Site Registration
If you already have login details you can log in here.
Request CV
Request Showreel
Request Voicereel
John is a writer from County Clare, Ireland. He has written pilots for Element Pictures and Wiip/Workshop Pictures. He is currently under commission at the Abbey Theatre and was the winner of the 2025 Adopt a Playwright Award.
His debut play If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You premiered in London in 2016 to critical acclaim before tours and productions in Ireland, Spain and Australia. It is published by Bloomsbury. Sink premiered at the 2019 Dublin Fringe, while Flights toured Ireland & the UK in 2020. Flights & Sink are published by Nick Hern Books. In 2020 he wrote the short video-play Your Hands featuring Nicola Coughlan for Dear Ireland at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
John won the 2022 Phelim Donlon/ITI Bursary, the 2018 BBC Radio/Stewart Parker Drama Award, 2017 IARA award for best playwright and a Vault Festival London award, along with two Peggy Ramsay Awards. He’s had stories and articles published in the Irish Times, Verbal Arts, Bare Fiction and Crannóg magazines.
He was one of UCD’s inaugural Creative Fellows where he occasionally teaches and mentors, and regularly teaches creative writing in Limerick Youth Service. Previous attachments include Royal Court Young Writers Programme, the Old Vic 12, the Orange Tree Writers Collective, BBC Writers Room TV Drama Writers’ Programme and the Irish Theatre Institute’s Six in the Attic.
Credits
Credits
-
DateProduction (role)CompanyProject details
-
Date: 2020Production (role): YOUR HANDSCompany: Abbey TheatreProject details: Short play as part of the Abbey Theatre's Dear Ireland series.
Cast: Nicola Coughlan -
Date: 2020Production (role): FLIGHTSCompany: glór, Project Arts, Omnibus ClaphamProject details: Produced by One Duck Theatre Company.
Directed by Thomas Martin.
Cast: Colin Campbell, Rhys Dunlop, Conor Madden -
Date: 2019Production (role): SINKCompany: Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin Fringe FestivalProject details: Full length, produced by One Duck Theatre Company. Directed by Thomas Martin. Cast: Rachel Feeney.
-
Date: 2018Production (role): IF WE GOT SOME MORE COCAINE I COULD SHOW HOW I LOVE YOUCompany: Project Arts, glór, Druid, VaultProject details: Full length, produced by One Duck Theatre Company. Directed by Thomas Martin. Cast: Alan Mahon and Josh Williams. Highly Commended Vault Festival 2018.
-
Date: 2018Production (role): NOW AND AT THE HOURCompany: Bush TheatreProject details: Full length play developed for three days, in association with the Bush. Directed by Sara Joyce. Cast: Eileen Walsh, Aidan Kelly and Doireann May White.
-
Date: 2017/18Production (role): THE DIVIDECompany: Old Vic and Edinburgh International FestivalProject details: by Alan Ayckbourn. Wrote lyrics for a selection of songs to be included as part of the play; and dramaturged the development of the play from a two-part seven hour script to a single-part 3-hour play. Music by Chris Nightingale. Directed by Annabel Bolton.
-
Date: 2017Production (role): TRIO (Workshop)Company: National Theatre StudioProject details: Workshop developing new work, in association with the Orange Tree. Directed by Guy Jones. Cast: Eileen Walsh, Ian Lloyd Anderson, Alice Haig.
-
Date: 2017Production (role): HY BRASILCompany: Old VicProject details: Full length, commissioned and produced by the Old Vic, as part of the Old Vic 12. Presented at the Old Vic 23 June 2017. Directed by Lekan Lawal. Cast: Jamie Beamish, Ash Hunter, Eileen O’Higgins, Ciaran Owens, Josie Walker.
-
Date: 2017Production (role): JOHNNYCompany: Orange Tree TheatreProject details: Short, produced at the Orange Tree Theatre, as part of Uprising Festival. Directed by Ola Ince. Cast: Jackie Clune, Finbar Lynch, Danushia Samal.
-
Date: 2017Production (role): THE VERTIGO ANGUSTIOR OF DOUGHMORE BEACHCompany: Arcola TheatreProject details: Short, produced by the Miniaturists at the Arcola Theatre. Directed by Lucy Atkinson. Cast: Alan Mahon, Nicola Coughlan, Greg Patmore.
-
Date: 2016Production (role): IF WE GOT SOME MORE COCAINE I COULD SHOW YOU HOW I LOVE YOUCompany: Old Red LionProject details: Full length, produced at the Old Red Lion by ORL, Sam Julyan and Will Bourdillon. Premiered 30 August 2016. Directed by Thomas Martin. Cast: Ammar Duffus and Alan Mahon. Critics’ Choice Time Out.
-
Date: 2016Production (role): MONOLOGUE FOR NEW HORIZONSCompany: New DioramaProject details: Short. Commissioned by New Horizons. Directed by Tom Birch. Cast: Anna Spearpoint.
-
Date: 2015Production (role): ZUGUNRUHECompany: RADAProject details: Full length. Rehearsed reading at RADA, produced by Lloyd Trott. Directed by Michael Fentiman. Cast: Tia Bannon, Burt Caesar, Cary Crankson, Gráinne Keenan, Ed MacLiam, Jake Mann, Mairéad McKinley, Denis Quilligan
-
Date: 2013Production (role): THE STARVELINGCompany: Arcola TheatreProject details: Short, produced by the Miniaturists at the Arcola Theatre. Directed by Sarah Chew. Cast: Darci Debrett, Eoin Geoghegan, Michael Quinlan.
-
Production (role)CompanyProject details
-
Production (role): CHANCERSCompany: Wiip/Workshop PicturesProject details: Pilot
-
Production (role): OPEN COUNTRYCompany: Element / BBCProject details: Writing pilot as part of the BBC TV Drama Writers Programme
-
Production (role): UNTITLEDCompany: Kudos NorthProject details: Treatment Commission
-
Date: 2025Production (role): Adopt A Playwright AwardProject details:
-
Date: 2022-23Production (role): Irish Theatre Institute Six in the AtticProject details:
-
Date: 2022Production (role): Abbey Theatre/Centre Culturel Irlandais International Artist Residency for Theatre-MakersProject details:
-
Date: 2022Production (role): Irish Theatre Institute - Phelim Donlon BursaryProject details:
-
Date: 2019–2021Production (role): University College Dublin Creative FellowshipProject details:
-
Date: 2020Production (role): Peggy Ramsay Award 2020Project details:
-
Date: 2019Production (role): Stewart Parker Trust Award: BBC Radio Drama Award WinnerProject details:
-
Date: 2018Production (role): Peggy Ramsay AwardProject details:
-
Date: 2018Production (role): BBC Writers Room, Drama RoomProject details:
-
Date: 2017Production (role): Old Vic 12Project details: Year-long association, plus commission
-
Date: 2017Production (role): IARA Award for Best PlaywrightProject details:
-
Date: 2017Production (role): Orange Tree Writer's CollectiveProject details: Year long association with the theatre
-
Date: 2015Production (role): Abbey Theatre Playwright's HubProject details:
-
Date: 2013Production (role): RADA Advances in ScriptwritingProject details:
-
Date: 2011Production (role): Royal Court Young Writers' ProgrammeProject details: