. She has been commissioned and produced by the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

, Royal National Theatre, the

National Theatre of Scotland The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at h ...

and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her plays have been translated and performed in many countries across Europe and the globe.

Early life

Harris was born in Oxford and brought up in Scotland. She studied zoology at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, followed by an M.A. in Theatre Direction at Hull University.

Themes and context

Alongside her original plays, Zinnie Harris has adapted and reworked a number of plays from the western dramatic canon revising female characters from those plays for a more contemporary and sympathetic eye. Among these adaptations, ''This Restless House'' (2017), Harris’ version of Aeschylus’ ''

Oresteia The ''Oresteia'' ( grc, Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BCE, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end o ...

'', imagines Clytemnestra not as someone capable of murder, but as a woman more like herself with no intention to kill. Her upcoming play ''Macbeth (an undoing)'' (February 2022) revisits Lady Macbeth as a ‘complex woman intoxicated by love, power and maternal longing; a woman out of time, fighting against the constraints of medieval patriarchy.’ Similarly, in ''The Duchess (of Malfi)'', her adaptation of John Webster’s ''

The Duchess of Malfi ''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, ...

'', the duchess is given the final word as Webster’s text is rewoven to examine the control and violence of men towards women. In her version of Strindberg’s ''

Miss Julie ''Miss Julie'' ( sv, Fröken Julie) is a naturalistic play written in 1888 by August Strindberg. It is set on Midsummer's Eve and the following morning, which is Midsummer and the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist. The setting is an estate of ...

'', Julie is a character with actions of those of a child who is scared of and has been coerced by her father. Harris’ original plays also put female characters at the centre of the narrative. ''How to Hold Your Breath'' (2015) challenges the notion of the ‘everyman’ and ''Meet me at Dawn'' (2017) dramatizes the relationship between two women in an examination of grief.

Career

1999–2010

Harris's play ''By Many Wounds'' was produced by

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

in 1999, and was shortlisted for the Allied-Domecq and Meyer-Whitworth playwriting awards. Her second play, '' Further than the Furthest Thing'' was directed by

Irina Brown Irina Brown (born Leningrad, Russia) is a theatre and opera director in the United Kingdom, where she has lived and worked for over thirty years. Brown was the Artistic Director of the Tron Theatre in Glasgow from 1996 to 2000, and Natural Perspecti ...

and co-produced by the

Tron Theatre The Tron Theatre is located in the corner of Trongate and Chisholm Street, in what was formerly the Tron Kirk which had started as the Collegiate Church of Our Lady and St. Anne in the Trongate area of Glasgow, Scotland. The Tron Steeple still ...

, Glasgow and the Royal National Theatre, London in 2000. The play tells the story of the island of Tristan da Cunha and its inhabitants following a volcanic eruption in 1961. It won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the Peggy Ramsay Award, and the

John Whiting Award Between 1965 and 2010, the John Whiting Award (from 2007 renamed the Peter Wolff Trust Supports the John Whiting Award) was awarded annually to a British or Commonwealth playwright who, in the opinion of a consortium of UK theatres, showed a new ...

and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. The actress

Paola Dionisotti Paola Dionisotti (; born 1946) is an Italian-British actress active on stage and British television since 1975. A character actress best known on television for recurring roles as Lady Patricia Broughall in ''Forever Green'' and Aunt Nicholls i ...

won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award for her performance as Mill in the original production. In the same year Harris was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award. ''Further than the Furthest Thing'' has been translated into multiple languages and performed across the globe, often being described as a "modern classic". Her next play ''Nightingale and Chase'', was produced by the

, London 2001 and co-commissioned by Clean Break. A trilogy of plays followed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco. The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary p ...

Edinburgh - ''Solstice'' (2005), ''Midwinter'' (2004) and ''Fall'' (2008). ''Midwinter'' was given an Arts Foundation Fellowship Award for playwriting and shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. It has been performed many times in translation, notably at the

Royal Dramatic Theatre The Royal Dramatic Theatre ( sv, Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern, colloquially ''Dramaten'') is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's five running stages. The the ...

in Sweden (2005) and at La Cartoucherie, Paris (2010). Harris adapted and directed ''Julie'', an adaptation of

Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...

's ''

'', for the

in 2006. For the

Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Mi ...

, London, she adapted Ibsen's

A Doll's House ''A Doll's House'' ( Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having be ...

in 2009, relocating the setting to Downing Street in 1909, exploring politics and scandal. By coincidence, Harris's new version opened in the week the Westminster MP's expenses scandal broke in the UK press.

