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Rona Munro (born 7 September 1959) is a Scottish writer. She has written plays for theatre, radio, and television. Her film work includes Ken Loach's Ladybird, Ladybird (1994), Oranges and Sunshine (2010) for Jim Loach and Aimée & Jaguar (1999), co-authored by German director Max Färberböck. Munro is the second cousin (once removed) of Scottish author Angus MacVicar.

Munro wrote the last serial of the original Doctor Who in 1989, and returned to the show in 2017, writing an episode for the tenth series of the revived version. This made her the only writer thus far who has worked in both the classic and revival eras of Doctor Who.

Early life

Munro went to school in Stonehaven and studied at the University of Edinburgh, where she wrote plays for the Television Society. After graduating in 1980, she was involved in the staging of the series of Women Live festivals at the Netherbow Theatre in Edinburgh.

Career

Her first commissioned play was Fugue in 1983. This was followed in 1990 by Bold Girls, set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and Iron, first produced at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 2002 and staged many times worldwide.

Munro's work on Doctor Who was not limited to just Survival (1989) and "The Eaters of Light" (2017). She later novelised both stories for the original and revived range of Target Books, respectively.

Her history cycle The James Plays, James I, James II, and James III, were first performed by the National Theatre of Scotland in summer 2014 in a co-production with Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre UK. The plays were staged again in early 2016. She followed this up with James IV - The Queen of the Fight in 2022, which concentrated on the presence of two black women at his court. Other theatre work includes plays for the Traverse Theatre (Your Turn To Clean The Stair, Strawberries in January translation), Manchester Royal Exchange (Mary Barton, Scuttlers), Plymouth Drum Theatre and Paines Plough (Long Time Dead), and the Royal Shakespeare Company (The Indian Boy, The Astronaut's Chair). The James Plays were performed in the United States for the first time at Hillcrest High School in Midvale, Utah in early 2024.

Munro has also contributed eleven dramas to Radio 4's Stanley Baxter Playhouse: First Impressions, Wheeling Them In, The King's Kilt, Pasta Alfreddo at Cafe Alessandro, The Man in the Garden, The Porter's Story, The German Pilot, The Spider, The Showman, Meg's Tale, and The Flying Scotsman.

In 2006 the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith presented Munro's adaptation of Richard Adams' classic book Watership Down. Her early television work includes episodes of the drama series Casualty (BBC) and, more recently, a BBC film, Rehab, directed by Antonia Bird.

Rona Munro currently lives and works in Scotland. Her play The Last Witch was performed at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival, directed by Dominic Hill, and in 2011 by Dumbarton People's Theatre. Pitlochry Festival Theatre's production, directed by Richard Baron, toured Scotland in 2018. Also in 2018, a production of her adaptation of My Name Is Lucy Barton starring Laura Linney opened in London.

A play about Katherine Hamilton, sister of Patrick Hamilton, is being performed on tour in 2024.

Awards

• Giles Cooper Award for Dirt Under The Carpet, 1988
• Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 1991
• Evening Standard Award, NOOK Award for Best Play for The James Plays, 2014
• Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award, Best Play for The James Plays, 2014

Works

Plays

References

1. "Scots playwright Rona Munro has a unique honour". 26 May 2018.
2. Jeffery, Morgan (16 November 2016). "Doctor Who series 10 hires a writer from the classic series - but who?". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
3. ^ McMillan, Joyce, "Quietly, yet fiercely significant...", in The Last Witch theatre programme, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, 2018, p. 5
4. "Series 10: Classic Writer Returns With "The Eaters of Light"". DoctorWhoTV. 16 November 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
5. Doctor Who: The Eaters of Light (Target Collection). 14 July 2022.
6. "Hillcrest Theatre to Raise the Curtain on American Debut of "The James Plays"". Canyons School District. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
7. Hardman, Jenny (28 February 2024). "100 years of Scottish history on stage at Hillcrest High School". Fox 13. Midvale, Utah. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
8. Douglas Gifford (1991). "Making Them Bold And Breaking The Mould: Rona Munro's Bold Girls". The Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Archived from the original on 13 May 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
9. Higgins, Charlotte (9 August 2009). "Rona Munro burns bright at Edinburgh". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
10. "Rebus: Rankin's gritty Scottish detective to make stage debut". The Guardian. 9 April 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
11. "James IV - Queen of the Fight | Glasgow | reviews, cast and info | WhatsOnStage". www.whatsonstage.com. 12 June 2023.
12. Hannan, Martin (25 June 2021). "Sequel to successful historic plays set to show across Scotland". The National.
13. Brennan, Clare (14 April 2024). "James V: Katherine review – queer love in the time of the Scottish kings". The Observer. Retrieved 16 April 2024.

External links

• Rona Munro at IMDb
• Biography of Rona Munro at On Target
• Interview
• Rona Munro, doollee
• Guardian interview preceding Edinburgh festival 2009.

• 1959 births
• 20th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights
• 20th-century Scottish women writers
• 21st-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights
• 21st-century Scottish women writers
• 21st-century Scottish writers
• Living people
• Scottish radio writers
• Scottish women dramatists and playwrights
• Scottish women screenwriters
• Scottish women television writers
• Theatre in Scotland
• Women radio writers
• Writers from Aberdeen
• Writers from Edinburgh