Origin
Sign In My Cart
Search
alphabetical author index
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Ink

  • James Graham
  • Full Length Play, Drama, 1960s
  • 14M, 4F
  • ISBN: 9780573709616

James Graham’s riveting historic play, about the 1969 rivalry between British newspapers The Sun and The Mirror, explores the beginning of tabloid news as we know it today.

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1960s
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
  • Cautions: Alcohol, Strong Language, Smoking

  • Performance Group:
  • College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre, Professional Theatre

  • Accolades:
  • Nominee! Six Tony Awards including Best Play (2019)
    Nominee! Five Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play (2019)
    Nominee! Four Laurence Olivier Awards including Best New Play (2018)
    Nominee! Three Evening Standard Theatre Awards including Best Play (2017)
James Graham’s ruthless, red-topped play leads with the birth of England's most influential newspaper – when a young and rebellious Rupert Murdoch asked the impossible and launched its first editor’s quest, against all odds, to give the people what they want.

It’s 1969 London. The brash young Rupert Murdoch purchases a struggling paper, The Sun, and sets out to make it a must-read smash which will destroy – and ultimately horrify – the competition. He brings on rogue editor Larry Lamb, who in turn recruits an unlikely team of underdog reporters. Together, they will go to any lengths for success, and the race for the most ink is on! Inspired by real events, this electrifying new play was a West End and Broadway hit.
REVIEWS:

"An incredibly brilliant stunner."

 Time Out

"Riveting… This is a play that pins down a pivotal moment in newspaper history… And what makes this such a good and gripping piece of theatre is that it doesn’t preach us sermons about press ethics but leaves us to draw our own conclusions from the known facts. It strikes me as a first-rate play about newspapers in the honourable tradition of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s The Front Page."

 Michael Billington, The Guardian

"Invigorating… Mr. Graham’s account of the resurrection of that paper — into a tabloid behemoth that hypnotizes its readership while forever altering its competition’s DNA — foretells the age of populist media in which we now live and squirm."

 Ben Brantley, The New York Times

"Consistently engrossing, entertaining and disturbing."

 Matt Windman, amNY

"An engrossing, richly detailed play."

 Peter Marks, The Washington Post

"Exciting… A scrappy, seductive tabloid tale."

 Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

Premiere Production:

Ink premiered at the Almeida Theatre on June 17, 2017. Directed by Rupert Goold and starring Bertie Carvel and Richard Coyle, the production soon transferred to the West End, where it opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre on September 19, 2017. Ink premiered on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on April 24, 2019. Again directed by Goold, the Broadway production featured Jonny Lee Miller as Larry Lamb, with Bertie Carvel reprising his Olivier-winning performance as Rupert Murdoch.

Characters

  • Casting: 14M, 4F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast

  • LARRY LAMB – 40s, Yorkshire; new editor of The Sun
    RUPERT MURDOCH – 30s, Australian; owner of The Sun
    HUGH CUDLIPP – 50s, Welsh; editor of The Mirror
    STEPHANIE RAHN – 20s, London; model.

  • An ensemble can play the following team of Reporters and other occupants of The Street (possibly the minimum number required for the ensemble is 8, but equally possibly not):
    BRIAN MCCONNELL
    JOYCE HOPKIRK
    SIR ALICK MCKAY
    BERNARD SHRIMSLEY
    BEVERLEY GOODWAY
    LEE HOWARD
    FRANK NICKLIN
    PERCY ROBERTS
    MURIEL MCKAY RAY MILLS
    DIANA
    ANNA MURDOCH
    CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY
    CHRISSIE
    CHAPEL FATHER
    APPRENTICE PRINTER
    BENCH HAND
    TYPESETTERS, STONE HANDS, PRINTERS, MESSENGERS

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Ink Script This is optional. Order Now

    James Graham’s ruthless, red-topped play leads with the birth of England's most influential newspaper – when a young and rebellious Rupert Murdoch asked the impossible and launched its first editor’s quest, against all odds, to give the people what they want.

    It’s 1969 London. The brash young Rupert Murdoch purchases a struggling paper, The Sun, and sets out to make it a must-read smash which will destroy – and ultimately horrify – the competition. He brings on rogue editor Larry Lamb, who in turn recruits an unlikely team of underdog reporters. Together, they will go to any lengths for success, and the race for the most ink is on! Inspired by real events, this electrifying new play was a West End and Broadway hit.

    		$24.95

    Related Works