Gillian Anderson Gillian Leigh Anderson ( ; born August 9, 1968) is an American actress. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the series ''The X-Files'', ill-fated socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies's film '' The House of Mirt ...

played the role of Nora, and Christopher Eccleston the part of Kelman (Krogstad). A subsequent production opened at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh in April 2013 in a co-production with the

2011–2016

In 2011 the

commissioned and performed ''The Wheel'', directed by

Vicky Featherstone Vicky Featherstone (born 5 April 1967) is a theatre and artistic director. She has been artistic director of London's Royal Court Theatre since April 2013. Prior to that she was founding artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland, a ...

. The play won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, was joint winner of the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, and shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. ''The Wheel'' had its U.S. debut at the

Steppenwolf Theater Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on H ...

of Chicago in 2013, directed by

Tina Landau Tina Landau (born May 21, 1962) is an American playwright and theatre director. Known for her large-scale, musical, and ensemble-driven work, Landau's productions have appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally, most extensively at the ...

and starring

Joan Allen Joan Allen (born August 20, 1956) is an American actress. She began her career with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1977, won the 1984 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for '' And a Nightingale Sang'', and won the 1988 Tony Aw ...

. Harris' play ''Solstice'' had its U.S. debut at the Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago in January 2014, directed by Karen Kessler. Harris has written a number of shorter plays; ''The Garden'' for the Traverse Theatre (2010); ''The Panel'' for the

Tricycle Theatre The Kiln Theatre (formerly the Tricycle Theatre) is a theatre located in Kilburn, in the London Borough of Brent, England. Since 1980, the theatre has presented a wide range of plays reflecting the cultural diversity of the area, as well as ...

London for the ''Women, Power and Politics'' Season (2010); and ''From Elsewhere: The Message'' / ''From Elsewhere: On the Watch'' for the Tricycle Theatre as part of ''The Bomb: a Partial History'' Season (2012). In 2015, The Royal Court Theatre produced Harris's new play, ''How To Hold Your Breath'' at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. It starred

Maxine Peake Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her roles as Twinkle in the BBC One sitcom '' dinnerladies'' (1998–2000), Veronica Ball in the hit Channel 4 comedy drama '' Shameless'' (2004–2007), Mart ...

and Michael Schaeffer and was directed by Vicky Featherstone. It imagined the fall of Europe and what would happen to the Western privileged values and outlook if Europeans became the next wave of refugees. It was awarded the Berwin-Lee Award for playwriting in 2016. The play went on to have multiple productions in translation in Turkey, Greece, France and Sweden.

2016–2022

'' This Restless House'' was commissioned and produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Citizens Theatre in 2016 and directed by

Dominic Hill Dominic Hill is Artistic Director at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. He took up post in October 2011. Early life Hill was born in Wimbledon on 22 April 1969. Career From 2008 to 2011 he was artistic director at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburg ...

. This trilogy of plays was inspired by Aeschylus' ''

'' and retells the ancient story placing the women at the centre of the story. It was awarded Best New Play at Critics' Awards and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn award and Best New Play in the UK Theatre Awards.

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

theatre critic Joyce McMillan described the play as a "trail-blazing 21st century adaptation". Zinnie Harris had three major new pieces of work presented at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2017. This Restless House was presented again, alongside two other of her plays, putting Harris's work in the centre of Festival Drama programme that year. '' Meet me at Dawn'' was the second of the trio of plays and was presented in a co-production between the EIF and the Traverse Theatre and directed by

Orla O'Loughlin Orla O'Loughlin is a British theatre director currently the Vice Principal & Director of Drama at Guildhall School of Music & Drama Education Orla trained at the National Theatre and National Theatre Studio. She has a B.A (Hons) in Theatre and ...

. Harris said "Meet me at Dawn is a play about love and grief. I wanted the play to have a relationship with the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, a myth that was created to address the impossibility of death; when someone dies you simply cannot accept that you will not see them again. But what if you could see your loved one one more time? The non-naturalistic form of theatre means you can imagine a bit of magic dust and give that possibility." The third piece of work was a new version of Ionesco's classic play, ''

Rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

'' which Harris adapted for the EIF and the Royal Lyceum Theatre in association with DOT Theatre, Istanbul. The production was directed by the Turkish theatre director Murat Daltaban, and went on to win a host of awards at the CATS (Best Production, Best Director, Best Sound and Best Actor). It was brought back to the Lyceum as part of the 2018 season. In 2017, she adapted Ibsen's ''

The Master Builder ''The Master Builder'' ( no, Bygmester Solness) is a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was first published in December 1892 and is regarded as one of Ibsen's more significant and revealing works. Performance The play was published ...

'' for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the resultant play was called ''The Fall of the Master Builder'' and was directed by James Brining. Harris’ ''The Duchess (of Malfi)'', an adaptation of John Webster’s ''Duchess of Malfi'', opened at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in 2019''.'' In 2020, she adapted ''

The Hundred and One Dalmatians ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith about the kidnapping of a family of Dalmatian puppies. It was originally serialized in ''Woman's Day'' as ''The Great Dog Robbery'', and details the adventures of ...

