Liz John

Liz John is a playwright based near Birmingham.  She also writes for BBC Radio 4, The Archers, and she’s written regularly for BBC TV Doctors.

Liz’s BOLDtext work at The REP includes Together for Uncommon Wealth,  The Offer for Fake Times, Maslow – the Upgrade for Insatiable about the politics of consumption, and Escape for Behind Bars at Birmingham Rep about prison reform.  Her microplay Cogs & Co about Brexit, was part of Eurotrashed (May 2016).  One reviewer said: “My favourite piece was Liz John’s Cogs and Co which employed the cleverly sustained metaphor of a family firm with its bickering alliances and betrayals to remind us that politics, even when it’s the EU, is about people too.”

Supported by Arts Council England and Culture Solihull, Liz is currently writing a new play about the trust between patients and healthcare professionals/institutions and what happens when that trust becomes strained. The piece was prompted by the Ian Paterson rogue surgeon scandal, of which Midlanders will be all too aware. If you have experience of this kind of situation (as a patient or professional), please do contact her via this website.

Liz’s recent cross-artform commission, In the Gaps, with visual artist Hannah Smith is being screened at Small is Beautiful festival on 1st February 7pm at Solihull Core Studio.

Liz co-wrote a madcap interactive comedy, Calling for Help!, set in a call centre, which toured, attracting 4 star reviews.  Co-written with Julia Wright, the play was produced by Next Page Productions and funded by Arts Council England.  It was the second show from this creative team: Liz & Julia’s comedy Invisible toured previously to lovely reviews.

Liz’s WW1 short, Perversion of Science, was part of Home Fires Burning at the Mockingbird Theatre, for which she earned excellent reviews: “Liz John’s Perversion of Science shone out as a masterpiece of compression whose overshadowing backstory loomed to monstrous proportions.”  Life Goes On was part of Extreme at Birmingham Fest, while Liz’s collaborative two-parter in BOLDtext’s Sunstroke (The REP), was written in partnership with Helen Kelly.

Previous work includes Papering Over (Pentabus national tour),  Second-hand Dreams at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, and Whorestown at the Hexagon, mac, as well as many short plays at Midlands theatres.

Screen

Liz penned multiple episodes of BBC TV Doctors, as well as several short films, winning the Century 21 award and an RTS nomination.   Liz co-founded the Screenwriters Forum and serves on the committee of Writers’ Guild WM branch.

Radio

Liz joined The Archers writing team in 2017.   Her collaborative afternoon play, The Angel of New Street, was broadcast on Radio 4.  Co-written with Helen Kelly and Carolyn Scott-Jeffs, this was an impressionistic piece set and recorded in New Street Station, and directed by Peter Leslie Wild.

More information at Liz’s website.