Pornography

Simon Stephens has been the recipient of both the Pearson Award for Best New Play 2001-2 for his play Port, and the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2005 for On the Shore of the Wide World. His most recent play, Harper Regan, was produced at the National Theatre in April 2008.

'To call Simon Stephen's Pornography specifically a play about the July 7 bombings in London would be to do it a disservice. Though it deals with events leading up to the atrocities oft hat fateful day, this is unmistakeably a state of the nation play in the fullest sense. One which looks at what it means to be British today and the culture of displacement we live in with soulful mourning.' Alan Chadwick, Metro (London), 5.8.08 'Stephens, who has already written the best play of the year (Harper Regan, at the National) has come up with another cracker - one that searches for new forms to say new things. He observes his characters with an almost forensic detachment and yet he makes us love them, too... This is a play of grace and terror.' Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 5.8.08 'In Simon Stephens' new play the build up of everyday detritus of contemporary mass culture, from coffee brands to the disposable, detached sexuality of pornography, is insidious.' Steve Cramer, List, 7.8.08