Singular Male Voices

Three plays for one (male) actor, each giving voice to a character in extremis.

Mongoose by Peter Harness
The story of a solitary man's growing obsession with his imaginary companion.

Cold Comfort by Owen McCafferty
An Irish labourer living in London returns home for a dunken conversation with his dead father.

Brazil by Ronan O'Donnell
A young man growing up in a disorientating, near-future world.

Peter Harness is a writer for television, film and theatre. His work for TV includes the Spanish Flu drama The Forgotten Fallen, the Frankie Howerd biopic Rather You Than Me (starring David Walliams), and episodes of City of Vice, Case Histories and Doctor Who. His debut feature, Is Anybody There?, starring Michael Caine and David Morrissey, premiered in 2009. His BBC adaptation of the bestselling book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was broadcast in 2015. He wrote and executive produced the third and fourth seasons of the hit detective drama Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh. His adaptation of The War of the Worlds for BBC One was broadcast in 2019. Owen McCafferty is a Belfast-based playwright. His plays include: Quietly (Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, 2013); an adaptation of JP Miller’s Days of Wine and Roses (Donmar Warehouse, London, 2005); Scenes from the Big Picture (National Theatre, London, 2003); Shoot the Crow (Druid, Galway, 1997; Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2003); Mojo Mickybo (Kabosh, Belfast, 1998); No Place Like Home (Tinderbox, Belfast, 2001) and Closing Time (National Theatre, 2002). Scenes from the Big Picture won the John Whiting Award, the Meyer Whitworth Award and the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2003, making McCafferty the first writer to win all three awards in a single year. Ronan O'Donnell is a playwright based in Scotland whose work has been staged by the Traverse Theatre, LLT and Arches/Theatre of Imagination, amongst others.