Kay Adshead - United Agents
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Kay Adshead
Writer
Kay Adshead is a poet, playwright, theatre maker, performer, and
producer.
She trained at RADA as an actress, where she won the Emile Littler
Award for Outstanding Talent. She has played leading roles in film,
theatre and TV, including Cathy in the BBC classic series Wuthering
Heights, Linda in Mike Leigh’s film Kiss of Death, as well as notable
appearances in popular TV programs spanning 30 years. Theatre performances include Moll Gromer
in Thee and Me at the RNT, Viola in Twelfth Night, Betty in Touched and singing the role of Clara
Twain in White Suit Blues, at The Old Vic. She learnt to wrestle for the role of Tanzi in Trafford Tanzi
at The Mermaid,
As a writer, she has been nominated 3 times for The Susan Smith Blackburn Award. She has written
over 25 plays. She has been published by Methuen, Faber and Faber, and Oberon, with commissions
and/or productions at The Royal National Theatre, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, The Roundhouse,
The Tricycle, The Bush, Soho Theatre, The Cockpit, The Arcola, Theatre503, The Omnibus, and many
more.
In 1999 with Lucinda Gane, she co-founded award-winning theatre company Mama Quilla, winning
amongst other awards, Edinburgh Fringe First, Adelaide Fringe Sensation Award, Adelaide Best
Fringe Performance Award, M.E.N. best Fringe Performance, nominated for an E.M.M.A and Encore
Magazine best Play of the Year. She has devised and directed more than 12, experimental and live
art projects for Mama Quilla (many with casts of over 30) working in hard to reach communities,
including maximum security prisons. In April 2019, Kay devised and directed Section 28 and The
Queer State, produced by Jacksons Lane Alexandra Palace and Mama Quilla, It was performed as an
epic promenade around The Alexandra Palace ending in the iconic Victorian Theatre. Kay is
currently producing The Pangolin Project for Mama Quilla, a series of 60 second extreme close up
films, provoked or inspired by the pandemic. It has attracted to date, over13, 000 views.
United Agents | 12-26 Lexington Street London W1F OLE | T +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 | F +44 (0) 20 3214 0801 | E info@unitedagents.co.uk1Alex Sierz of The Tribune describes her as” the great survivor”, and The Times reviewed her play I
am Sad you are dead Mrs. T as “a poetic mortar bomb. Her new (American white privilege play),
Entering Incomplete Map Data, was presented as a staged reading, with esteemed activist group
#Sayhername as guests in the audience. In February 2019, the Last Little Girl tackling sex
trafficking, was performed at MATCH Houston Texas, and Kay was awarded a Purposeful Artist
Award. A tour of Stormy-The Opera funded by Houston Arts Alliance was cancelled due to Covid19
restrictions and was reimagined as a bricolage, with a premiere production live streaming on
YouTube in October 2020.
Her second short film The Driflin, (before COVID19) was scheduled to be shot on the Bolivar
Peninsula Texas in 2021for Stingaree productions. Her short film Prelude, shot in 2020 (set in the
days before the2016 election) will be edited in 2021.
Agents
Nicki Stoddart
nstoddart@unitedagents.co.uk
+44 (0) 20 3214 0869
Credits
In Development
Production Company Notes
PRELUDE STINGAREE PRODUCTIONS Short film in post-production
2020
THE DRIFLIN STINGAREE PRODUCTIONS Short film (writer/ director)
2019
THE WORKING CLASS MAMA QUILLA (AND Three short plays - writer/director
PROJECT (PART 2) PARTNERS TBA)
2019
ENTERING INCOMPLETE MAP Full length theatre version (writer)
DATA AREA
2017
WOMAN IN WARD 4 Book 1, The Kill Buyer – a novella
2017 in verse (writer)
THE TOUPE (working title) short film (writer/director)
2017
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MAIA SENT FOR WATER Short film (writer/director)
(working title)
2017
WORKING GIRLS La Compagnie Yorick/Mama Part of the Soho Project
Quilla
Radio
Production Company Notes
HANGING BBC Radio 4 Produced by Catherine Bailey
2002
OF THE END BBC Radio 3 Homage to Samuel Beckett. Writer and
Performer.
