Books by Howard Colyer

A diary in haiku - life at a rate of seventeen syllables a day.

A diary in haiku - life at a rate of seventeen syllables a day.

A young woman attempts suicide - but she's found before the poison can kill her. A journalist becomes interested in her life, then a novelist - stories circulate, more people are drawn in, and even the Foreign Office tries to intervene. An adaptation of Pirandello's play set in London in the winter of 1979-80. "A thought-provoking play about identity, guilt and betrayal." UK Theatre Network "It is a bitesize philosophy lecture... delivered with confidence and competence." A Younger Theatre

Somebody must have maligned Joseph K. because he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong. Franz Kafka's novel translated and adapted for the stage for solo performance. "Colyer strips back the novel to get to the heart of the story but maintains the dreamlike - or perhaps nightmarish - quality for which Kafka was famous." Siân Rowland

You Take The 321, Again, Without Reluctance and Without Relief : Three dramatic monologues about strange and enigmatic lives staged together at the Jack Studio in South-east London in February 2015. "Howard Colyer paints lyrical landscapes of failed relationships, loneliness and desperation without ever giving in to sentimentality." Carolin Kopplin UK Theatre Network

Late in the evening on 11 March, 1938, a man sits in a Jewish bar in Vienna as the German army invades Austria. The other guests flee, as does the owner, but he remains to contemplate his past and his future - bleak though that may be. "With this dramatic monologue, Colyer has continued to do what he does so skilfully-to take a noteworthy piece of writing and adapt it freely to create something new which has the essence of the original but is a compelling stage work in its own right." British Theatre Guide. Freely adapted from Joseph Roth's novel, The Emperor's Tomb.

Gogol's short story, Diary of a Madman, adapted for the stage. "This is a play about an individual's descent into madness, brought to life by a brilliant trio of actor David Bromley, director Scott Le Crass, and author Howard Colyer. But what makes the play interesting is that Gogol's protagonist defies the literary mould: he has a condition usually reserved for tormented kings and ladies imprisoned in the attic. Rather than being ordinary, he is 'extraordinary', a term peppering Howard Colyer's script. Through Poprishchin, Gogol portrays his contempt for government and bureaucracy, and allows this lowly civil servant to become a leader...at least in his own mind." Emma Slater, London Theatre, reviewing the production at the Jack Studio.

The Civil War is drawing to an end in Russia. The White Army is disintegrating and a wave of refugees is about to descend on Turkey, and then spread across Europe. Bulgakov's play follows the fate of a small group of Russians from the Crimea to Constantinople to Paris. It is a tragic comedy that was never staged during the life of its author due to the opposition of Stalin. "There is no doubt that this is one of the masterpieces of world theatre and in this solid production of a terrific translation it is well worth catching." Peter Scott-Presland reviewing the production at the Jack Studio.