Dennis Kelly

Dennis Kelly
Born	1970 Barnet, London, England
Occupation	Playwright, Television Scriptwriter
Nationality	British
Notable work(s)	Debris(2003) Love and Money (2006) Osama the Hero (2005) DNA(2007) Orphans (2009) Matilda, A Musical (2010)
Influences Caryl Churchill
Influenced Anya Reiss

Dennis Kelly (born 1970 in Barnet, London) is a London-based writer for both the theatre and television. Oberon plays have published a volume of Dennis Kelly Plays; Debris, After the End, Osama the Hero and Love and Money. In television he is best known for his work on BBC Three's sitcom Pulling.

Biography

Kelly grew up in Barnet, North London, in an Irish family and was brought up a Catholic. His father was a bus conductor, and Kelly, one of five children, left school at 16.

Brought up on a council estate he said "There is a theatre version of a council estate, and it doesn't look like any council estate I've ever been on. Council estates are really diverse, especially in London. You get all sorts of people. Working-class people have the same vocabulary as anyone else. Some read the Guardian, some read the Sun, some read the Telegraph." About growing up on a council estate Kelly has said;

"A couple of years ago, when I was starting out as a playwright, I had a meeting with an artistic director about a play I had just written, Fifty-Three Million Miles. It was set partly on a council estate, partly in a Nasa interview room, and partly in a living pod on the surface of Mars. "You do good council estate," the artistic director told me. "Stick to council estate." I was a little taken aback, but I took a deep breath and told him that although, yes, I'd grown up in a council house, I didn't feel that it was necessarily all there was to me, and that there were many things I was interested in talking about.."

While working in supermarkets, he discovered theatre when he joined a local youth group, the Barnet Drama Centre. " He then took a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts and received a first from Goldsmiths College, London. He wrote his first play Debris when he was 30.

His plays include Debris (Theatre 503, 2003/ Battersea Arts Centre, 2004), Osama the Hero (Hampstead Theatre, 2005), After the End produced by Paines Plough at the Traverse/ Bush Theatre, 2005/ UK and international tour 2006), Love and Money (Royal Exchange, Manchester and Young Vic, 2006) and Taking Care of Baby (Hampstead Theatre, 2007). In 2007 he also wrote DeoxyriboNucleic Acid, written for the National Theatre Connections Festival in 2007. His most recent play Orphans was staged in 2009 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and transferred to Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in August 2009 as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

His work has been produced in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Holland, Ireland, Iceland, The Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Australia, Japan, the United States, Belgium, Romania and Canada. Other work includes translations of Péter Kárpáti’s The Fourth Gate (National Theatre Studio) and The Colony, a radio play which won Best European Radio Drama at the Prix Europa, 2004.

He also co-wrote the BBC Three sitcom, Pulling with writer/actress Sharon Horgan.^[1]

Kelly was one of the ten writers who took part in writing monologues based on a children's account for a one off event at the Old Vic Theatre directed by Danny Boyle in London in support of Dramatic Need in 2010. His three monologues were performed by Ben Kingsley, Jenny Jules and Charlie Cox.^[2]

Common themes

Consistent traits in Kelly's work are strong women, violence, fantasy and flexible identities. For DNA Kelly said in an interview

This concept of a flexible identity was something I wanted to explore in a play. DNA was originally written for the National Theatre's Connections project, which pairs young actors with new writing. It was to be performed by more than 40 different youth groups across the country, and when I wrote it, I stipulated that all the characters' genders and names could be changed according to the groups' needs. John could become Jane, or Leah could become Lee. I reasoned that there isn't the huge gap between men and women that we like to think there is. We are different, yes, but our similarities far outweigh our differences. One quite angry youth leader took me to task over this, insisting that girls and boys were practically different species, and this could never work. But the interesting thing was that, with all the different cast configurations I went on to see, I forgot the original sex of the character I'd written within 10 minutes.^[3]

Theatre work

• Children's Monologues True Love, Sums and Christmas 2010 one off event at the Old Vic Theatre
• Matilda, A Musical^[4] 2010, music by Tim Minchin premiered in Stratford
• The Gods Weep 2010 premiered at the Hampstead Theatre
• The Prince of Homburg 2010 a translation, original by Heinrich von Kleist premiered at the Donmar Warehouse
• Orphans 2009 premiered at the Traverse Theatre transferred to the Soho Theatre
• Our Teacher's a Troll 2009 premiered at Hull Theatre
• D.N.A part of National Theatre Connections 2007
• Taking Care of Baby 2007 premiered at the Birmingham Rep
• Love and Money 2006 premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre
• Osama the Hero 2005 premiered at the Hampstead Theatre
• After the End 2005 premiered at the BAC
• Rose Bernd 2005 premiered at Arcola
• The Fourth Gate 2004 a translation, original play by Peter Karpati, premiered at the National Theatre
• Debris 2003 premiered at Theatre 503
• Brendan's Visit 1997 premiered at the Etcetera Theatre

Radio work

• The Colony, 2004

Television work

• Pulling for BBC Three co written with Sharon Horgan

Pulling

Kelly said that writing for TV and theatre is very unusual as Pulling is a comedy and not theatrical unlike his plays which are serious and often non naturalistic. Kelly said "telling people from the world of TV that I also inhabit the world of theatre is something I've begun to avoid."
Despite very good reviews and good ratings Pulling was cancelled in 2007. The decision by the BBC was much criticised and Kelly and Horgan claimed to have cried and threw themselves at their feet over the decision. Most striking about Pulling is its lack of a moral centre. In an interview with The Guardian Horgan said "I guess there isn't a moral centre because Dennis and I don't have one." Kelly then said "That's scary. Fuck. We need to get a moral centre. Shit. It's really true. But we do try to make sure we don't get nasty for the sake of it. We make sure there's a bit of heart. " ^[5]

References

1. ^ Pulling at BBC.co.uk
2. ^ "Dramatic Need", Children's Monologues, November 2010, http://www.dramaticneed.org/monologues.php 
3. ^ Kelly, Dennis (28 February 2008). "Identity crisis". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/feb/28/theatre.television. 
4. ^ http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsK/kelly-dennis.html
5. ^ Raphael, Amy (16 May 2009). "There's no moral centre to Pulling because we don't have one!". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/may/16/pulling-sharon-horgan-dennis-kelly. 

External links

• Dennis Kelly at the Internet Movie Database
• Keble O'Reilly Love and Money, 24–27 November
• entry on Doollee
• "I can’t imagine a more violent writer than Shakespeare." London Evening Standard, 9 March 2010

Persondata
Name	Kelly, Dennis
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1970
Place of birth	Barnet, London, England
Date of death
Place of death