Beautiful Doom

This long-awaited book is the first multi-authored collection on the eclectic body of work produced by contemporary British writer, Dennis Kelly. Covering the period from 2003 (Debris) to 2022 (the film version of Matilda the Musical), the volume examines the full range of his creative output for stage and screen, from new writing to adaptations of classic playtexts, musical theatre, and original works for television.

Over the past twenty years, Kelly's writing has earned him a place at the centre of British cultural production. That his landmark productions - DNA (National Theatre Connections, 2008), Matilda the Musical (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2010), and Utopia (Channel 4, 2013-14) - are so distinct from one another in content, genre, and audience testifies to Kelly's intellectual and intuitive command over storytelling and its effects. The fourteen original essays collected in this volume offer in-depth analyses of recurring themes - truth, justice, addiction, and agency - and formal innovation in Kelly's works, offering scholars and students the opportunity to critically engage with the extant dramatic oeuvre of one of the UK's most compelling writers.

This groundbreaking collection includes contributions by a range of outstanding scholars in Anglophone playwriting studies, with world-leading contemporary theatre scholars writing alongside some of the very best new and early career researchers in the field. The volume concludes with an original interview with Dennis Kelly, which draws on some of the themes of the collection while capturing his reflections on writing for theatre, film, and television.

'This cutting-edge book brings together original and timely essays on the work of one of Britain's most fascinating contemporary playwrights and screenwriters ... an indispensable resource for understanding the enduring significance of Kelly's dramatic work across a range of media.'
Clare Wallace, Charles University