Brian Coyle - Playwright & Scriptwriter
OFFSHORE
A troubled young man standing on a cold deserted beach stares out at the uninviting sea and spots something magical out there. What is it he sees?
In this play three lost souls meet on the same beach every day. They each have their own issues and they each can't seem to move forward with their lives. Can they help each other to find their way?
OFFSHORE is about loss, longing, mental health and about the mystery of our natural world. It's a story of three ordinary people and their connection to each other and to the infinite.
MADE IN ENGLAND
What does it mean to be white, poor and English these days? MADE IN ENGLAND is set in a small left-behind rural town and looks at many of the issues and themes raised by the drift of ordinary people to the right: nationalism, right-wing conspiracy theories, the effects of crushing inequality.
Within the context of a town (and country) that seems to be losing its way, its three characters grapple with personal tragedy, social isolation and an uncontrollable rage towards a "rigged system".
MADE IN ENGLAND is not so much a state-of-the-nation play, as a nation-in-a-state play.
LIFEFORCE
Alex has a lot to live for: their friendship with their flat-mate Serena, their lovely mum, their passion for Bake Off, their budding stand-up career and their fledgling romance with the beautiful Barista from Pret. So why have they taken an overdose and are in hospital, with a medical team fighting for their life? Will they survive and do they even want to?
In this 50 min single-hander about grief, mental health and the meaning/point of life Alex tells us their story, as we find out how they got to this frightening point in their life.
ON BOWER HILL
Four youngsters spend much of their free time drinking cider on Bower Hill. One of them has recently joined the army to move on from his chaotic teenage years and help set him and his girlfriend up with a new life. The army has made him grow up fast, but having escaped one chaotic life he now finds himself in another – an active war-zone thousands of miles away.
The play is about four teenagers on the cusp of adulthood; it's about surviving in a small left-behind town; and it’s about masculinity – especially its destructive aspects – and how it affects the men who have to live up to it and the women who have to live with it.
A 30min extract was performed at the Theatre Royal Bath (egg Theatre) in 2018 (dir: Stephanie Kempson).
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THE STANDING STONES OF LANGASH
When Finn returns to the remote island he was brought up on, during a family crisis, he doesn't receive the welcome he might have hoped for. This 80 min play is about three siblings and their difficult relationship with each other and their shared past. It's also about their struggle to find a way, in the midst of family secrets and lies, to accept each other for who they are.
Who owns the memories shared within a family? And if these memories are contested how can we ever get at the real truth? THE STANDNG STONES OF LANGASH looks at these questions and asks whether there is a middle way where families can agree to honour each other's memories and live with the consequences of that.
LOCKED IN
On Monday 23rd of March 2020, as the spread of Covid became increasingly deadly and the strain on the NHS unsustainable, the country entered Lockdown.
In a reaction to those first fearful weeks Brian wrote twelve short monologues about how it felt to be in the middle of that extraordinary time. Twelve actors recorded them on their phones and they were released online.
Five years later he wondered whether it might be time to revisit how we all felt during those times. He spliced together the twelve monologies into a sixty-minute single piece of drama for four actors. The piece captures the raw emotions we were all feeling then and how in times of mortal danger what is important in life becomes crystal clear.
You can see the original videos here: We Will Not Be Silenced.