Rob and Emma first joined forces to write War Stories, an international collaboration between Manchester’s 24:7 Theatre Festival and Canberra’s You Are Here Festival.
Following the 2014 24:7 festival, War Stories was selected for Re:play 2015. We also had the opportunity to present a workshop as part of Re:play on writing collaboratively.
We had so much fun we decided to do it again. We just had to find the right idea…
About Emma
Emma Gibson is a playwright hailing from Canberra. Her work has been performed across Australia and internationally. Her play Bloodletting won the Bread and Roses 2015 playwriting competition and will hit the stage in September. War Stories was written with Rob for 24:7 and You Are Here and went on to Re:play 2015. Widowbird was presented at the Women Playwrights International Conference in Stockholm. Treeful of Tragical Tales had a staged reading at La Mama E.T.C, New York. Grief Eaters was longlisted for the BBC writer’s room. Emma’s produced works include Johnny Castellano is MINE (2014 Canberra Critics Circle Award), The Pyjama Girl, Dead Beauty Queens, Widowbird and Love Cupboard.
About Rob
Rob Johnston is a Manchester based writer-producer with 25+ productions across the UK. Einstein’s Daughter won The Kings Cross Award for New Writing, while Under My Skin (to be restaged in Nov 2015) was shortlisted for The Channel Four Comedy-Drama Award. Kafkaesque and War Stories were in The Re:play Festival, celebrating Manchester independent theatre. Four youth theatre plays have been staged at Oldham Coliseum. Spring Reign, exploring the Syrian revolution, and which recently sold out at The Lowry, is being developed by Benedict Power Productions for a 2016 UK tour. Rob is currently in pre-production on the Arts Council funded The Human Touch for 2016.
Responses to War Stories
“It was as quietly moving as anything else I’ve seen on World War One … The audience’s taut silence validates the work.” Manchester Confidential
“Beautifully balances direct narrative delivery to the audience and storytelling skills, with emotional expressiveness and impressive restraint.”
The Observer
“An excellent two-hander… Definitely one to look out for, even if you think you have had your fill of WWI commemorations.”
The Good Review ★★★★★
“The beauty is that Johnston gives insight into what makes Bernard tick and, likewise, Gibson understands the way of thinking of an Aussie nurse as personified by Elsie. The actors pick this up to bring the writers’ intentions to life.” Remote Goat ★★★★
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