ABOUT JONATHAN
I'm a Hampshire (UK) based writer who was trained to write at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton by the late John Burgess, former head of new writing at the National Theatre. I've written nearly 70 plays, monologues, duologues, sketches and a series of 8 best-selling short pantomimes that have been performed all over the UK (including on the London Fringe) and in several other countries, picking up some awards and winning some playwriting competitions along the way! I co-founded 10x10, one of the UK's first national short play new writing festivals, which ran from 2010 to 2018 in Winchester. 50 of my plays have been published and two of my full-length plays have been long-listed for development by the Traverse Theatre and Theatre 503. My 10-minute play ALTERNATE REALITY was a joint winner of the Theatre Royal Winchester's 2025 UNWRITTEN SHOWCASE which resulted in the Theatre Royal inviting me to develop the play into a 50-minute version for a main stage production which took place on 29 August 2025. Additionally in 2025 I had a full-length play and a short pantomime published and I started work on some new plays. I also had great fun performing a selection of my monologues on various BBC local radio stations and one independent radio station. I write mainly for adults but also enjoy writing for young people and, as well as being produced, several of my scripts for young people are also used on a regular basis by schools in their classrooms and workshops. So far in 2026 (as at 19 July) there have been productions of two of my monologues, five of my short plays, one of my full-length plays and two of my short pantomimes. The 50-minute version of my play ALTERNATE REALITY recently made it through to the 2nd round of the BBC Open Plan Scripted Development Programme. The BBC received 5,727 submissions and only 12.6% of these made it through to Round 2. Finally, I'm delighted to hear that the USA play publishers Next Stage Press will be publishing my full-length comedy/drama ROBIN HOOD in September. The HOME page of this website has details of all my plays together with links to read the published ones on-line. Please have a look if you fancy reading any. Thanks if you do! ❤️ |
'It was one of the best scripts I've ever directed and it has so many parts that all the students had a lot of fun, so thank you.'
Alice Bason (Drama Teacher and Director) on Robin Hood * 'A really beautiful piece of work'. Andy Garland (BBC Local Radio Producer) on Thanks Mum (and Thomas Hardy) * 'I've rarely seen a funnier opening to a play'. Paul Vale (Theatre Critic and Feature Writer THE STAGE) on We're all Dead * 'A fabulous sci-fi short with a great twist at the end'. Kirsty Applebaum (Award-winning Children's Author) on Hologram * 'Jonathan is a pro at the short play format with a real knack of quirky characters and witty dialogue'. New Dreams Theatre * An extract from Unforgettable was performed at the Royal Court GRIT Scratch Night - 2 June 2015. Treepress "Play of the Week" - 15 November 2015 for Unforgettable * 'a riot from start to finish...[Edgington] succeeded with aplomb'. WINCHESTER TODAY on Robin Hood 'the script was great...action-packed and flowed well'. DAILY ECHO/HAMPSHIRE CHRONICLE on Robin Hood 'The whole play was very funny from start to finish' NODA on Robin Hood * ★★★★ ACTDROP ★★★★ FEMALE ARTS MAGAZINE on Legion * 'a very funny play' FEMALE ARTS MAGAZINE on A.I. Guy 'plenty of laughs' A VIEW FROM THE GODS on A.I. Guy * Collection of SHORT plays - Babies, Gone, Dating, Shakespeare's Women, One Hundred and Eighty, Quanto Sel Bella, Guilt & Lorelei 'These short plays are often amusing, sometimes poignant, and in one case cleverly unsettling.' EWAN LEAFROLL ★★★★ 'A real find for your drama production. Insightful and entertaining.' ★★★★★ 'I really like Jonathan's writing style. Much of the dialogue he writes is very short (sometimes only one word) that speaks volumes about the characters. All the plays are about relationships, some are very funny, some are very serious. [Guilt & Lorelei] are brilliantly written in the way you get a snap shot of the characters, yet you feel like you know their whole life story. ' P JOSEPH |