Pinter at the Pinter Jonjo O'Neill. Photos by: Marc Brenner
Jonjo O'Neill Pinter at the Pinter
Jonjo O'Neill in the Prudes by Anthony Neilson at The Royal Court (Credit: Manuel Harlan)
Victory Condition Jonjo O'neill helen murray
Jonjo O'Neill AND Sophie Russell in the Prudes by Anthony Neilson at The Royal Court (Credit: Manuel Harlan)
Ivan the Brute
Jonjo O'Neill in Cymbeline ©Alastair
Jonjo in the Crucible
Jonjo in Cymbeline ©Marc Brennan
Jonjo O'Neill as Richard III RSC by Keith Pattison
Launcelot
Jonjo O'Neill as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet
Katy Stephens as Rosalind and Jonjo O'Neill as Orlando in As you like it. Photograph by Ellie Kurttz, 2009

Theatre

Title
2018 / Pinter at the Pinter
Role:
Various
Company:
The Jamie Lloyd Company
Director:
Jamie Lloyd and Lia Williams
Synopsis

The incendiary One for The Road is Pinter at his most terrifying. A ruthless government official interrogates a dissident and his family, but is the torturer more tortured than his victims?

The New World Order explores how the abuse of power is legitimised in the name of freedom and democracy, as two brutal interrogators prepare to inflict their terrible punishment on a blind-folded insurgent. Pinter investigates the suppression of ideas and the supposed threat of non-conformity in Mountain Language: a group of captives attempt to find a voice when their shared language is banned by the state. Ashes to Ashes is a richly atmospheric and compelling play in which the dark nightmare of human atrocity infiltrates a couple’s living room, and will be directed by award-winning actress and long-time Pinter collaborator, Lia Williams.

The evening culminates with the World Premiere production of Pinter’s newly-discovered satirical sketch, The Pres and an Officer, an anarchic attack on the Presidency. The role of the President will be played by a variety of surprise guest stars across the run.

Title
2018 / The Prudes
Company:
Royal Court
Director:
Anthony Neilson
Synopsis

“They say you should look older than your genitals”

They haven’t “done it” in a year.

Now they’re coming together in a last-ditch effort to re-boot their sex life and save their relationship. But a lot has changed in that year; for them and for the world.

Will the old moves still work?

Leave your car-keys in the bowl. You are invited to watch.

Title
2017 / Victory Condition
Company:
Royal Court
Director:
Vicky Featherstone
Synopsis

“A thousand people are taking a sip of coffee within the city limits of Johannesburg, each unaware of the other doing it, each one necessarily thinking they are the only one.”

An attempt to get to grips with the fact that everything happens at once.
And to see if there’s anything we can do about it.

“Find the connection between where you are and where I am. Open up the space between us and do something.”

Title
2016 / Unreachable
Company:
Royal Court
Director:
Anthony Neilson
Synopsis

A film director on an obsessive quest to capture the perfect light.

Renowned for his pioneering, ground-breaking and imaginative new work, writer and director Anthony Neilson returns to the Royal Court with a new play that will be created in the rehearsal room.

Title
2015-16 / Cymbeline
Role:
Posthumus
Company:
Shakespeare’s Globe
Director:
Sam Yates
Synopsis

Innogen, daughter of King Cymbeline, has displeased her father by marrying Posthumus. In exile, Posthumus proclaims the beauty of his wife to the villainous Iachimo and lays a wager on her fidelity. But Iachimo will stop at nothing to prove that Imogen has been unfaithful – and Posthumus seems implacable in his revenge.

Strange, erotic, moving and politically charged, Cymbeline is perhaps the most psychologically acute of Shakespeare’s great late romantic quartet.

Title
2015 / The Crucible
Role:
John Proctor
Company:
Royal Exchange
Director:
Caroline Steinbeis
Synopsis

"The Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points."

Betty Parris lies in a trance after a childish game spins out of control, and accusations of witchcraft are quickly manipulated by those with something to gain. However, when false allegations reach fever pitch, the devout community of Salem descends into a cauldron of hysteria it can never return from.

Written in the 1950s when the insidious fear of communism gripped America, The Crucible is a devastating portrayal of the human cost of tyranny and vengeance. Director Caroline Steinbeis returns to the Royal Exchange following her sell out run in the Studio with Alistair McDowall's Bruntwood Prize-winning, Brilliant Adventures (2013).

"The Crucible was the first play I ever performed in a school, aged 12. Revisiting Miller over 20 years later, it is with shock and awe that I am shown again how close we all stand to the abyss; how quickly a group of people are blasted apart by revenge, greed and teenage reverie, and all for that moment when we give in to our innermost desires. What a huge challenge and what a pleasure to be making this production for the Royal Exchange." Caroline Steinbeis

[Info from the Royal Exchange]

Title
2014 / The Get Out
Role:
Various
Company:
Royal Court
Director:
Anthony Neilson
Synopsis

A new late-night revue style show conceived by writers Robin French and Anthony Neilson.

