Max Wilkinson
playwright/screenwriter
STORMS OVER PECKHAM
- In development
UNION
Arcola Theatre, London, July-August, four weeks, 2023
A
UNION, starring Dominique Tipper (The Expanse, Amazon) follows uber-successful property developer, Saskia Dunne, as, on the biggest deal of her career, she escapes down the Grand Union Canal one summer's night. Pursued by the ghosts of her past and the city itself, can she save a tiny piece of the place she once called home. A black comedy and love letter to a city that is disappearing.
★★★★★ - “Max Wilkinson's outstanding new play...writing like this can create a difference” – Plays International
★★★★★ - Fringe Review
"Acidly funny" - Financial Times
★★★★ “Wilkinson's writing is fast and paced, witty and intelligent.” – Everything Theatre
★★★★ “A fast-paced black comedy that does not shy away from pain, but ultimately offers hope.” – A Young(ish) Perspective
★★★★ “Conveys the madness, the enthusiasm and the contradictions of living and working in London” – Paul in London
★★★★ – The Upcoming
★★★★ – Always Time For Theatre
★★★★ – Salterton Arts Review
★★★★ - All That Dazzles
Published by Methuen, Bloomsbury. Buy a copy here
NIGHT CITY
- Optioned and will be staged at the Southwark Playhouse, 8th of Feb until the 1st of March, 2026
100 WAYS THE FIRE STARTS
Theatre 503, London, Jan 2018
Paines Plough (Reading), July 2018
Arcola Theatre (Reading), August 2018
Old Red Lion, Full Length Run, 2022 TBC
A finalist for the Nick Darke Award, Papatango's Prize for New Writing and Theatre Uncut's Prize for Political Writing, 100 Ways the Fire Starts is about the apocalypse and why we love it.
London. A high-rise flat. Bella and Leon are having a party: apocalypse themed. But when an old friend shows up, a man is found bleeding in the lift, when fires start; they have to question what is real and what is not.
GHOST FRUIT
Camden People's Theatre, London, Jan 2019
Potrva Theatre Residency in Prague, August 2018
Ghost Fruit is about a man who cannot stand the present so he invents a fantasy world of the past. He believes he is Franz Kafka living in the Twenties. That is until everything falls apart.
The Performance Rights of Ghost Fruit were bought by Pennway Productions.
Pennway Productions is now commissioning Max to write a feature film screenplay with a high budget.
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The
HONG KONG CITY
The King's Head Theatre, London, May 2017
Inspired by the Chinese restaurant on the Old Kent Road, Hong Kong City is about the ever shifting face of London and the winners and losers of gentrification.
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TEACHING
2023, Met Film School (University) - MA Screenwriting. BA Filmmaking.
2023, IES - Teaching Students Abroad (University) - Film Theory - British Cinema from 1945 to present.
2022, The Arcola Theatre, Course Leader - Write a Play on the Theme of London. 2022, Theatre Peckham, Course Leader - Playwriting Lab: Local Legends.
2022, King’s College London, Lecturer - How to be a Playwright
2022, Met Film School, Professor - BA Filmmaking Course, Screenwriting (Permanent) 2021, Flux Theatre, Course Leader - Playwriting Lab
2020, The Yard Theatre, Course Leader - Lockdown Playwriting Lab
2020, The Southwark Playhouse, Course Leader – Lockdown Playwriting Lab
2020, The Gate Theatre, Course Leader – Lockdown Playwriting Lab
2017-19, The Southwark Playhouse, Course Leader – Primary Playwrights Course 2015-22, Inkhead Creative Writing, Workshops Leader – Playwriting and Creative Writing
Central Saint Martins Final Degree show, London,
August 2014
First Play. A scathing letter on the hypocrisy and emptiness
of counter-culture.
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TOM, CHARLIE, JERRY FRITZ
The Bridewell Theatre, London, August 2015
The Courtyard Theatre, London, June 2015
Wannsee is a love letter to Berlin: a city of ghosts, dossers, artists and way too much history.
WANNSEE
RAINER
Arcola Theatre, London, October 2021
Arcola Theatre, Future Full Length Run, June 2022
A
Award-winning, Offie-nominated Rainer is about a voyeuristic delivery rider as she charges about London one night. And the invisible person who we always see. Starring Sorcha Kennedy.
★★★★ The Stage, “Smart and original Writing”
★★★★★ Indiependent, “A glorious love-letter to London”
★★★★★ Spy in the Stalls, “Impossible to Ignore” – Awarded Best show of 2021
★★★★★ Lost in Theatre Land,
★★★★★ Theatre Weekly
★★★★ Hackney Gazette
The Guardian, “We need to follow these various and ample talents.”
Lyn Gardner’s Top Pick of the Week, June
Published by Methuen, Bloomsbury. Buy a copy here