THE BOGUS WOMAN BBC Radio 3 Produced by Catherine Bailey
2001
Short Films
Production Company Notes
THE COUNT Written and directed by Kay Adshead
THE LAST LITTLE GIRL Written by Kay Adshead, dir. by Quason
Matthews
THREE LOTUS SheSpeaks Productions Adapted from theatre poem written by Kay
FLOWERS Adshead, directed by Eugenia Low
AFTER THE PARTY Club X/Channel 4
ORANGES AND BBC City Shorts
LEMONS
Theatre
Production Company Notes
STORMY THE STINGAREE Created as an online production
OPERA (a bricolage) https://youtu.be/QwcZGMCA9TE live-streamed on
2020 Youtube on October 3 2020. Funded by Houston Arts
alliance.
STORMY THE OPERA STINGAREE Performed at MATCH Houston Texas November 2019.
2019 PRODUCTIONS Written and directed by Kay Adshead.
THE QUEER STATE Alexandra Palace, Experimental performance inspired by LGBTQIA
2019 Mama Quilla experience,
performed in workshop on October 13 2019. Writer/
director
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HARINGEY HAS Jackson’s Lane / Promenade performance at Alexandra Palace as part
PRIDE: SECTION 28 Harringay Council / of Jacksons Lane ‘Haringey Has Pride’
AND THE QUEER Alexandra Palace
STATE
2019
THE LAST LITTLE Houston Play on written and directed by Kay Adshead as part of
GIRL Purpose / MATCH Houston Play on Purpose's Showcase of Shorts (S.O.S)
2019 Houston
TEN LOVERS Anything Goes written and directed by Kay Adshead
2018
HISTRIONICS Mama Quilla written and directed by Kay Adshead
2018 productions
VIRILICUS Mama Quilla /
2018 Theatre Absolute,
Coventry
A CRACKED PLASTER FUTURES Written and Directed by Kay Adshead
2017
WORKING CLASS Mama Quilla / A Play in a Day workshop, as director
2017 Broadway Theatre
ACTS OF Mama Quilla and A weeklong festival produced by Kay Adshead
DEFIANCE - THE Theatre 503 comprising – six new plays by various authors, inc.
FESTIVAL Entering Incomplete Map Data Area , written and
2016 directed by Kay Adshead, 25 specially commissioned
short films, including The Count , written and dir. Kay
Adshead, and two work-in-progress community
projects, including The Soldiers Son , written and
directed by Kay Adshead.
ACTS OF DEFIANCE Mama Quilla & the Three Plays written by Kay Adshead:
2016 Omnibus The Last Little Girl , dir. Michael Batz
Happy Ending , dir. Kay Adshead
Three Lotus Flowers , dir. Kay Adshead
ACTS OF DEFIANCE Mama Quilla and Three short plays written and directed by Kay
2015 Theatre 503 Adshead including Primrose , The Singing Stones ,
Mama Quilla , written and directed by Kay Adshead,
performed at the Arcola Theatre with a cast of nine
women and one man.
VEIL Mama Quilla A theatre poem by Kay Adshead, directed by Kully
2014 - 2015 Thiarai and performed
with an immersive installation created by Shanaz
Gulzar, performed at
Theatre at The Mill Bradford, Z-arts Manchester, and
The Hub Leeds,
transferring to the South Bank for the Alchemy
Festival.
