Stephen Sharkey

Stephen Sharkey is a playwright. He grew up in Liverpool and then studied classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Throughout his career Stephen has translated and adapted a wide variety of classic and classical stories for the stage, including works by Euripides, Aristophanes, Wilde, Defoe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dostoevsky, Dickens and Goncharov. His most recent production was a version of Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, commissioned by Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.

His adaptation of A Christmas Carol was produced by Northern Stage in Newcastle, and published by Josef Weinberger. He wrote three further Christmas shows for Northern Stage: Hansel and Gretel, Peter Pan and The Glass Slipper. His translation of Ion by Euripides was produced by the Gate Theatre, London, and he reworked Birds by Aristophanes as a musical comedy for children called Cloudcuckooland which toured the UK. His play The May Queen was produced by Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and published by Methuen. Stephen has also written three plays for BBC Radio 4: the first of these All of You on the Good Earth won the Society of Authors’ Richard Imison prize for best radio debut.

Stephen is currently under commission to Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, and to the Tricycle Theatre, London. While many of the above are large-scale works, Stephen is a champion of the short play and is a founder and curator of The Miniaturists. He lives in London with his wife Rebecca and their two sons.