Graham Reid (writer)

For the New Zealand journalist, see Graham Reid (journalist). For the Australian field hockey player see Graham Reid (sportsman).

J. Graham Reid (born 1945) is a playwright from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Background

Born into a working-class family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Reid left school at age 15, served in the British army,^[1] married young,^[2] but returned to education and graduated from Queen's University in 1976. He became a teacher at Gransha Boys' High School in Bangor, County Down but left in 1980 to concentrate on his writing career. His first play, The Death of Humpty Dumpty is a story about an innocent man who gets caught in the cross fire of the troubles in Belfast.^[3]

Characters in his work The Hidden Curriculum were based on pupils and teachers from the school he taught at. His trilogy, colloquially known as the Billy plays, for the BBC's Play for Today series, were his breakthrough works. These are Too Late to Talk to Billy (1982), A Matter of Choice for Billy (1983) and A Coming to Terms for Billy (1984). The lead in these television plays is a young Kenneth Branagh, who had previously worked in Reid's futuristic play Easter 2016, which was screened as part of the BBC's Play for Tomorrow series. It was while working on the later two Billy plays that Reid met the actress Gwen Taylor whom he later married.^[4] In 1992 he wrote a screen play for the movie You, Me & Marley.

Plays^[5]

Name	Year first produced	Theater first produced
The Death of Humpty Dumpty	1979	Abbey Theatre, Dublin
The Closed Door	1980	Abbey Theatre
Dorothy	1980	Oscar Theatre, Dublin
The Hidden Curriculum	1982	Abbey Theatre
Callers	1985	Abbey Theatre
Too Late to Talk to Billy	1982	Television
A Matter of Choice for Billy	1983	Television
A Coming to Terms for Billy	1984	Television
Lengthening Shadows	1995	Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Love	1995	West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, UK
Remembrance	1984	Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Ties Of Blood	1985	Television

Remembrance, perhaps his most popular play, is a story about a Protestant widower and a Catholic widow who meet at their murdered sons' graves and fall in love over the objections of their surviving children. The play has been performed all over the world: 18 months in Tel Aviv (in Hebrew), over eight months at Irish Arts Center in Manhattan, and at the Old Globe, San Diego.^[3] The play was performed by the Tara Players of Winnipeg at the first Acting Irish International Theatre Festival in 1994.

References

1. Answer.com
3. Los Angeles Times May 4, 1991
4. Gwen Taylor: Me & my money
5. doollee.com, the playwright's database