Punk Rock

Simon Stephens began his theatrical career in the literary department of The Royal Court, where he ran its Young Writers’ Programme. 

His plays for theatre include Bluebird (Royal Court); Herons (Royal Court); Port (Royal Exchange Theatre); One Minute (Crucible Theatre and Bush Theatre); Christmas (Bush Theatre); Country Music (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs); On the Shore of the Wide World (Royal Exchange Theatre and National Theatre); Motortown (Royal Court); Pornography (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Edinburgh Festival/Birmingham Rep and Tricycle Theatre); Harper Regan (National Theatre); Sea Wall (Bush Theatre, Traverse Theatre); Heaven (Traverse Theatre); Punk Rock (Lyric Hammersmith, Royal Exchange Theatre); The Trial of Ubu (Essen Schauspielhaus/Toneelgroep Amsterdam); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (co-written with David Eldridge and Robert Holman; Lyric Hammersmith, London); Marine Parade (co-written with Mark Eitzel; Brighton International Festival); T5 (Traverse Theatre) and Wastwater (Royal Court). 

His radio plays include Five Letters Home to Elizabeth (BBC Radio 4) and Digging (BBC Radio 4). His screenwriting includes an adaptation of Motortown for Film4; the two-part serial Dive for Granada/BBC and a short film adaptation of Pornography for Channel 4's Coming Up series. Awards include the Pearson Award for Best New Play, Olivier Award for Best New Play and German critics in Theater Heute's annual poll voted him Best Foreign Playwright. His adaptation of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play. 

Chris Sonnex is former artistic director of Bunker Theatre (awarded The Stage Awards Best Fringe Theatre award 2020) and was awarded Artistic Director 2020 at The Offies. He has previously directed for Bunker Theatre, LAMDA, The Royal Court, Almedia Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Caravan Theatre and Synergy Theatre Project. He is currently associate artist of HighTide.