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HAPPY ENDING Natural Shocks/PEEP Performed at Edinburgh's most intimate venue
2013
I AM SAD YOU ARE Theatre 503 Three Eulogies written for THATCHERWRITE
DEAD MRS T
2013
F.O.M.O Mama An interactive performance about social networking
2013 Quilla/Broadway written and directed by Kay Adshead
Theatre Barking
ACTS OF DEFIANCE Mama A series of short films, public interactions or
2013 Quilla/Broadway interventions (ongoing to be published on line
Theatre Barking September 2013) devised , written or produced by
Kay Adshead. Ten monologues filmed separately
were performed as an epic poetry theatre event at
the Broadway Barking for one night only.
MATTER Mama Written and directed by Kay Adshead performed as
2012 Quilla/Broadway work in progress
Theatre Barking
FROM THE STREETS Roundhouse A day of debate and performance - a series of linked
OF REVOLUTION events exploring recent global events and the nature
2012 of protest.
BREAKING John Lyons Theatre Work in progress transferring to Camden Fringe.
2011
IF ANYONE Mama Quilla Performed in workshop at the Broadway Theatre
RECOGNISES THESE Barking to be performed at The Round House in 2012.
YOUNG PEOPLE
2011
THE LAST LITTLE La Compagnie Dir. Michael Batz
GIRL Yorick/Theatre Vitry
2011 at Cine Robespierre
BOYS TALKING Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead
2010 Quilla/Broadway
Theatre, Barking
SWEET PAPAYA Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead.
GOLD Quilla/Broadway
2010 Theatre, Barking
PROTOZOA The Red The Oikos Project was shortlisted for the Whats On
2010 Room/Jellyfish Theatre event of the year. PROTOZOA was performed
Theatre at The Jellyfish Theatre, the first fully recyclable
theatre in Europe. Published by Oberon Books in THE
OIKOS PROJECT.
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THREE POLICE Mama Quilla with
STATEMENTS The English
TAKEN FROM Collective of
WORKING GIRLS Prostitues and The
2010 City Lit
POSSESSED Soho Theatre Part of Everything Must Go
2009 Company
FIVE CRIMES Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead
RECONSTRUCTED Quilla/Broadway
2009 Theatre, Barking
STUFFED Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead
2008 Quilla/Broadway
Theatre, Barking
OTHERS LAMDA Part of LAMDA Long Project.
2008
BONES Calypso, Dublin/La
2007 Compagnie Yorick
BONES Mama Writer and Director
2006 Quilla/Leicester
Haymarket/Bush
THE BOGUS WOMAN Leicester Haymarket Dir. Kully Thiarai. Toured to Adelaide where it was
2005 awarded Best Performer, Best Play and the Sensation
Award at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Also Brits Off
Brodway (New York).
BITES Mama Quilla/Bush Writer and Director. Finalist for Susan Smith
2005 Theatre Blackburn Award.
ANIMAL The Red Room Dir. Lisa Goldman. Soho Theatre/National Tour.
2003
METAL AND Cockpit Theatre Part of 'Small Objects of Desire'
FEATHERS
2003
THE SNOW EGG Tiebreak Tour, ending at Lyric Theatre Studio, Hammersmith.
2001 Theatre/Lyric Studio
LADY CHILL, LADY National Theatre Shell Connections
WAD, LADY LURVE,
LADY GOD
2001
THE BOGUS WOMAN Mama Dir. Lisa Goldman. 2000 Fringe First Award.
2000 Quilla/Traverse Nominated for 2001 Susan Smith Blackburn Award.
Theatre/Bush
Theatre
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BOGUS PEOPLE'S The Red Room/BAC
POEM
2000
JUICY BITS Lyric, Hammersmith
1998
BACILLUS The Red Room Performed at the Red Room following rehearsed
1996 readings at the Cockpit and Hampstead theatres
THE SLUG The Red Room
SABBATICAL
1995
RAVINGS: Manchester Library
DREAMINGS
1993
THE STILL BORN Soho Theatre
1993
THATCHER'S Paines Nominated for Susan Smith Blackburn Award
WOMEN Plough/Tricycle
1987 Theatre
FEARS AND
MISERIES OF THE
THIRD TERM
1987
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