MURRAY WATTS
WRITER + DIRECTOR
A visionary writer and director… Murray Watts, in a career lasting forty five years, has written many plays for theatre and radio, and numerous screenplays for TV and film. His work as a playwright, screenwriter and children’s writer has won him awards nationally and internationally.
He was one of the founding directors of Riding Lights Theatre Company. Screenplays range from The Dream, for BBC, starring Jeremy Irons to The Miracle Maker, for S4C/BBC/ICON, the world's largest animation project in the year 2000, it featured the voices of Ralph Fiennes, William Hurt, Richard E Grant, Julie Christie among many others. The Miracle Maker won the Movieguide Epiphany Award as the most inspirational film on US TV in 2000.
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Fire from Heaven is the first time he has created a two-in-one version of a play, the solo version travelling worldwide like a space capsule from the powerful mother ship of the main play.
His work as a playwright has been seen in major theatres throughout the UK and in the West End. Theatre awards include a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival in 1979 for the comic revue Colour Radio which he directed and co-wrote and the LWT Plays on Stage Award for The Fatherland, his play set in Soweto, staged by Bush Theatre at Riverside Studios in 1989. In 2012 The King’s Head in London hosted a season of his plays. One of these plays, Mr.Darwin’s Tree was premiered in Westminster Abbey in 2009 and has since toured the US and many countries around the world. He has written numerous books, including the novel of The Miracle Maker, and has given many talks over the years, including the TED talk Hope and Hopelessness, originally given to a World Health Organisation conference in 2011.
Freswick Castle, the home of the Wayfarer Trust and Wayfarer Productions, has become an international haven of hospitality for people in the world of arts and media over the last twenty five years.
Murray continues to write and direct for Wayfarer Productions, from his home in the north of Scotland, alongside continuing projects in theatre, TV and film.
THEATRE
Writer + Director
Murray Watts has written many stage plays, which include the award-winning The Fatherland produced by Bush Theatre at Riverside Studios in 1989 (which he later adapted as The Monday Play for BBC Radio 4). His work has appeared on the London fringe and Trafalgar Studios in the West End, the Edinburgh Festival and major theatres throughout the UK over the last forty years. Recent plays include Mr Darwin’s Tree and First Light both performed at the Edinburgh Festival and on the London Fringe and The Kiss which was premiered at the Oran Mor theatre in Glasgow. The King’s Head Theatre in London staged a season of four of his plays, throughout January 2012, including Mr. Darwin’s Tree.
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Mr. Darwin’s Tree was originally commissioned to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and was premiered in Westminster Abbey. The play has been performed in many countries, including China, South Korea, and throughout the US. Mr. Darwin’s Tree returned to the US for a tour in the fall of 2019.
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FILM / TV
Writer + Director
Murray Watts is the writer of many screenplays which include The Dream, starring Jeremy Irons (BBC 2) and the feature film The Miracle Maker (BBC/S4C/ICON) which was released to international acclaim in 2000 and was ABC network’s highest rated movie for Easter 2000/1. He was the screenwriter for KJB – The Book That Changed the World (1A PRODUCTIONS / DISCOVERY CHANNEL / BBC SCOTLAND). KJB was awarded the Movie Guide Epiphany Prize for the most inspirational Programme on US TV in 2011. He was one of the originators of the TV series Tales from the Madhouse and wrote The Mourner for Eileen Atkins.
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BOOKS
Author
Murray Watts has written many books, but he is best known for the novel of The Miracle Maker and the award-winning children’s book, the Lion Bible for Children which has sold over a million copies and has been translated into 25 languages. He has also had published Yours Truly a collection of brilliant and poingnant parables and most recently Anthem for Life, a book celebrating the beauty and wonder of Psalm 23.
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Listed books are available to purchase now from all good bookshops and online.