Film, Drama and Comedy

otherworkReading this section will prevent you from asking the author questions like – “So… never written for the theatre before, then?” or “Why have you decided to branch out into film?”

This section does not include information on work that is in development or work that pottered along for a while and then fell over for lack of funds, or because the production company ceased to exist, or because the idea came away in everyone’s hands and left stains.

This list is not exhaustive and does not include small appearances or contributions to larger programmes.

The author would like to take this opportunity to thank all those performers who have helped to make her writing look and sound much better than it could possibly have deserved.

FILM/DRAMA:

1993: The Audition – one man play. Winner of Edinburgh Festival Fringe First.

1993: Totally Out Of It – BBC Education TV drama.

1994: Haroun And The Sea of Stories – musical adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s novel for Benchtours theatre company.

1994: Just To Say – BBC Education TV drama.

1994: The Year Of The Prince – BBC Education Historical TV Series.

1994: Stella Does Tricks – BFI/SFPF 90 min film. Released Spring 1997

1995: There’s an end to an Auld Sang – BBC    Education Historical TV series.

1995: Delicate – performance piece for Motionhouse dance company.

1995: Ghostdancing – BBC TV drama/documentary. (writer and presenter)

1999: For The Love Of Burns – BBC TV arts documentary (writer/presenter)

2000: True – a Requiem for Lucy Palmer – performance project for Fierce Productions and Tramway Theatre.

2001: Dice – 6 part TV series for CBC (With  John Burnside)

2002: Dice II – 6 part TV series for CBC (With John Burnside)

2003: Born A Fox – radio play for Radio 4

2005: Like An Angel – radio play for Radio 4

2006: Will the Real A.L.Kennedy Please Stand Up – BBC 2 documentary (subject)

2009: Indian Summer – musical comedy – first production in Oberhausen. (In German)

2009: Come On Up To The House – monologue for BBC Radio 4

2010: Confessions of a Medium – radio play for Radio 4. Find Out More… (Also produced in Germany by SWD)

2010: Blood Empire – radio play for SudWestRundfunk, Germany

2010: I Want My Life Back – monologue in From Fact To Fiction strand, BBC Radio 4 (ALK Performer). Find Out More…

2010: The Glasgow Boys – documentary for BBC Radio 3. Find Out More…

2012: Laverloch Findo Speaks – 4 episode radio sitcom for Radio Scotland

2012: Art and Madness – documentary for BBC Radio 3. Find Out More…

2012: Turn Our Backs – monologue for BBC Radio 4. Find Out More…

2012: Are You Inexperienced – Series of monologues on BBC Radio 4 (ALK Performer)

2013: That I Should Rise – radio play for BBC Radio 3

2013: Love Love Love Like The Beatles – radio play for BBC Radio 4 (Also produced in Germany by SWD)

2013: Zoo Trips – monologue in From Fact To Fiction strand, BBC Radio 4 (ALK Performer). Find Out More…

2013: Home Sweet Home: Series of Three Monologues for BBC Radio 4 (ALK Performer). Find Out More…

2013: A Natural History of Me – Contributor

2013 onwards Point of View essays on Radio Four

2014: Holding Hands radio Documentary for BBC Radio Four

2014: Homage To Caledonia – series of radio essays for BBC Radio Three

2015: AA:America’s Gift to the World radio documentary for BBC Radio Four

2015: Subterranean Homesick Blues – radio drama x 5 for BBC radio Four

 

2016: Film adaptation from Original Bliss (German) Gleissendes Gluck and the Imdb Entry

 

2017: Migraine – documentary

2017: Subterranean Homeside Blues Part 2

2018: Subterranean Homesick Blues Part 3

 

2019: Postcard From The Future

 

A range of other BBC contributions and interviews:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=a.l.+kennedy#page=3

COMEDY:

“Her stand-up is startlingly good. She works the audience and makes the most of her cleverness with words, her knack for seeing things freshly. She has a great riff about people scraping moss off each other every morning in Scotland, but the audience seems most to enjoy the material about pubic hair. I learn that her father was from Birmingham and her mother from North Wales, that they went to Australia but then came back to Dundee before she was born and that they split up when she was quite small, which is more information than she ever appears to have divulged in an interview.”
The Guardian

There’s nothing like bucking the trend – a number of comics have made the transition into more and less serious prose. A.L.Kennedy made the transfer in the opposite direction in 2005, delighting a few members of the press and hugely annoying many. And national broadsheets did indeed demand free tickets for open mike nights (the tickets were only a quid in the first place) and considerably more hooha than was strictly necessary ensued. Things are a little more sensible now, the gigging has continued and much fun has been had amongst the people who pay for their tickets in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Berlin, Stockholm, London, Aberdeen, Hastings and some other places.

ALK would give enormous thanks and a biscuit to everyone at the very fine comedy emporia of The Stand. Without initial support from Tommy Sheppard and The Stand, none of that fun would have happened. So here’s a link to Tommy’s ever-growing empire… http://www.thestand.co.uk/

ALK now focusses on performing solo shows and radio work, particularly monologues. She also takes part in the range of more and less bizarre events which are offered to people who are considered to be in some way “fusion”. Since 2005 she has been performing a series of one hour comedy shows specifically about writing. In 2009 this developed into the show WORDS, an early review of which you can find here http://ed.thestage.co.uk/reviews/540

Along the way, audiences at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Cambridge Festival, Latitude Festival (Robin Ince’s Book Club), Bookslam, the Berlin Writer’s Festival and a number of others have helped to make a variety of evenings very splendid.

The show WORDS travelled to Richmond Virginia, Berlin’s Humbolt University, Toronto’s Harbourfront Festival, Leuven University, the Words By The Sea Festival, The Bridport Festival and a number of others. Its final performance took place in Humbolt University, Berlin – appropriately, in a room overlooking Bebelplazt.

A.L.Kennedy also occasional appears at political meetings as light relief amidst the news of mayhem, greed and stupidity. She has been known to get involved with such excellent enterprises as the Literary Death Match http://www.literarydeathmatch.com/ and 5 x15 http://5x15stories.com/ and even the wonderful Special Relationship http://thespecialrelationship.net/main/about/ Just in case you weren’t aware of how many great literary event series are out there…

If you would like to contact us with regard to any of the above, please use the details elsewhere in this website. Increasingly, there are snippets of grainy and shaky A.L.Kennedy comedy video about on the interweb and there are audio and video links to some of her material here.