Isley Lynn Plays 1: Lean; Skin a Cat; Albatross; The Swell - Paperback

by Isley Lynn (Author)

The first collection of plays from Olivier-nominated playwright Isley Lynn, whose award-winning work uplifts their deeply human characters through stories that are unexpected, radically intimate, and profoundly theatrical.

Lean (2013): "It's not just powerful but it's incandescent. There is a profound intensity... that truly keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. Sensitively written... Exemplary theatre at its best." The London Stage

Skin A Cat (2016): "Frequently hilarious, it's also refreshingly honest and open in its discussion of menstruation, masturbation, oral and anal sex, and might well be the smartest, sharpest piece about female sexual identity since Phoebe Waller Bridge's Fleabag... this is bold and genuinely exciting new writing." The Stage

albatross (2021): "Every intimate, individual scene is engaging, as the full-bodied characters knock up against their own judgments and histories... Lynn's scenes are full of genuine connections between characters, and the hope that comes with change." Guardian

The Swell (2023): "Isley Lynn's characters are nuanced and beautifully drawn, and the play's dialogue is gorgeously natural and flowing. Where the playwright really excels though, is in bold and unexpected choices. The Swell takes its audience on some hugely gripping twists and turns. Lynn's writing is genuinely exciting." Evening Standard

Isley won the Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright Award at the 2023 Evening Standard Theatre Awards for The Swell, which was also nominated for Outstanding Achievement In An Affiliate Theatre at the 2024 Olivier Awards, as well as Best New Play, Best Director, and Best Production at the 2023 Off West End awards. Skin A Cat was awarded Pick Of The Year at Vault Festival 2016 and nominated for four Off West End Awards (Most Promising New Playwright - shortlist, Best New Play, Best Lead Female, Best Director) for its transfer as inaugural production at The Bunker, 2016, before touring nationally throughout 2018. Isley was the 2014 Script6 winner at The Space with Bright Nights, they received Special Commendation from the 2012 Soho Young Writers Award for Lomography, and they were twice named Champion of Literary Death Match (Norfolk and Norwich Festival, The Book Club London).

Author Biography

Isley Lynn (she/they) is an American-born, London-based playwright and poet. They won the 'Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright Award' at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2023 for their play The Swell, which opened to great acclaim as part of Tom Littler's first season at the Orange Tree Theatre and was also nominated for Best New Play, Best Director and Best Production at the 2023 Offie Awards. Their play Skin a Cat was awarded Pick of the Year at the Vault Festival 2016 and its production at The Bunker later that year led to four nominations for Off West End Awards including Most Promising New Playwright and Best New Play; it then toured nationally in 2018. Other credits include: The War of the Worlds (New Diorama Theatre 2019, international tour 2021); 'Canace' in 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre 2020); Albatross (Paines Plough and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama at Bute Theatre and Gate Theatre 2018); The Swell (HighTide First Commissions play reading 2018); Sie und Wir (Us and Them) for Werk X in Vienna (2016); Tether (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015); and What's So Special (as part of The Get Out at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs 2014). Her play Bright Nights was a Script6 winner at The Space in 2014.