Anthony and Robin will then spend a week working with a company of six actors to create a night of stories, sketches, short plays, theatre, satire and slightly off-kilter comedy in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

Compiled and created by a core team of Royal Court writers, submissions are open to anyone who has worked at the Royal Court Theatre in any capacity whether having had a main house play staged or working in the kitchen.

“There is no restriction on form or content. Anything is acceptable in any medium – songs, monologues, puppetry – if it can be performed on stage, we’ll consider it for inclusion. Our aim is to create a revue show that is unique in tone, innovative in form and reflective of the Royal Court Theatre” says Anthony Neilson.

Title
2013 / Talkshow
Role:
Jonah
Company:
Royal Court
Director:
Caroline Steinbeis
Synopsis

Sam runs a daily talk show from his basement bedroom.

Upstairs his Dad and Grandad barely speak, but keep in touch through a baby monitor. With the return of Sam’s wayward uncle can this peculiar form of domestic harmony stay uninterrupted?

A black comedy about talking and transmission.

Title
2013 / Collaborations
Role:
Various
Company:
Royal Court
Director:
Anthony Neilson
Synopsis

Rehearsing with Anthony Neilson and a company of writers for one week, each writer will create a thirty minute devised piece. The results will be presented in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs over three nights.

Title
2013 / The President Has come to See You
Role:
Lado
Company:
Royal Court
Director:
Vicky Featherstone
Synopsis

Georgia is at war. Again. And the President can’t cope. So he abandons his post and flees into the city to hide in the homes of his unsuspecting civilians.

An absurd comedy about cowardice and power.

Title
2013 / The Effect
Role:
Tristan
Company:
Royal National Theatre
Director:
Rupert Goold
Synopsis

Love is double blind.

A clinical romance from the writer of ENRON. This funny and moving new play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine.

Director Rupert Goold reunites with designer Miriam Buether following their production of Earthquakes in London to deliver a vibrant theatrical exploration into the human brain via the heart.

Title
2012 / Richard III
Role:
Richard
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Rox Silbert
Title
2011 / Ahasverus
Role:
Edik
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Michael Fentiman
Title
2011 / Silence
Role:
Peter
Company:
RSC / Filter
Director:
David Farr
Title
2010 / Romeo and Juliet
Role:
Mercutio
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Rupert Goold
Title
2010 / Morte D'Arthur
Role:
Launcelot
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Gregory Doran
Title
2009 / The Drunks
Role:
Illya
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Anthony Neilson
Title
2009 / A Comedy of Errors
Role:
Dromio
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Paul Hunter
Title
2009 / As you Like It
Role:
Orlando
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Michael Boyd
Synopsis

When two young people fall in love they are unable to act on their impulse. Uncertain of their standing in court and fearing for their lives, Rosalind and Orlando are forced into exile in the Forest of Arden only to become entangled in a beguiling game of love, lust and mistaken identity.

One of Shakespeare's great comedies, As You Like It subverts the traditional rules of romance, confusing gender roles, nature and politics in a play that reflects on how bewildering yet utterly pleasurable life can be.

Title
2008 / King Lear
Role:
Edmund
Company:
Liverpool Everyman/The Young Vic
Director:
Rupert Goold
Title
2007 / Someone Else's Shoes
Role:
Jed
Company:
SoHo Theatre
Director:
Stephen Unwin
Title
2006 / Faustus
Role:
Dinos Chapman
Company:
Hampstead Theatre
Director:
Rupert Goold
Title
2005 / A New Way to Please You
Role:
Simonides
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Sean Holmes
Title
2005 / Believe What you Will
Role:
King Prusias
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Josie Rourke
Title
2005 / Sejanus: His fall
Role:
Nero
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Gregory Doran
Title
2005 / Speaking Like Magpies
Role:
Catesby
Company:
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Director:
Rupert Goold
Title
2004 / Head/Case
Role:
Jimmy
Company:
RSC/SoHo Theatre
Director:
Caroline Hun
Title
2004 / Paradise Lost
Role:
Christ
Company:
Northampton Theatre Royal
Director:
Rupert Goold
Title
2003 / A View from the Bridge
Role:
Rodolpho
Company:
Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire Playhouse
Director:
Toby Frow
Title
2003 / Murmuring Judges
Role:
Gerard
Company:
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Director:
Jonathan Church/Rachael Kavanagh
Title
2002 / Observe the Sons of Ulster
Role:
Moore
Company:
The Pleasance Theatre
Director:
James Phillips
Title
2001 / Dolly West's Kitchen
Role:
Justin
Company:
Leicester Haymarket Theatre
Director:
Paul Kerryson
Title
2000 / Half a Sixpence
Role:
Kipps
Company:
West Yorkshire Playhouse
Director:
Jude Kelly
Title
2000 / Translations
Role:
Doalty
Company:
Watford Palace Theatre
Director:
Laurence Till
Title
1999 / The Frogs
Role:
Euripides/Xantius
Company:
Nottingham Playhouse
Director:
Fiona Laird