Penelope_Skinner
Penelope Skinner
British playwright
Penelope Skinner is a British playwright.[1] Born in 1978,[2] she came to prominence after her play Fucked was first produced in 2008 at the Old Red Lion Theatre and the Edinburgh Festival to critical acclaim[3] and has had other plays staged in London including at the Bush Theatre, National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre.[4]
Skinner's play Eigengrau, staged at the Bush Theatre in 2010, was a critical and box office hit and Skinner was nominated for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2010. Her play The Village Bike was her first play to be staged at the Royal Court Theatre where it had a sell out, twice-extended run starring Romola Garai and directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, winning her the George Devine Award and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2011. In 2011, she wrote episodes for the Channel 4 series Fresh Meat. In the same year, her play The Sound of Heavy Rain was produced by Paines Plough and Sheffield Theatres touring in Roundabout. In 2012. her play Fred's Diner was staged at the Chichester Festival Theatre's pop-up stage, following which The Independent newspaper described Skinner as "Our leading young feminist writer."[5] In 2013, Skinner co-wrote the screenplay for the film How I Live Now.[6]
In 2015, Skinner's play "Linda", staged at London's Royal Court theatre, "raises important questions with bracing rhetorical force" Timeout. Also in 2015, her off-broadway play "The Ruins of Civilisations" was described as offering "a powerful portrait of an anguished woman fixating on the prospect of a baby as a source of affection, hope and escape" by The Guardian, In 2018, her play "Meek", staged at the Traverse in Edinburgh, "probes into power, resistance and men's rights"[7][8][9]
In 2023, Skinner's play "Lyonesse" opened at The Harold Pinter Theatre.[10]