GRAY ROBERT BROWN
Gray Robert Brown is an emerging writer.
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The pitch that became his first full-length play, Gore, earned him a place on the longlist for the Old Vic New Voices 12 in 2017; the finished play was longlisted for the 2017 Papatango Prize. His next play, The Prime of Ms Nicola Sturgeon was also longlisted by the same award in 2019 and shortlisted at the Traverse Theatre.
His short play An Island Off Ireland was staged by Full Disclosure’s Xposed at the Southwark Playhouse in February 2022, and a full-length version was shortlisted by the Papatango Prize and longlisted by BOLD Playwrights - under a new title, Sugar. He has also written a TV sitcom version of Sugar.
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A play for my mother, his fourth play, was longlisted by the Theatre 503 International Playwriting Prize 2023 and shortlisted by the Traverse Breakthrough Writers In Residence scheme 2022. The Red Fox is his fifth play and saw him shortlisted for the Oxford Playhouse Playmaker scheme 2024. The Red Fox received a rehearsed reading at the Old Red Lion for Fresh Fest in January 2024, and at the Place Bedford in October 2024. He wrote two short plays in 2024, Palace Play and The Visitors. How to Spot a Possible Homo is the title of his next full-length play.
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Gray has contributed a story for the Ladybird Stories for Pride audio collection which was published on Audible in May 2024 and Yoto in June 2024.
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In Summer 2022 he presented a self-written academic paper titled “Famous Last Words: Agatha Christie’s Curtain and Sleeping Murder” at the Golden Age of Crime Conference at Bournemouth University. He presented his second paper, “'Cruelty mixed with camp': the parallel lives and works of Agatha Christie and Muriel Spark”, at the Mysterious Mrs Christie Conference at the University of Exeter in August 2023, and online for Romancing the Gothic in October 2023.
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His first podcast, The Swinging Christies, with Dr Mark Aldridge, about Agatha Christie in the 1960s, launched to great acclaim in January 2024.
Sugar (TV spec, 2024-)
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Meet Mo, Michael and Christopher.
Mo (22) and Michael (22) are together. Christopher (62) is Michael's sugar daddy.
And however hard they try, they just can't stop turning up in each other's lives...
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Adapted from my short play An Island Off Ireland (below), Sugar is a 6 x 30' TV sitcom spec.
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Palace Play (short play, 2024)
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Down-to-earth MP Trish finds herself ‘kidnapped’ by Buckingham Palace!
There’s a centuries-old law that states any fate that befalls a member of the Royal Family in the Houses of Parliament must also befall an MP in Buckingham Palace. An eye for an eye.
And then the Prince breaks his wrist…!
Chosen to be performed as part of Page 2 Stage London in Autumn 2024.
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The Visitors (short play, 2024)
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Hazel. Art. Ethan. Jenny. Once, they were two couples. They were a bit more than that, they were the biggest band in the world.
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Now, the band - and both couples - have long since gone their separate ways. But, for one night only, they’re back together.
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Converging for a meal having not even been in the same room for decades, sparks are set to fly...
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A four-hander devised and written in 2024.
Sugar (play, 2024)
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A newly rewritten and expanded version of my short play, An Island Off Ireland, now re-titled Sugar, was longlisted for the Bold Playwrighting scheme 2024.
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The Swinging Christies (podcast, 2024-)
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Sex. Drugs. Rock 'n' Roll. Agatha Christie??
Agatha Christie may not be the first person you think of when you think of the Swinging Sixties, but her writing has much to say about the big topics of the day.
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Join Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown on a rad journey through time with the Queen of Crime.
​My friend, the 'Agathologist' Dr Mark Aldridge and I explore Christie's 60s writing against the backdrop of the times. Available to listen here, and on all other major podcatchers. ​As recommended by the Radio Times!
​You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @Christie_Time and our website is ChristieTime.com. ​Our artwork (R) is designed by Bartlett Studio.
Ladybird Stories for Pride: Boing! Boing! (audio short story, 2024)
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A collection of audio original stories by 5 different LGBTQIA+ writers, aimed at children 4-7 and families, published by Ladybird, available from Yoto, Spotify, Audible and more.
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I oversaw the development, curation and production of these original audio stories, as well as contributing the first story in the collection myself, "Boing! Boing!".
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Story read by Joe Jameson.
Cover design (R) by Sally Mullaney.
"Cruelty mixed with camp": the parallel lives and works of Agatha Christie and Muriel Spark (paper, 2023)
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Two of my very favourite writers have been wrongfully neglected - Christie's literary merit is underestimated and Spark's cultural impact diminished.
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This was a lecture given as part of The Mysterious Mrs Christie conference at the University of Exeter (my alma mater) in September 2023. I gave an extended version of the talk for the Romancing the Gothic platform in October 2023, which you can watch at the link below.
The Red Fox (play, 2022-)
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Klaus Fuchs, alias the Red Fox, alias one of the most influential spies in history, the scourge of nations… is stuck in the English countryside.
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Klaus Fuchs is the spy who changed the world! He may have only received a fleeting cameo in Oppenheimer, but he lived a fascinating life, one that I spent 10 years researching after having learned he was once based in the village in which I grew up. I wrote the one-act play The Red Fox, a fictionalisation of his last summer on English soil before he confessed, in 2022.
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A rehearsed reading, starring Jane Slavin, Joe Prestwich and Emma Handy, was held as part of Fresh Fest at the Old Red Lion in January 2024.
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Another reading was staged as part of Stage Write by Life Box Theatre at The Place, Bedford, in October 2024. Performed by Cally Lawrence, Robert McCafferty, Harriet Mardlin and directed by Amy Matthews.
Curtain Call: Agatha Christie's 'Famous Last Words' - Curtain and Sleeping Murder (paper, 2022)
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Agatha Christie's final two cases for her most famous detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are legendary. But were they really the final cases? What does finality mean anyway?
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This is the lecture I gave for the Golden Age of Crime conference at Bournemouth University in June 2022, based on research I had been undertaking ever since my undergrad dissertation ("Famous Last Words: The Text as the Author's Goodbye and The Mystery of the End", 2015).
An Island Off Ireland (short play, 2021)
Mo (22) and Christopher (62). are stuck in a car together. On a long journey. They've barely ever said two words to each other.
Oh, and Christopher is Mo's boyfriend's sugar daddy.
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A witty two-hander with a car-full of pathos, this short play was staged by Xposed's Full Disclosure queer new writing night at the Southwark Playhouse, London. Originally slated for 2019, the event was delayed due to Covid-19 and eventually went on in February 2022.