'' by

Dodie Smith Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (3 May 1896 – 24 November 1990) was an English novelist and playwright. She is best known for writing ''I Capture the Castle'' (1948) and the children's novel '' The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1956). Other works ...

for a new musical, to premiere in 2021 at

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre Regent's Park Open Air Theatre is an open-air theatre in Regent's Park in central London. The theatre Established in 1932, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is one of the largest theatres in London (1,256 seats) and is situated in Queen Mary� ...

. The production will be directed by

Timothy Sheader Timothy Sheader (born 23 November 1971 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire) is a British theatre director. Sheader read Law with French at the University of Birmingham before moving into a career in theatre. Since 2007, he has been Artistic Directo ...

, choreographed by Liam Steel, set and costumes designed by Katrina Linsdsay with puppetry designed and direction by Toby Olié. Harris’ original play, ''The Scent of Roses'', had its world premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in 2022.

Directing work

Harris has directed for a number of theatres, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Traverse Theatre, The Tron Theatre, 7:84 and the Royal Lyceum Theatre. In 2017 she directed Caryl Churchill's '' A Number'' for the Royal Lyceum Theatre and was awarded Best Director in the 2017 Scottish Critics CATS awards. Recent directing work includes ''The Duchess of Malfi'', ''Christmas Tales'', ''Scent of Roses'' for the Royal Lyceum Theatre where she is currently directing her new version of Shakespeare's Macbeth with the title ''Macbeth (an undoing)''. She was Associate Director at the Traverse Theatre from 2015 – 2018 and the current Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.

Bibliography

Publications

*''By Many Wounds'', Faber and Faber (1998) *'' Further than the Furthest Thing'', Faber and Faber (2000) *''Nightingale and Chase'', Faber and Faber (2001) *''Midwinter'', Faber and Faber (2004) *''Solstice'', Faber and Faber (2005) *''Julie'', Faber and Faber (2006) *''Fall'', Faber and Faber (2008) *''Plus Loin que Loin'', Quatre Vents (2008) *''Hiver : Suivi de Crépuscule'', Quatre Vents (2008) *''A Doll's House'', Faber and Faber (2009) *''Women, Power and Politics'', Nick Hern Books (2010) *''The Wheel'', Faber and Faber (2011) *''The Bomb: A Partial History'', Oberon (2012) *''How To Hold Your Breath'', Faber and Faber (2015) *''This Restless House'', Faber and Faber (2016) *''Meet Me at Dawn'', Faber and Faber (2017) *''(the fall of) The Master Builder'', Faber and Faber (2017) *''The Duchess (of Malfi)'', Faber and Faber (2019) *''Zinnie Harris: Plays 1'', Faber and Faber (2019) *''The Scent of Roses'', Faber and Faber (2022)

Screenplays

*''Born with Two Mothers'' (Windfall Films / Channel 4), screened 2005. *''Richard is My Boyfriend'' (Windfall Films / Channel 4), screened 2007. *'' Spooks'' (Kudos / BBC1), series 5, 6 and 8. 2006-2009. *'' Partners in Crime'', Miniseries. 2015. *''Snatches: Moments from Women's Lives'', 1 episode. 2018.

Honours and awards

* Best Director 2017, Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (for ''A Number'') * Herald Angel 2017 for work at three plays at Edinburgh International Festival * Best New Play 2016, Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (for ''This Restless House'') * Berwin Lee Playwriting Award 2016 (for ''How to Hold Your Breath'') * Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award 2011 (joint winner - for ''The Wheel'') * Arts Foundation Fellowship Award 2005 (for ''Midwinter'') * John Whiting Award 2001 (for ''Further than the Furthest Thing'') * Peggy Ramsay Award 2000 (for ''Further than the Furthest Thing'') * Five Fringe First Awards (2000, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2014) * Nominated for UK Theatre Awards Best New Play 2016 * Nominated for Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (2005, 2012, 2016, specially commended 2000) * Nominated for Outstanding Newcomer in British Television Writing 2016 * Nominated for Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright 2000 * Nominated for Meyer Whitworth Playwriting Award 1999 * Nominated for John Whiting Award 1999 * Nominated for Allied Domecq Playwriting Award 1999 In 2018 she was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This socie ...

(FRSE).

References

External links

Agent: Casarotto Ramsay
*
Prose Agent: A P Watt

Award: Arts Foundation Fellowship

University of St. Andrews Academic Staff Profile

Zinnie Harris , 2017 International Festival Portrait

Trailer for This Restless House

This Restless House Post-Show Talk with Dominic Hill and Zinnie Harris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Zinnie Living people British television writers British women dramatists and playwrights English dramatists and playwrights English television writers English screenwriters British women television writers 1972 births Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh